the power of video: the real reason it works and how it’s transforming your industry.
video marketing has exploded in recent years, with incredibly large budgets being allocated towards branded video content each year. from influencer marketing videos, to commercially produced branding content, the ability for brands to capture an audience through video is in constant demand. as this demand increases at an astounding rate, it begs an important question: where is the success of video coming from?
you’re affected by video messages practically, subconsciously, every time you scroll on social media. however, if we’re not always consuming the videos with a fully conscious thought stream (asking ourselves, “what is this video trying to say”). why is video marketing still so successful?
there are several factors at play, but I see two in particular that are most important.
#1. the inherent ability for video to tell stories.
you’ll have to imagine yourself at an early stage of the human existence for this anecdote: your entire existence was based not heavily on science, but on the stories that were conveyed to you from your ancestors about how to survive. stories that were relatable and instilled either fear (which meant to avoid doing whatever it was that was being described) or pleasure (which typically meant survival).
fast forward a few years…
us, ‘primitive beings’, now have every tool at our disposal for survival. but the darwinistic principles behind storytelling remain the same. the key behind video lies in the fact that it’s on of the most effective ways of telling a story. it’s the closest that we have come to accurately conveying on experience, emotion, or thought to someone else. this is, essentially, common knowledge - it isn’t earth shattering - but neither is the fact that video is so successful when you look at it through this perspective.
sight is the lens by which so many of us experience the world. in fact, we often won’t believe something until we see it. video offers a natural way to connect someone with an experience through storytelling: a natural way to inflict emotions upon a viewer. it even provides a way for an audience to tangibly, and visibly, conceptualize an idea. in the context of business and advertising, 80% of viewers are able to recall an ad they saw in the last month. furthermore, that statistic lends itself to the fact that 64% of users are more likely to buy a product after seeing a video.
although taken slightly out of context, the words of maya angelou can summarize this key factor perfectly.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
video offers the perfect opportunity to help an audience “feel” something. the perfect opportunity to create a lasting impact, no matter what the story entails -
- just as long as it’s a good and well told story.
#2. the ability to easily distribute and consume video content.
this obviously isn’t referring to movies and long-form content (although justified in their own regard). this is referring, specifically, to short-form video content meant for the marketing and advertising space. how long did it take you to read this section so far? it took me nearly 8 seconds. that’s already approaching Facebook’s suggested time limit for how long a video ad should be, with no information actually conveyed.
video offers one of the easiest ways to share information in a relatively short time frame and with high retention rates. according to visible measures, 20% of users will click away from an online ad in 10 seconds or less. so there’s only two options left if those users shall not be lost. either deliver all the information in 5-15 seconds or hook a viewer’s attention with relatable content, and then deliver the necessary information before our cavemen-like attention spans run out.
video content allows both of those options to be fulfilled better than almost any other medium, and the strategies to do so are constantly improving.
connecting with an audience’s attention through storytelling and delivering the message quickly creates an effective way to convert in every field. the strategies to do so will vary dramatically but whether you’re a part of the travel industry utilizing the power of boosted social ads, or advertising to potential home buyers, video captures some of the biggest conversation rates of any medium and offers one of the best ways to share your brand with your audience.
we all just can’t forget to have a clear vision of what our story is… or all could be lost in the process.
how do you feel video is impacting your industry?