Don’t you love statistics? Everyday things that we never even think about can suddenly seem amazing when given as a statistic. For example, you may not think you talk on the phone much, but the average American spends six months of their life talking on the phone. And the next time someone tells you to be more active, tell them the average person will walk 75,000 miles in their lifetime. Statistics can put things in perspective.
Some of the most amazing statistics are technology related. Here are a few Google stats that are difficult to wrap one’s brain around:
- 130,000,000,000,000 – The number of pages indexed on Google
- 2,000,000,000,000 – The number of Google searches per year
- 31,000,000,000 – The number of websites using Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages
- $851,300,000,000 – Alphabet’s (Google’s parent company) market capitalization
If you have a business, here are some statistics that may make you think about your current marketing strategy:
- One minute of video is worth 1.8 million words
- YouTube users view more than 500 million hours (57,077 years) of video each day
- Using video on a landing page can increase conversions by 80%
- Companies that engage users via videos enjoy a 27% higher CTR and a 34% higher web conversion rate than non-users
- People spend an average 2.6x more time on pages with video than without
- In 2021—just two years from now—80% of the world’s internet traffic will be video
There are many startling statistics on current and future video usage, and they all point to the same thing: companies who want to succeed will succeed through their use of video.
So where is video headed in 2019 and what can a company do to stay ahead of the curve? The good news is, the video train hasn’t completely left the station yet, so there are still opportunities to get on board. The bad news is, trends travel quickly and every day that passes makes it more problematic to catch up.
We’ve looked at all the predictions about where marketing videos are headed and we’ve come up with a few predictions we think will be proven accurate based on current trends. If you plan on including video in your marketing strategy—and you really should—here are some things to keep in mind:
Will It Work Without Sound?
Audio and video go hand-in-hand, but that’s rapidly changing. An effective video should have the ability to communicate even when it’s only seen and not heard. More than 70% of adults are engaged in second screen viewing while watching TV, with 65% looking up info on products featured or advertised. There are also auto-play videos on many sites whose sound is automatically disabled. And then there are people who are on their phones in public and want to watch without the audio disturbing everyone. Can you get someone’s attention without sound? Videos need to be created with more of the story being told visually. Then, with the addition of closed captions, the message should get across without any loss of information.
Think Vertically
Your television, desktop, and laptop all have screens that are wider than they are high, and most videos are better suited to fit a wide-screen format. Even YouTube’s player has a wide screen, 16:9 aspect ratio. However, it’s predicted that this year more video will be watched on phones than any other format, and the screen on phones is vertical, not horizontal. (To answer the obvious question, no … millennials are not inclined to turn their phones sideways to watch a video.) Anyone shooting a video for marketing purposes has to consider that a video that fits a phone’s screen will perform better than a video that fits the traditional wide screen format. So, forget wide screen—think vertically.
What’s Behind Your Back?
As virtual and augmented reality take over, traditional point-and-shoot video is rapidly being replaced with 360-degee video. It’s already a fact that shoppers who view a demo video are 1.81 times more likely to make a purchase over products without a demo video, but 360 video is going to take that up a notch because gives the viewer control. Consumers—especially millennial consumers—can be a suspicious bunch. They don’t want to see the front of a beautiful hotel, they want to see if there’s a garbage dump across the street. Even if your product doesn’t require an immersive, 360-degree view, future consumers will think you’re hiding something without it.
What Else?
A few more elements to keep in mind when creating videos in 2019:
- Live stream videos continue to be extremely popular because of their transparency. Create more live stream events, interviews, or anything that conveys that viewers are watching something live, candid, and unrehearsed. Live video is outpacing the growth of other types of online video, with an increase of 113% in annual, year-over-year growth.
- Plan well and keep it short. It takes 10 seconds to get a viewer’s attention, but by 30 seconds, 33% of viewers have gone elsewhere, at one minute, you’ve lost 45% of viewers. Design your video to grab a viewer in the first few seconds and get your entire message across in under a minute. Different social media platforms have different optimal video length, but you can’t go wrong with 60 seconds or less.
- Tell a story. Everyone likes a good story, including your customers. Reportedly, 92% of customers want advertisements to feel like a story. Advertise your story, and it’s possible to increase the value of a product or service by more than 20 times. The website Significant Objects bought thrift store items, averaging $1.25 each, and created short, interesting stories for each and they raked in $8,000.
Think you’ll need help with video in the coming year? Contact McFadden/Gavender. Our team of experts will create the type of videos that will capture and keep an audience and get them interested in your story. The professionals at McFadden/Gavender have one goal: to take your brand further.
