Now that 2018 has officially arrived, it's time to take your marketing strategy into the new year as well! 2017 was the year of video marketing, and 2018 is set to be even bigger- reports from Recode suggest that spending on mobile video advertising is expected to grow by a whopping 49% in 2018, hitting numbers as high as $15 billion. If you want 2018 to be the year that your product takes off, you and your team will need to set yourselves apart from the masses of competing products with a new and compelling video marketing strategy that makes your customers want to buy and keeps their attention engaged. While you're planning your marketing engagement strategy for the year, consider including one or more of these trends into your video creation that are sure to take off in 2018.
The rise of "stories" will keep getting bigger. Snapchat introduced the concept of "stories" in 2013, and was an instant hit with users. Stories allow the user to create temporary videos that could be viewed by friends of the user for up to 24 hours, after which the media would automatically disappear. The temporary nature of stories instantly intrigued and enamoured users, and copy-cat story mechanisms were soon added to competing social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
However, along with the ease of story creation came the inevitable clutter; with everyone (and every brand) suddenly producing their own stories and clamouring for attention, you'll need to seriously make a statement if you expect anyone to stick around for more than a few seconds. In 2018, expect brands to invest more money in brighter, flashier, and more attention-grabbing stories on a variety of platforms.
Live streaming will outpace prerecorded videos. As video continues to dominate social media, research has found that live streaming encourages more engagement from the audience; a report by Social Media Today found that users will watch a live video for an average of three times the length that they would a similar prerecorded video. Experts theorize that the thrill of interacting in real-time with a celebrity, brand, or friend is what drives the increased engagement rates that marketers see when they host live sessions.
In 2018, expect that social media platforms will continue to improve their setups to offer higher quality video streaming, as well as more interactive features to appeal to advertisers. You can also expect smart brands to spend a larger percentage of their social media budget on live engagement streams, even if it means shifting budgetary resources away from prerecorded video.
Explainer videos will continue to go viral. An "explainer video" is a short, punchy video that shows the audience how to make or do something, or gives them a fast and easy-to-understand run down of a problem or issue that is influencing the world. One of the most successful explainer video series that exploded onto the scene in 2017 is BuzzFeed's "Tasty" series, which partnered with food and cooking brands to produce a series of short videos (typically between one to three minutes in length) featuring a quick and "tasty" looking recipe being made in double-time speed. Explainer videos are immensely popular with social media users because they make an immediate impression and the short length makes them inherently more "shareable" than a recipe or a full-length YouTube video.
In 2018, expect the concept of explainer videos to branch into new territory, giving users run-downs on everything from how to change a tire to how to apply false eyelashes to how to sew a button. The possibilities for branding are endless.
The bottom line? Smart video marketing in 2018 can be boiled down to a single idea: online engagement. If you can successfully convince your audience to like, share, and follow the animated, live, or prerecorded content that your team is producing, your chances of making a sale will skyrocket. If not? As far as the tech-savvy consumer is concerned, your company may as well disappear.