Let's get right to it, because the year has begun dammit and we've got zero time to waste! If the numbers mean anything, video is by far proving to be the fastest growing medium used by marketers to date. By 2022, the number of videos crossing the internet per second will approach 1 million translating into 82% of all online traffic. That's a beefy stat!
As your brand continues its own prep around a 2020 video strategy and you are calculating ways you can make the most of your digital brand map, here are the eight key things that we are paying close attention to this year—and so should you:
1. VOLUME + CONSUMPTION = INVESTMENT
Everyone's doing it and they only want more—if video is not a priority in your brand marketing at this point, it should be. Over the past three years, video usage and consumption on mobile devices has risen a whopping 100% every year. Additionally, 78% of people report watching videos online each week while 55% of those watch daily. More than half (54%) demand more video content on top of what they already consume. The vast majority of businesses are shifting their strategies accordingly with 81% incorporating the tactic into the plans–a 63% increase year-over-year. 99% of marketers claim they will continue to use video marketing in their approaches and 88% are committing to devoting more dollars to such future campaigns. This comes as no surprise as in the U.S. alone, the industry for video marketing has exploded and is now worth $135 billion.
2. 'TRUE INFLUENCE' vs. INFLUENCER MARKETING
With the over saturation of influencer marketing and a barrage of phony sponsored ads that feel meaningless to the consumer, we get a sense that the influencer bubble is on the verge of bursting. The whole reason brands looked to influencers to help push their product and brand is because it felt fresh and authentic. At first. Now, we are seeing lazy promotions that lack story or even authentic passion about the product or brand. It has become another advertising vehicle that feels like, well, advertising. When given the option to skip ad or keep scrolling at the first sign of the word 'promotion' or 'sponsored', the consumer will mostly take it. So what's next? Deeper connection and emotional impact is what drives viewers to care. True Influence happens when a person who may not have a huge following but has real cultural impact because they radiate pure passion to a particular community and that community trusts them. When I say 'community' I mean cultural community—be it creatives, gamers, make up artists, home stylists, bee keepers, mommies, daddies, small cities, whatever... These quiet storm heroes are the ones in our circles who we follow, love and trust because we know they are sharing their truth and that truth has a halo effect. It's not necessarily how many followers but who is following them that counts here.
How can we tap into True Influence and build better cultural alliances? These are real people in real places with real lives. Seeking them out and sharing their story through quality branded video is a start.
3. VERTICAL VIDEO IS THE FUTURE OF STORY
We've resisted it because it's just not natural! Honestly, as filmmakers we hated vertical video because it cropped our beautifully shot and meticulously framed, 16:9, 4k, masterpieces into vertical turdbombs. But alas, vertical is here to stay and it just makes sense in mobile viewing. To 'get them where they are' it's important to also focus on how we show it, not just what we show. An integral part of the growing demand for an enhanced mobile experience is vertical video and leading platforms like Instagram are putting their stake in the ground to lead the change. More than half (60%) of users film on their phone horizontally compared to 40% who report filming vertically. From a viewer’s standpoint, 75% prefer watching videos horizontally while only 25% prefer watching vertically, yet, the method of choice on IG is vertical.
What this means to creators is that we need to make the vertical experience better. Instead of fighting it and 'cropping the good stuff,' we shoot with purpose and intent of showing it vertically. Not everything though. Please.
4. YOUTUBE
This might seem like a duh for our list, but besides Google, YouTube is the most widely used search engine today. We encourage our clients to create YouTube accounts and post post post. Share share share. Exploit those keywords and tags. Go niche. Use your YouTube videos to get your search placement higher ranking. It works. Why? Folks are addicted. More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices and average viewing sessions last more than 40 minutes. A staggering 1.5 billion viewers play 1 billion hours of video each day. 65% of senior executives visit the site related to a video they viewed on YouTube.
5. FACEBOOK
Politically, it's a mess right now, but we are still big fans of Facebook's reach for pennies approach to advertising. You can get some serious bang for your buck with video promos and boosts—both long format for the feed and short format for ads. Users view an average of 8 billion videos per day. Engagement is highest with videos at 13.9% and everyday a whopping 75 million users visit Facebook's video platform. Since 85% like to watch without sound, we like to make the most of that experience with fun text on screen videos for our clients.
6. INSTAGRAM
In terms of telling a complete brand story, no platform does it better than the 'gram. We heart the 'gram. Right now we are really digging all the different ways a brand can use video—from standard posts, to long form IGTV, to multiple videos in one swipe-left post (love this!). There is still so much room for innovation and experimentation with IG video and as far as getting creative with how we tell stories—that's an endless, wonderful journey that we will continue as long as we have cameras, eyeballs and phones. When it comes to the video numbers, IG wins. 800 million users each month, 65% of impressions from an ad come from video, 75% of users take action after seeing a brand's video–which includes clicking up to product check out and 72% of the users buy an ad where they've seen a video ad.
7. LINKEDIN
I used to be really down on linkedin and will admit I have shouted to no one in particular 'it's SO nerdy' more than once in the studio, but over the past year I have been singing its praises for stepping up the platform for businesses (like ours) and all the informative, useful and robust business chatter that I should be having (and listening to) daily. The word 'CONVERSATION' is the buzzword of 2019/20 and it starts on linkedin. That being said, video should be used conversationally and often in your linkedin promotion. Video campaigns on LI have a crazy 82% view rate, 51% of marketers use this platform where 84% say it has worked for them.
8. QUALITY CONTENT
iPhones are actually AMAZING right now in terms of video and photo quality, but if you're any kind of solid brand with any skin in the game, we cannot bear another video with bad sound and zero lighting from you. Stop it. Use your phone for live videos of your Saturday open house, Ms. Real Estate Agent. Use your phone for those fun IG stories on the fly. Use your phone when your customers post something and you want to share it. Yes! Absolutely. But no. Invest in quality video for real, grown-up style promotion and you will reap rewards. Script writing, planning, story—they all count. When your videos are entertaining, this will result in a 97% increase in purchase intent. Put that video on your landing page and you'll see an 80% increase in conversions and keep them at no more than two minutes. Who has that kind of time? Well, 87% of users would love to see more video from you, so make it good.
2020 is going to be another golden year for video and the more you are using it, the greater your success rate. 99% of marketers will continue to use video this year and 88% of businesses will spend more on video marketing than they did before. But enough of these stats! Investing in creative, starting a (real) conversation and getting them (your audience) where they are (platform of choice) is not just what you have to do, but what your videos have to do as well.
Shine Creative is a video content studio specializing in storytelling for brands. If you'd like to work with us, please email us hello@shinecreative.tv