“Video killed the radio star”…. and Also the White Paper
You hear it all the time, “video is king”; and it is. But why? In 2017, TechCrunch reported that people watch 1 billion hours of YouTube PER DAY.
There were ads before the smartphone, we called them commercials. We measured their success with Nielsen numbers, but aside from vanity URLs and tracking phone numbers there weren’t a lot of holistic ways to attribute sales to commercials. Thanks to the internet, cookie tracking, first and third party data, and multi-touch attribution metrics enabled by marketing automation tools we can now track everything related to a video, whether it’s an ad or regularly posted content. But metrics are the business drive of the reason for more video, what makes it popular and effective? Well, you can thank the smartphone.
Living in a world where screentime is climbing and access to everything is at the tips of your fingers, people are inundated with messages aimed at them for various purposes all day long. We used to go online to read. Kindles in tote, you can read anywhere without having to bring along a book. Newspaper and magazines can be stored all on the same device. Emails, social media posts, technical briefs, articles, white papers, studies, and texts… even if you read all day, you’d not feel caught up. But video can be consumed quickly and easily. Throw in the fact that Google owns YouTube and of course wants to promote its own content, your SEO is directly affected by having a YouTube link embedded on your site. Video can be served to someone with a more direct path to the desired result as it eliminates the need for imagination, and you can show the video to them wherever they already frequent online.
Want to sell someone a pill to help them sleep? Show them it works by including numerous sleeping people with smiles on their faces who wake up after an 8 hour timelapse all in 30 seconds. What about one of the biggest influencers of retail sales of all time: kids who can’t read yet. Want them to know that a new toy is coming out and it’s based on the character from that cartoon they love? They can’t read about it. But they can watch another 5 year old open one and play with it on YouTube… and then ask Santa for it.
People need a break from the black and white of a text screen. Video cuts through the text and puts us at ease or excites us, brings up vivid nostalgic memories, or plays our new favorite song in the background, all the while relaying a message intended for marketing to influence a sale. Eye-catching creative, meets emotional connection, meets data collecting jackpot… I can think of no better medium than video.
-Facebook live is another example of a platform loving their own content and pushing it. It's also a great example of being able to use real time audience connection, exclusivity, and compelling content as a way to cut through the static image and text noise and stand out over other messages.
