Brands that lean on customers to produce Web video testimonials are finding that a 15- to 20-second video hits the sweet spot.

That’s what Justin Nassiri, CEO of the user-generated-content platform provider VideoGenie, told Beet.TV in an interview. “The average consumer is bombarded with over 3000 marketing messages a day and marketers are finding they need to adapt or become irrelevant,” he said.

That’s where VideoGenie and customer testimonials come in. Consumers now have a bigger voice thanks to the Web, and many want to share opinions on brands they are passionate about. “People want to take part in a brand now and participate in it,” Nassiri said.

Ideally, a consumer-generated video will be most effective if it’s short. Keeping a clip punchy and under 20 seconds helps the brand’s message and yields more viewing, Nassiri said. VideoGenie has found that viewers are watching more than 2.5 minutes of video on average for the brands it works with.

VideoGenie is backed by Google’s Eric Schmidt’s venture fund and it operates as a platform for marketers and brands to easily solicit, sift through and publish customer testimonials. The tools are designed to be easy for customers too. They can record their videos via a Webcam or mobile device and then simply hit “send” on a participating brand’s Web site, which shortens the process of uploading brand-centric video in many cases.

VideoGenie customers include Intuit, Levi’s and ShoeDazzle.

Daisy Whitney