The 7 Pillars of Digital Marketing Blog

Video Marketing: 2012 December 28, 2012 – 1:10 pm				Riyaad

This year like every other, we’ll see oracular predictions on the state of marketing in the New Year – What will the next big thing be and which specific tactics will drive the greatest influence. ‘This is going to be the year of mobile’ we’ve heard for the past 5 years. It’s arguable as to whether its potential has been fulfilled as of yet – I think not. QR Codes is another that has come up the past 3 years, but I think we can all agree that it hasn’t taken off in the United States the way many have been anticipating.

Video however was a prediction that we’ve seen thrive in 2012. The creativity granted by video makes it a cogent marketing engine as it can be seamlessly tailored to a campaign’s voice, intention, and branding.

Online video ad spending has increased 27% alone in 2012 and projected to grow another 20% in 2013. Improvements made to Google’s video advertising platform has helped ads to stay relevant to the content, increase click through rates, and increasing conversions from video ads like never before.

This increase in advertising has been directly tied to the increase in videos watched online. Some studies have indicated that online videos hold as much as a 2% higher viewership than television. This past November alone, the average person spent 1,182 minutes looking at online video content. 72% are reported to have forwarded, shared, or posted video content to their social networks.

In concurrence with providing better results to users, YouTube’s own algorithm has had to make adjustments in 2012. Much like Google, YouTube sought to reward highly engaging content rather than those with a copious number of clicks. Thus the percentage of time watched for a video has replaced the number of times the video has been loaded in YouTube’s algorithm’s favorability.

By far, one of my favorite video authors of this year has to be Jason Silva. Silva is often referred to as the Timothy Leary of the viral video age. The former Current TV media artist and film maker has made a name for himself as a performance philosopher/pseudo-futurist. His poetic, inspirational, and Carl Sagan-esque take on scientific and technological advancements combined with his enthusiasm, delivery style, and creativity has been a vital part to his videos, their virality, and his success.

Silva’s videos are notably short and strive to capture the attention and then the full capacity of the viewer’s imagination. Silva refers to them of shots of ‘philosophical espresso’, as they play like movie trailers for concepts. His use of ‘intense music’, colorful images, and graphic visualizations counter the long standing practice of futurists using hard numbers and cold graphs to get their point across. Silva has found a formula to retain the attention of the viewer for the entire length of his 2 minute videos.

The results have been great for Silva who has been able to penetrate a general market that is typically closed off to futurist and philosophers alike. Lots of information, thought provoking and almost demanding postliminary action, his videos embody the very best of advertising. Commercials wish they could be that engaging. His fresh take on this content is tailored to a younger audience and has allowed him to flourish on social networks – the driving force to his success. Not only do I expect to see more of Jason Silva in 2013, but I predict companies will take notice of his video style and incorporate some of these concepts into their own advertising.

 

Posted by Riyaad
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