Imagine going to a Social Media & Marketing conference in the year 2017, and a supposed thought provoking statement is made: “Video content is the ‘next big thing’!” It would hardly be surprising or eye-opening, would it?
In fact, some might question it as to why it is only being brought up when it is a concept that has been around for several years. A camera, tripod and some editing are nothing new, so how is it a relevant topic in the year 2017?
The Resurgence of Video Content
Let’s take a look at the overarching factors as to why there is a resurgence or a sudden interest in video content. Research done by a digital company called L2 has predicted that 80% of internet usage will solely be through video by 2020. Consider that in this day and age, over 500 million hours of video content is watched on YouTube daily. Multiply that exponentially by the expected growth rate, and it’s staggering. That’s a lot of space time for marketing and capturing people’s attention.
Understanding the revival is not that hard to digest. Let’s face it; video content is just ‘easier’. It is much simpler to watch something than to read about it. Moving pictures convey more than still pictures. The decreased cost of data and Wi-Fi undoubtedly plays a role.
Furthermore, platforms have allowed for easier distribution and shooting of videos. Mobile phones can now shoot a cinema quality video and upload within seconds. The sooner organizations realize how they can take advantage of this, the better they will be positioned in whichever market they operate.
The Obsession with Video
All social media platforms are video-enabled and are constantly moving towards obsessive in-your face tools to make it easy to upload and download. Live streaming on Instagram and Facebook Live have taken the world by storm.
The video investments industry has boomed like crazy. Recently, Apple has reportedly invested $1 billion in a budget to produce original video content. Amazon has quadrupled that by investing $4.5 billion in the video industry.
Meanwhile, another organization such as Netflix is spending $6 billion on creating original content. Furthermore, the most trafficked site after Google is YouTube. It’s sort of the same when the IT bubble burst in the 90s, this is now the time for video content, and big players are making similar investments.
Video provides a strong brand identity.
With the exorbitant money being splashed out on video as mentioned above, the big question has to be “why?” One of the reasons is that studies have shown that up to 80% of organizations that post videos on social media platforms have an increased average brand interaction on social media. What’s the way forward?
So is the solution to any company’s brand and marketing solution to post a video every day on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube? Certainly not, as the majority of videos posted online are average watched for less than five seconds. That is an extremely short time where the views of customers are not actually being engaged. It is those ‘viral videos’ and ‘engaging, catchy videos’ that really make the difference. To overinvest in a video could be really costly, but not doing anything at all is just as detrimental.
Video content is the future, ‘so what’?
With all these benefits and investments in video, the question right now is how do you get at the top of the totem pole? How do you get your content to be marketed on the most trafficked videos on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram?
The one thing you would have noticed about viral videos or successful video content marketing campaigns is the element of emotiveness present in the video. Having video content that makes viewers sad, happy or angry can be shared multiple times and go ‘viral’.
Video content that is versatile is quintessential and cannot be skipped. To successfully market such, it has to be that fresh video content that can be shared across all social media platforms (Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, and Instagram). This is important to think about during production phases when you are busy with things such as quality and rendering of videos. Reflect on the audience as well as the type of devices that will be used to watch your content (mobile vs. PC).
3 Ways Social Video #Marketing Can Propel Your Brand [Infographic] #VideoMarketing #ContentMarketing #SocialMedia #SMM #GrowthHacking pic.twitter.com/jOtNxnfr6M
— ipfconline (@ipfconline1) September 8, 2017
Varied content works well — studies say.
Producing a six-second clip versus a two-minute video versus subliminally marketing via a video or documentary should be considered when deciding the type of message you want to put out.
As likewise recognized in this day and age, it is also sometimes about who is in the video and not basically about what it is all about. Think about recent times of viral content and the marketing capabilities which emerged subsequently (example: SaltBae, Gangnam Style). If you have an Instagram powerhouse that could appear in video content, it is likely to get more traction and attention than other videos.
User generated content is also majorly linked to increased market and brand reputation. Every time a social media account says “send a video and use a particular hashtag, it is done with the intention in mind of spreading the content and news of a particular product or campaign.” It is one of the easiest and cost-effective initiatives that is extremely underutilized.
What does the future of video content hold?
Besides the unique storylines, and ways of story-telling, the look and feel of video are expected to drastically change in the next five years. Artificial intelligence is largely expected to guide video content producers on exactly what and how videos should be produced, directed, and distributed. Furthermore, AI will likely provide insights as to exactly and when a video should be launched and precisely the appropriate length as well.
The industry is also moving towards a future where everything is instantaneous, and the ‘one-click of a button’ experience is a reality. Soon, a bag or a suit seen in a movie or in an advertisement will be able to be purchased during the watching of a movie or even while looking at a video on YouTube by the blink of an eye.
The video will also be acting as the replacement for everyday things. A press conference will likely just be video content with live rooms combined with augmented reality to cater for geographical differences.
While the term “video content is the next big thing’ is not only controversial or eye-opening but is more importantly thought-provoking. It is undeniably the future, and therefore companies need to express a more aggressive video content strategy when it comes to marketing.
