by Grant Fox of ArrowWoodMedia.com April 7, 2017 Waves are easy to see in hindsight. Although I was never a big fan of the wet-type waves, I'm still fascinated with how a surfer decides the right wave to catch. But there are other waves out there that I find quite a bit more interesting. How many of us beat ourselves up at the thought that we could have bought entry-level stock in Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, for just a few examples of once-emerging new waves! Oh wow, where would our portfolios be now? Just like the surfer has to be there and be prepared and be committed to act when that right wave emerges, we need to capture a similar mindset if we want to catch one of these cultural waves. Fortunately, we will have a bit more time to observe, think, read and decide than the guy holding the surfboard. But we do have to be alert, form a plan and then take decisive action if we are going to engage the wave. One such wave is upon us. If you are looking at the right statistics you can’t miss it. It is the digital video wave. Clearly a huge phenomenon already, it has only just begun, and with the advent of mobile devices it looks poised to grow into tsunami proportions. The Swelling StatsIf we were plotting the stats on a graph, this wave would slap us in the face. According to Allison Davis, the video wave has been developing since at least 2001 when Nielsen released a study showing that Americans were spending 45% more time online. The number of people who watched video on a mobile device at least one time per month increased by 33% between 2009-2015. Not only the number of views, but the time spent viewing is increasing, according to Cisco estimates. Liechtman Research Group indicates that the overall video on demand (VOD) usage among cable subscribers grew from 34% to 51% between 2010-2015. Of course that means that video advertising is growing right along with it. 68% of U.S. marketers were planning to increase their digital video budgets in 2016 as reported by Amanda Walgrove in Contently. But we can especially see the tsunami energy building in the realm of wireless. The wireless wave manifested at just 5 Exabytes in 2012 and is expected to reach 21 Exabytes in 2017, a 300% increase. This is not to say that the wave is yet cresting. Rise in mobile video viewing correlates to this astounding increase in terms of 1.5 Exabytes in 2012 to an expected 8.6 Exabytes in 2017. Smartphone usage overall has been doubling annually till now, and will slow but still continue with a significant annual increase according to David MacQueen, executive director for Apps and Media at Strategy Analytics. People are spending even more time with digital video than social media, DV having tied with SM for average time used per day in 2014 and pulled ahead for the first time in 2015. In fact, says eMarketer, time spent with digital video now trumps time spent with all other listed digital platforms, including digital radio, Facebook, and Pandora. Mobile video advertising will obviously follow this trend. Kevin Nalty (Nalts) observes that while the ad spending for desktop TV is still greater, with mobile ads only 12% now, by 2020 they will have reached 50%. This is where we can see ArrowWood Media providing a great service, making industry-standard video clips that introduce, transition and finish digital videos of all kinds with a highly professional polish. Wave Generating ForcesA number of factors contribute to the energy behind this video wave. The underlying earthquake is the technological development of phone equipment and service capability. As Dan Frommer of Quartz Media points out, the capacity of smart phones has accelerated along with the capacity of service providers for delivering content. And that content is increasingly optimized for mobile usage. As the capacity of phones and mobile service advances, the proliferation of social distribution networks such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and many others are wasting no time in taking full advantage of these expanding capabilities to display their wares. The video window is being constantly pushed forward, as evidenced by the recent addition of autoplay in Facebook and Twitter feeds. Davis points out that although YouTube’s explosive growth gets a lot of attention, video streaming on other platforms such as Facebook, Yahoo, Hulu, Amazon and Netflix are also rapidly expanding. eMarketer attributes this to an increase in original programming. It seems that these VOD services have caught on to a powerful technique of creating high-quality series that are almost addictive to watch, then motivating viewers to finish the shows before they rotate off of the online catalogues. Nalts points out that Netflix’s streaming growth is ‘insane’, going from 600 million viewing hours in 2009 to 42 billion in 2015 primarily due to this original programming. He sees digital video advertising continuing to expand as far out as 2020. Expectations are high. Frommer says that Facebook is expecting real growth from video ads for the next several years. Cisco estimates that global mobile video traffic will grow to more than 17 Exabytes (million terabytes) per month by 2019, whereas it was only 1.4 Exabytes in 2014. By 2019, video will represent 71% of all mobile data traffic and be the bulk of mobile traffic growth. As technology develops and video creation increases, the viewership factor upon which all the success depends is cooperating nicely. eMarketer has noted that video-watching preferences in consumers is changing. People increasingly want the ability to watch timeshifted shows on demand. A Hub Research study found that by December 2015, nearly one third of U.S. TV viewers preferred this kind of control over their viewing while only 8% still preferred to watch video via network TV or app. As Walgrove observes, “Even existing cable networks like HBO and Showtime have seen audiences drop their cable packages for digital; in turn, they’re starting to offer standalone subscription services. Others—like ESPN, CNN, and Disney Channel—are joining digitally packaged services like Sling TV.” Practical TakeawaysSo what does this all mean for the video marketing future? Well, it looks very bright. But video marketers need to remember the lessons of the surfer – be there, be prepared and be committed to act. Those who keep this in mind will catch this wave.
1) Video marketers therefore need to develop content and advertising that is made with digital video in mind rather than just trying to transfer over content that has been made for other platforms. A very significant trend, noted by eMarketer, is that tablet use for video is rapidly increasing (120% between 2011-2015), while laptop and desktop use for digital video stalled in 2015. The world is going mobile and digital video will be its main medium. Especially when recognizing that the highest levels of digital video use are in the Millennial generational group, we can expect this pattern to become set in them and carry forward as they grow older. They will increasingly expect to see high-quality content on DV and need innovative material to keep their interest. 2) Video advertising needs to increase in availability and improve in quality. As Nalts points out, “video ads need help”. Many online video ads are ineffective. An Unruly Future survey in mid-2015 revealed that 80% of us mute video ads and a majority (62%) do not like pre-rolls. Over 90% have thought about using ad-blocking software. Video ad quality must become much more engaging. And this is not difficult with services like ArrowWood Media making high-quality customizable video-creation shorts easily available. There is something about the increasing use of video that automatically increases the ‘ad critic’ in all of us. The more we watch, the more we intuitively decide what we like and don’t like. The fact that video is appearing in more and more places is not diluting the need. Wider proliferation of platforms does not seem to create a drag on video use. The more venues where video is available, the more we watch. While long-form content is exploding on platforms like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime, user-generated platforms like Periscope and Meerkat have popped up and demonstrated quick popularity. Video will be used more widely even as the expectations in quality increase. This should be a very loud wake up call to any video marketers out there who are not looking in the direction of the oncoming wave. We need to get up to speed with both video availability and quality. 3) Mobile video technique has to be different than desktop video. How to do better for mobile video ads? Nalts culls from several sources to say, ‘keep it less than 10 seconds, shoot it for mobile, and try for full-screen delivery.’ Other ideas include being authentic, entertaining, evoke emotion, be personal, relatable, useful and give as much control as you can to the viewer. Try to accommodate sound-off formatting with a non-interruptive approach in mind. Access highly creative graphics, intros, outros and similar clips to integrate with your high-quality footage. 4) Digital video sophistication will raise video expectations everywhere. It is not only the marketer that needs to catch this wave, but Allison Davis speaks to the need for employers to ramp up their use of video, “if video isn’t part of your internal communication strategy, it should be. As employees become more comfortable with video at home, they will expect it to be part of their communication experience at work.” The same can be said for anyone using video whether it is for education, workplace training, promotion or anything else. For these reasons and more, we encourage you to see what ArrowWood Media has to offer as a way to up your game when it comes to powerful, riveting video creation. We believe we are positioned to be the kind of source for digital video footage that makes adaptation to the digital video wave highly accessible to professional and do-it-yourself videographers alike. We’re here to help you catch the digital video wave!
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