Short-Form Video Is Here to Stay. But Is The 30 Second Spot Out the Door?
Zoe Dowling, SVP Research, FocusVision in this article talks about how short-form video platforms permeate the mainstream, and why marketers need to adjust their strategies.
Video consumption habits among consumers have undergone a radical and permanent shift. Gone are the days when families would huddle together in front of the TV to watch the same show. Today, family members are more likely to binge-watch alone, in separate rooms and on mobile devices, or snack short social media video clips on their smartphones while waiting for class to start or in line at Starbucks.
The short-form video specifically, a trend that has been brewing with Millennials and Gen Z for nearly a decade, is having a moment. If you’re a Millennial, you may remember Vine—the platform that started it all in 2013. The app, which lets users create and share six-second video clips, helped define the “influencer” culture and claimed an audience of nearly 200 million at its peak. But Vine was short-lived. Unable to stave off competition from Instagram, which released its own 15-second video clip feature on its app, Vine quickly lost users and Twitter, which purchased Vine for $30 million, shut down the app. Unfortunately, Vine was ahead of its time, but a short-form video is here to stay.
Over the years since it was shuttered, smartphones with video cameras penetrated the market and the creation and consumption of short-form video content increased in parallel. According to Deloitte Digital, the proportion of US consumers who watch short-form video (5 minutes or less) grew to 74% in 2018, with 84% of GenZ and 81% of Millennials watching this content. Deloitte found that nearly 40% of Americans spend more than one hour per week watching short-form video clips on social media.
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The TikTok Viral
Last year alone, TikTok, the short-form video app, announced that it has more than 1.5 billion downloads. It users watch everything from a hungry cat whining for its dinner to lip syncs that its users create and share on their phones. It has become an outlet for self and collective expression, now a communication mode of choice for younger generations. And, just last month, a new video app called Byte (developed by Vine’s former founder) said it had amassed 1.5 million users in the short time since its launch.
Thus it’s thoroughly unsurprising that Marketers estimate that the average daily time spent on short-form video grew from 9.9% of total mobile internet time in the third quarter of 2018 to 13.5% in the second quarter of 2019.
These shifts in consumption habits have huge implications for marketers. What was once a one size fits all strategy for video—create an ad and place it programmatically across the web—doesn’t apply in the short-form world where either traditional advertising placements might not ever exist. Now, marketers must tailor each approach uniquely for each platform, especially if they want to reach the coveted Gen Z audience who are all over these platforms.
The early data shows that investing in these platforms is paying off. Data from the Deloitte Digital study found that consumers who frequently watch short video clips are more receptive to advertising and more likely to purchase certain products like subscriptions. For example, those who watch more than an hour of short-form video clips per week index high in subscription rates: 81% subscribe to a video streaming service, 59% pay for a music streaming service and half subscribe to a gaming service.
But the most important benefit these platforms offer to marketers is the opportunity of who they reach. Short-form video applications, be they TikTok or Instagram, give marketers the opportunity to engage with audiences who are not available through traditional media outlets and social networks: primarily younger consumers. As of September, 42% of internet users in the U.S. aged 13-16 are on TikTok, according to eMarketer. Among the ages of 17-21, the percentage falls to 32%.
They also represent a sea change in how marketers think about video. People come to TikTok and Instagram for engaging content, and that content needs to be created specifically for each platform. That’s very different from how marketers have traditional thought about video advertising where a person can see the same ad appear over and over on many different media sites including YouTube. Other platforms like Quibi, which offer 10 minute quick “bites” of content are disrupting the TV industry even more.
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Content Creation
This means original, branded content and product placements and fewer traditional TV ads. Branded content might be out of a brand’s traditional comfort zone, but branded videos have the ability to be powerful engagement triggers that are amplified after someone has shared the content. Sharing promotes conversations, information gathering and lifts purchase likelihood after a branded video is shared.
Yes, it’s interruptive but it allows a brand to tell its story in a way that’s meaningful to consumers and where they can connect with those who eschew traditional advertising. If consumers aren’t watching commercials, how else can a brand reach them? Marketers need to adapt to these new platforms.
