• by P.J. Bednarski  @pjbtweet, October 16, 2013

When car buyers shop, they use online video to do it, and a new study from Tremor Video adds more ammo to that fairly well-established fact.

According to new research being presented today by Tremor Video’s Ryan Van Fleet, director of insights and analytics, 66% of auto shoppers said online video was an important part of their research, and 58% began their auto-buying digital research on a manufacturer’s site.

The study says 46% of its respondents said online video ads were important in their discovery process—nearly identical to what they said about TV commercials (45%) and exactly what they said about actual physical visits to dealers. Video ads finished second to good salesmanship for forming opinions and making the final buying decision.

An average shopper consumes five auto videos over the course of the purchase process, 1/3 of which are video ads, according to the study.

The full study was to be presented today at the  J.D. Power 2013 Automotive Marketing Roundtable in Las Vegas..

The behavioral analysis was conducted by Millward Brown Digital, which detected the viewing patterns of potential auto buyers from clickstream data. The attitudinal phase was conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates. The sample was 900 adults 18-54, who watch online video one or more times a week. The study was done between May and September of this year.

Tremor said its takeaway from the survey is that loyalty to car brand is an outmoded idea—car manufacturers have to use to more relevant, emotional, engaging storylines-- and that consumers use video at every phase of the process. That includes after the purchase itself.