Online videos have taken over 2015-2016 and short video applications such as Vine have continued to dominate the video marketing industry as a key element of most brands’ digital strategy. There has been however, an increasing emphasis on quality when it comes to video production so as brands rush to sustain consumer interaction with valuable and engaging content, audiences are demanding more from the production budget.
It is only through quality production that a consumer will, for instance, grant the company or brand permission to feature the videos on their social pages, whether it’s through likes, shares or retweets- a top goal for most brands. Apart from quality, apps such as Chirp.io and Shazam have become more influential. Chirp allows users to share photos, contacts, webpages and more using sound where information is sung from one phone to another.
Gone are the days when large brands dictated what content the consumers viewed or edited: more people are watching new content and they are responding in very different ways. Popular video curating platforms such as Vine and Instagram have made production a lot easier and consumers are able to share engaging content in a more open environment.
This in itself has changed the way in which companies approached marketing, and it has in many ways brought brands down to the consumer level, ensuring a more streamlined form of communication where the brand and consumer operate as equal partners.
Intense Competition
The video market has become more competitive for marketers. In order to stand out, marketers have to learn how video content impacts their businesses and find out how to create the videos in order for them to remain relevant. As most companies invest money and time in video, a bigger role is placed on the marketing department to make sure the company’s videos are easily accessible, engaging and stand out in a heavily crowded market.
When operating in a crowded marketplace, you have to make sure the content is tailored to a specific audience. Whether or not the content is fun, informative, entertaining and engaging, it should be tailored for a specific audience in order to ensure its success.
Multiple Platform Viewing
The average household has over six devices connected to the Internet, so consumers are no longer tethered to a single device:
- People are always on the move, and so is their content. Marketers have had to ensure that all videos they produce can be accessed from a variety of platforms, and this has further enhanced the evolution.
- Mobile advertising has seen a huge growth over the last few years with almost half of mobile subscribers signing up for ads. However, while for a long time most users were 10x more likely to receive image-based ads compared to video, the impact of video ads has almost whitewashed the concept of image-based advertising.
- As video advertising gets more commonplace in mobile devices, marketers have to embrace a multi-screen strategy so they have an easier time connecting with audiences across multiple platforms.
Banded Video Content
We have seen a continuation of branded videos from large companies, SMEs as well as micro business. From Volvo Trucks (VanDamme), to East West reunion, these ads have reached staggering numbers of views across multiple channels, all over a short period of time. Cisco states that video users will double to 1.5 billion in 2016 and just about every company will be using video primarily to communicate their brand to consumers.
While we have witnesses large budgets being thrown into online video production, a large number of SME’s and micro businesses are tapping into the advertising power of online video as a more effective way to tell their story and connect with consumers.
The Death of Long Form Videos
Netflix is an established online video hub and it has managed to maintain a strong position in spite of great evolution and stiff competition. That said, more producers and content holders are monetizing their content and are going ‘direct to consumer’, which means they’re starting to rely less on services such as those offered by Netflix, Amazon or iTunes.
Several out-of-the-box products offering user facing apps and e-billing systems have already hit the market so this shift might happen a lot faster. While many VOD Netflix-style services exist today, more companies are choosing to adopt a more hybrid business model that combines subscriptions and ads, much like Hulu/Hulu Plus does.
Email Video Marketing
Video email marketing has been for the most part, largely underused: which is strange because marketing firms agree that it’s one of the most effective way to communicate to consumers online. It is quite possible that some of your main competitors still haven’t discovered the usefulness of email video and that would mean a great opportunity for you.
For many consumers, receiving an email with a video message is the surest way to connect with them online. The only other solution that beats email video marketing is a face-to-face meeting. A survey by reelSEO reported that 82% of marketers who used video in their email campaigns found it more effective.
Typically, technology facilitates the evolution of digital marketing and 2014 has seen more ease of use, much better playback and more embedded videos. There are many ways to integrate video into online marketing and as the year progresses we will continue to see more innovative campaigns.
Micro Videos and Social Media
The biggest trend in social media this year has been the 5-7 second video ads. They pose a huge challenge for marketers who have to break down a brand’s story into small, effective visuals, but it’s also a huge opportunity to enhance creativity which is shared among different audiences.
This explosion in user-generated clickable videos and animated GIFs has brought the game to a whole new level and has brought along all sorts of experimentation from brands across the globe. The concept of using small pieces of moving media to tell stories quickly and effectively may have sounded a little misguided a few years back, but that goes to show the industry’s great capacity for change.
As more brands get smarter with their ads, we can expect many more SMEs and more businesses to embrace the medium and begin experimentation; and over time, make real progress in the social space.