10Yetis - Online Video Company Insight - What’s hot in online video production right now.

It’s very obvious that people are spending more and more time watching online videos, especially on mobile devices such as phones and tablets. A recent report predicted that the time per day people spend watching online videos will increase by an incredible 23.3% this year and a further 19.8% in 2016. This prediction is even greater for video consumption on mobile devices. Google themselves said that over half of people watching videos on YouTube are doing so from mobile devices.

With the increasing demand for online video services and the decline in traditional video publishing methods such as TV, marketers are looking for new ways to keep their video content relevant for their audience. Especially when it comes to video advertising.

Advertisers and brands seem to be experimenting with different lengths and forms of video at the moment. This comes after a long period where it was widely regarded that 30 seconds was the perfect length for an online video, as it was said to be the ideal length to keep a viewer’s attention. It wasn’t too long, but it also wasn’t too short that you couldn’t get any information into the video.

So we’re now at the point where brands are experimenting with long form video, six second vine loops, live streaming (Periscope) and GIFs.

Longer form brand videos usually come across as short films rather than as a typical advertisement. There were lots of examples of this during the World Cup in 2014 where elongated adverts for Nike and Beats by Dre played out as self-contained stories. The Beats video was five minutes long and created the build-up of the World Cup through one Footballer’s warm up routine for the big game. This video has had over 28 million views (at time of writing), which shows that the five-minute run time did not put viewers off. Though it probably helped that the featured footballer was Neymar. Because the content was engaging, relevant and grasped the attention of viewers, the length of time didn’t really matter! Nike also had a five and a half minute spot on YouTube for the World Cup, which again was extremely popular, gaining 87 million views.

One of my favourite examples is not from a huge brand but is instead for a charity project, which aims to help the homeless in America, specifically in Detroit. This video doesn’t have loads of views but there is a much smaller audience for this rather than a worldwide sports brand. It uses the format perfectly though; sharing the journey of the charity while adding in personal stories makes it genuinely interesting to watch and it tells a complete story in 6 minutes.

Vine offers the perfect platform for simple but fun creative videos. Many companies use Vine to create fun and branded stop motion videos or timelapses. These are easily shareable on social platforms, which makes it a popular choice. You will often see large gaps in time between Vines on a brands account, this will likely be because of a lack of time and creativity. It can take a lot of time and resource to make a visually impressive Vine; this is why it can often become neglected as a social platform. However, experimentation with the site still happens and occasionally a Vine will go ‘viral’ outside of the platform and duplicates will end up on video upload sites like YouTube and be shared on social news sites like Reddit. It is still a platform worth investing in. The short snippet style of the videos make them easily digestible by your audience. Plus there is the option for collaboration; there are a lot of influencers on Vine that will work with brands to help promote (maybe for a small cost). One to think about.

Live streaming has recently seen a surge in popularity after the release of Periscope, as well as competitor Meerkat. The app has now got 10 million users since launching in April this year. Periscope makes live-streaming simple, which is what has made it so attractive to brands and people in general. It is a great tool to use when there is a brand event or a new product/service launch. Make sure there is a sense of inclusion when streaming. Someone talking through what’s going on, or interviewing those on the stream instantly makes it more engaging. We’ve seen big brands, such as our client Superdry, as well as others like Mashable and Sundance Film Festival do this perfectly. Watching other streams is the best way to get inspiration for anything you decide to share on Periscope.

Our last trend in online video is a look at GIFs. Technically GIFs aren’t videos as we know them, there is no sound and they are picture files, but they are moving images so I’m including them in this. GIFs have soared in popularity, especially after Twitter finally allowed them to play in timelines last year. GIFs are ever popular because you can see more information than in a picture but without the need to listen to sound. GIFs are most often used as a reaction to something online, this has now been tapped into by brands with many sharing funny own branded and third party GIFs as reactions to topical news or in reference to their own news. Recently, Samsung used GIFs as mini segments from their advert for the S6 launch, which helped to highlight specific features of the phone.

Thinking about the type of product or service you want to promote is the best way to decide which format of video is right for you. There is more scope for experimentation now, with all types of video enjoying a surge in popularity online. The worst thing you can do is to not include video in your online marketing and social media strategy.