• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, December 7, 2012

Google has rolled out a new look for YouTube resembling the format of a social network. The redesign highlights options to subscribe and recommends channels that surround videos cascading down the center rail. The dingy gray background has been replaced with subtle white, along with brighter colors to present a simplistic, clean design.

Supporting the "subscription" channel model, YouTube published a set of tips and best practices to optimization video pages. Metadata will become more important, with the site's reliance on data feeds.

Since the new YouTube home page shows more of the description, marketers should offer links to the subscriber's page, playlists and the channel page, according to the advice.

Recently, YouTube announced a partnership with Virgin America to bring Web video content to passengers in flight. Beginning Dec. 15, passengers can watch from a variety of channels. New videos will roll out monthly. The content from Warner Bros. includes "The Digital Series," "Blue," "Crash Course" and "The Key of Awesome."

ZenithOptimedia's recent report on advertising expenditure forecast for the U.S. named online video as one sector receiving the largest increase in spend from advertisers this year -- about 29% for online video.

Marketers have learned that video not only drives interaction with brands, but also searches on engines and brand Web sites, according to Kelly Ford, vice president of marketing at SundaySky, which supports a platform that creates personalized "smartvideos" in real-time for companies like AT&T, Office Depot and Lenovo.

"Brands that are innovating with video know they need to create stickiness early," she said. "It's all about personalized content and leveraging transactional history."

In a report outlining the state of online video in the U.S., SundaySky compiles key trends and metrics, as well as the outlook and perspective for 2013. It points to Forrester Research's prediction that online video advertising spend will rise from $2.9 billion in 2012 to $9 billion by 2017.

The collective findings and data sourced from Adap.tv, comScore, eMarketer, Forrester, Nielsen, Interactive Advertising Bureau, Pew Internet and SundaySky's forthcoming 2013 SmartVideo Index show brands will tap digital signals, or big data, to serve up smarter applications in videos.

The average text email open rate varies between 11% and 22%. When adding the word "video" to the subject line of marketing-related emails, open rates rise to 30%, according to SundaySky. The data also reveals that when customer emails contain personally relevant video content such as a bill, statement or account status, open rates jump to between 40% and 60%, and the click-to-play rate for personalized video ranges between 80% and 99%.