We at The Practice can’t help but notice the increase in embedded media links in tweets, and the amount of images and videos being shared online. It seems that this year, the trend has completely skyrocketed.

Indeed, the top 500 ads of the year garnered a total of 113 million shares in 2012- a 21% increase on 2011’s 93.34 million. And if the latest reports are anything to go by, our eyes aren’t deceiving us. According to the latest Social Video report from Visibility IQ, 78% of UK Internet users now watch online videos every week, with 46% of these centered around popular brands. 67% were found to view via YouTube, with 56% on Facebook and 52% via Google. In total, online video currently represents over 40% of all consumer Internet traffic.

With these statistics in mind, the time has never been better for brands to use this medium if they don’t already, particularly in conjunction with other social media platforms. For example, just a few days ago, McDonalds were quick off the mark by launching their first ever Twitter video advert complete with hash tags, in attempts to test out the popular hash tag campaign strategy that many brands have popularized. The video celebrates the act of ‘dunking’ your chicken McNuggets in line with the Pro Bowl event in Hawaii. Featuring the hash tag #mcdprobowl, the video aims to direct fans to tweet using this hash tag for the chance to win a ticket to the event, including a holiday on the island. Other prizes awarded via Twitter include a slightly more heart-sinking coupon for a free 20-piece box of McNuggets, a year’s supply of the chicken pieces, and personalized tweets to fans from NFL players.

And of course lesser known organizations and brands can benefit from online video much more than through other social media tactics or online campaigns, purely due to the huge amount of capacity for viewers to share, or simply be affected in such a visual way. After all, online advertising success is generally measured by virality, judged by the number of shares the image or video has, rather than the number of views. No doubt one of the leading examples this year has been Kony 2012, created and released by the not-for-profit organisation Invisible Children. It was in fact, the most shared advert of 2012, generating 10.1 million shares since it launched on the 5^th March. Even its 30-minute running time didn’t detract viewers and sharers, proving that video can be an effective medium regardless of length. Indeed, Unruly Co-Founder, Sarah Wood argued in the wake of Kony that ‘the world’s biggest brands can learn from Invisible Children: it’s not about a 30-second commercial anymore when a 30-minute video gets 10 million global shares.’

Are you an online video addict or sharer? And do you think smaller as well as major brands can benefit from using video to direct fans to their campaigns and products? We’d love to hear your thoughts as always, so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital, and comment via our Facebook page.