If seeking a real-world example of ‘necessary evil’, one could argue that ‘Marketing’ is a near-perfect choice. A crucial component of any business’s continued success, a well-realized and multi-tiered marketing initiative should be designed to communicate any (and all) messages, to any (and all) demographics, using the most effective platform for each.
Just last month, we were discussing some perspectives that are pertinent to any marketplace, be it automotive or otherwise. That discussion touched on the need to portion out a marketing spend between the various platforms, proportioning each based on their respective prioritization within your planned initiative. But with the dwindling Traditionalist generation soon to exist most consumer bases, and the Baby Boomer becoming more tech-savvy, it’s important to note that each day brings us closer to a unification of platforms.
And newsflash…that unification rests almost exclusively in the hands of younger consumers.
The New Superstars
For the first time in generations, adults and professionals alike might have little choice but to set aside their pride and admit a single (and somewhat disheartening) realization. Simply put, today’s youth (Millennials and Generation Z-ers, alike) are driving modern marketing techniques, and have a better inherent understanding of how to utilize technology to achieve greater success. And yes, we’re talking about video.
Consider for a moment, the (oft-lamented) rise of the Vine star. Statistically speaking, 71% of Vine users fell into the Millennial age group with nearly the entirety of the balance consisting of the younger Generation Z. While the short-form video platform only reached about 14% of the U.S. population, it equated to 100 million users worldwide on a monthly basis. If a marketer was planning to proactively target the up-and-coming generations of consumers, Vine certainly helped to solidify video as the ideal platform for doing so.
The impact of video becomes even clearer when we expand our study to include YouTube. With over 1 billion users, YouTube activity makes up approximate 1/3 of all internet use. More than 500 million hours of videos are watched on YouTube each day, and nearly half of all internet users watch than an hour of video content per week. Some even more…
For better or worse, Vine and YouTube are almost exclusively responsible for creating an entirely new industry, with monetized profiles earning millions of dollars (without actually offering a product or service). Of course, this comes as a result of advertisers’ realization that online videos and streaming represent the changing face of consumer engagement.
Video Marketing
It was estimated that, as of 2018, just shy of 90% of marketers either include, or plan to integrate, video content into their marketing spend. And right now, you’re either nodding your head confidently, knowing that you’re part of that group, or realizing that you are falling behind the curve of today’s marketing trends.
Over half of marketers worldwide agree that video content provides the best possible ROI, elaborating that businesses which utilize video content generate revenue up to 49% faster than non-video users.
Bottom-line, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a small business or a Fortune 500 company, if you’re not already integrating video content into your marketing strategy, you’re behind the times. To put that further into perspective, here are three examples of Video Marketing Trends for 2018, that you should already be utilizing in order for your marketing initiatives to be considered up-to-speed.
Top 3 Video Marketing Trends for 2018
Going LIVE
LIVE videos might be a gripe for personal social media users, since it means receiving an intrusive notification from friends and followers who might only be engaged in mundane activities of no interest to the viewer. But in a business sense, LIVE videos can be a means of engaging your customer base in an an organic and less-rehearsed manner. By presenting content real-time and (at least, relatively) unscripted, a presenter can engage customers in a manner that increases both accessibility and relatability. It can also assist in promoting special events, be it a Grand Opening, Sale, Limited Time Promotion or Holiday wishes. In a world where business aspire to create greater customer loyalty through stronger relationships, you might be surprised as just how effect LIVE videos can be.
360 Video & VR
With (or even without) the resurgence of VR technology, 360 Video has proven to be a captivating manner of creating a fully immersive experience. Can you remember the first time that you scrolled past a 360 photo in your Facebook newsfeed, and found yourself able to explore both the seen and unseen elements of that photo through motion, or the swipe of a finger. With the evolution of that technology to video format, we are now empowered to create even more engaging content that draws viewers into our digital landscape, acclimating them to our professional world.
Animated Content
Hardly a revolutionary idea, Animated Content has always been a means of simplifying complex ideas and presentation within a visual format. Accessible to the full spectrum of users, Animated Content can easily engage the viewer, and present content in a manner that is both easy to understand, retain and then apply. But, considering that animation has been around since the dawn of cinema, why is this a hot-button component of today’s marketing initiatives? The surge in popular comes from the ease in which such content can now be created, thanks to today’s technology. With most digital marketing teams employing (or outsourcing work to) skilled graphic designers, the use of Animated Content is usually at the fingertips of most companies, whether or not they realize it.
While each of these approaches are proving HUGE for online marketing in 2018, we expect them to grow in prevalence, continuing to evolve in the years to come. At the end of the day, Visual Marketing isn’t going anywhere, so if you’d like your company to thrive with the same sense of longevity, it’s crucial that you get on-board sooner, rather than later.