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If you’ve been living under a rock these past few years, it may have slipped your notice that video consumption has risen to a digital marketing superpower. Lucky for you, the team here at Gragg Advertising has been keeping up with video’s prophetic rise.
Video has obviously existed since the birth of the internet, but we’re not talking about viral gut-busters or ridiculous song parodies. We’re in a new era of digital marketing – a “video first world.”
To give you a taste of how we’re just now entering a video first world, daily video views on Facebook increased from 1 billion to 8 billion in 20161. A 7 billion views difference. In one year. All the while text posts and still images are declining year over year.
And we can’t forget we’re also in a “mobile-first world,” as mobile has a lot to do with video’s escalation. 98 percent of millennials – the largest mobile consumers – watch videos on smartphones, to no one’s surprise. More interestingly, 75 percent of smartphone viewers watch videos to completion compared to just 25 percent of desktop viewers. And speaking of enamored consumers, YouTube users are twice as likely to pay close attention while watching YouTube compared to TV users while watching TV. Oh, and 68% of YouTube users watch YouTube to help make a purchase decision2.
So, how are marketers using video now that we have the undivided attention of the masses? Let’s take a look.
Video Ubiquity
74% of online traffic in 2017 will be video-based. Blogs, in-site video, Facebook and YouTube will likely be the bulk of the traffic increase. For marketing, branding, and social purposes, it’s mostly Facebook. This top-dog social platform was actually first to fully adopt the video-first movement. Facebook rolled out Facebook Live toward the end of 2016 (with notable excitement and engagement) with aspirations of complete and total video immersion over the next few years.
Social video works. Well, video in general works. Consumers are far more willing to watch a video than they are to read a blog post. They’re way more inclined to make a purchase when pitched with a product video. For broad-stroke purposes any kind of video is better than practically any kind of static blog/image to grab and hold consumers’ attention.
Other video-spawned content like GIFs and text videos are hugely popular, and hugely marketable. You’ve no doubt seen BuzzFeed’s Tasty GIFs or text videos around the web. Short, visually interesting, to-the-point motion graphics; this is an accurate definition of video for modern marketing purposes and for how consumers prefer to consume.
Video is hitting the mark in multiple formats. Video in email results in anywhere from 200-300 percent increase CTR3. Video on landing pages has increased conversion rates up to 80 percent.
We’re also seeing branded content becoming wildly accepted, even popular!
Brand Authenticity
Consumers trust video content. 74% of consumers4 are more likely to buy or sign up for a product or service if they watch a branded social video explaining the product. Simply put, we know that branded video content is far more trusted than practically any other type of content because of how much it is shared. 70% of online users5 say they have shared a brand’s video with a friend, or on their social media channels. Marketers can’t afford to ignore the perceived value of video content.
Branded videos do something better than any other type of content – cultivate authenticity. When brands are firstly honest and genuine, and then relate those values in video format for consumers to actually see and experience…magic happens. Of course, the quality of produced videos is important to consumers. They prefer to be informed, entertained, and moved in that order. Video is hard-hitting branding for now and for the future.
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