Half of Europeans who go online have watched health videos, according to a new report.
The Manhattan Research study, Cybercitizen Health Europe 2013, goes on to suggest the full potential of online video for industry-patient engagement remains untapped by pharma.
The report, produced by Decision Resources’ Manhattan Research unit, also outlines the five therapy areas where video is currently most used – osteoporosis, allergy, anxiety, psoriasis and hypertension.
The analysts also found that mobile lags behind desktops/laptops and tablets in popularity when they looked at which devices were most often used for watching online health videos.
Rory Stanton, Decision Resources’ consumer insights analyst, said: “Marketers looking to digitally engage cannot afford to ignore the broad adoption of online health videos in the European consumer market.
“Given how influential health videos are on patient behaviour, it’s more important than ever to develop the most effective genre of video content and distribution beyond pharma websites themselves.”
The types of videos that prove most popular to European viewers, according to the study, were those featuring information, health news, and exercise and fitness.
Manhattan Research’s online Cybercitizen Health Europe 2013 study was carried out in the third quarter of 2013 and involved 3,005 people drawn from the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Germany.
Given the availability of mainstream options for discovering and hosting video content, from Facebook to YouTube and beyond, it’s perhaps not a surprise that Manhattan Research conclude pharma websites “are still not a widely used channel” for accessing online health videos.
Although, the analysts’ advice for brands to implement strategies for driving traffic to their videos seems already to have been taken to heart by the industry, which already makes extensive use of YouTube and other social channels.
