So, going down the rabbit hole that is the ‘interwebs’, I stumbled upon a study that was carried out in the 80s by Dr. Richard Felder on Learning Styles. This study was carried out on his engineering students to figure out the various categories in which they take in and process information. He came up with a list of 4 dimensions in which students leaned more towards one category as compared to the other.
i. Sensing or Intuitive - The concrete thinkers oriented towards fact finding and procedures vs the abstract, innovative thinkers oriented towards theories.
ii. Active or Reflective – Those who learn by trying things out and working in groups vs those who learn by thinking things through and prefer working alone or with a familiar partner.
iii. Sequential or Global – The linear thinkers who learn in small incremental steps vs those who have a more holistic thinking process and learn in large leaps.
iv. And our focus of the day, Visual or Verbal – Learners who prefer visual representations of material vs learners who prefer written and spoken explanations.
When it came to the comparison of visual and verbal styles of learning, findings from this study showed that at least a whopping 65% of people are visual learners. You see something, you remember it - plain and simple. Perhaps it’s because information can easily go into one ear and come out the other, however signals once taken in through the eye have nowhere to escape and are launched firmly in the back of your medulla… perhaps not. Many of us however, can attest to the ease we experience when trying to recall something we saw as compared to something we heard or read.
This leads one to consider how much more of an impact displaying something in motion would make if seeing something in its static form has such an immense effect.
I’m just a digital girl in a fast paced digital marketing world and there are constantly new innovations coming up and trending on the digital platform. As I play catch up when it comes to learning about the inner workings of as many of them as possible, the vast market opportunities that come with Video Marketing are quite clear. Talk about effective engagement and interaction, growing appeal to mobile users, encouraging social shares (if a sneezing kitten can go viral, imagine the lengths you could go with your exceptional, professionally created video) and of course the client’s favourite – boosting sales and conversion rates. Let’s not forget that when you have a video attached to your website, it will highly likely be among the top results popping up when a consumer keys in a related search on Google. Do you want to be left behind in this evolving digital marketing world? I think not! So here are a few Digital Trends in Video Marketing this year.
1. Social TV
Tumetoka analogue, tumeenda digital. Anyone else finding themselves spending more and more time on digital media as compared to the more ‘old school’ channels of communication? I know I’m not the only one. Digital media acts as a one-stop shop for information, entertainment and social interaction. Its popularity continues to increase steadily with more users being inducted every day especially through social media networks. Many forums come and go but Facebook and Instagram continue to prosper and are not shy when it comes to introducing and experimenting with new innovations.
Though it’s level of popularity among the much younger generation is arguable, Facebook has definitely played a huge role in the evolution of communication. Among its numerous innovations is Facebook Watch. This is a video on-demand-service which offers personalized recommendations for videos to watch. Not only do existing businesses get off to a quick start on the platform but it has also provided a forum for upcoming creators to launch their stuff. The two ways in which marketers can take advantage of this may be by actively creating engaging content that is showcased on the Facebook videos, or invest in mid-roll ads that pay in between videos after users have watched at least 20 seconds.
Then there’s Instagram, alias IG. This addictive photo and video-sharing social networking service launched IGTV (Instagram Television) in June, 2018. Though having received mixed reviews and occasionally being described as ‘a flop’, it’s a digital trend that still shows an immense amount of potential. The feature basically works like an actual mobile TV whereby the viewer can switch between channels created by users they follow. Videos can go on from 6 seconds to over an hour and by tapping on the handle of a particular user, you are able to view all ‘episodes’ they’ve posted. Pretty convenient spot to post User Generated Content when running a campaign or How-to videos when launching a new product, don’t you think?
2. YouTube
All hail YouTube! This has truly been the master of the game, the OG of video uploads. We’ve all experienced it… Searching for that Top Kenyan Hits 2019 mix and just before it starts playing, there’s a commercial you have to watch for at least 5 seconds before you click skip. This is what YouTube calls in-stream advertising and is more commonly known as pre-roll. The greatest challenge in using this format is creating a video interesting enough to persuade the viewers to watch the entire ad.
In some cases, the shorter the ad, the sweeter. This is where Non-Skippable Videos a.k.a. Bumper Ads come in. These 6-second long videos play before your selected video can be viewed or in various intervals depending on the length of the video. Though it’s a slightly aggressive form of advertising, YouTube makes use of a watch time metric that helps show the viewer videos that they’re likely to be interested in.
3. Interactive Videos
These videos help to soft sell your product through mind-blowing interactive campaigns that viewers can’t possibly resist. Brand loyalty is strengthened by giving people the feeling that they are an active and important part of your brand creation, so instead of creating a mainstream ad, why not invite them to be part of a memorable campaign? You could make use of Conversational Online Interactive videos that give the viewer an opportunity to interact with the video as though they are actually communicating with the characters. You may choose to create an Exploratory Video in which they can view your product from different angles as they would if they saw it in real life. If you’re up for a real challenge, you could put up a Customizable Interactive Video that allows the viewer to make a couple of adjustments to the video and view the version that has been customized to their preferences. Cool right?! Right?
The digital train is a fast moving one with a lot to offer. It makes numerous stops picking up different trends as it moves along and currently the video station is pretty popular. Don’t let it roll out before you jump on!
Whatever it is you’d like your brand to say, make it memorable and say it louder with video.
