News
How to use video: for virtual events
14th December, 2020
Making your events slick AF.
Interest in virtual events has grown exponentially this year and, according to Wild Apricot, the number of organisations planning a virtual event has doubled. As we all seek pandemic proof solutions for our businesses and our lives, events of all kinds and sizes are moving online.
While it might not be under the best circumstances, we’re excited for this shift to virtual and hybrid events as the virtual world has so much to offer. Whatever your event, you’re going to need some incredible and engaging video to make it pop, so we’ve put together a quick run down of why legendary video content is key for three types of event.
Business events and conferences.
Pre-recording speeches can make it possible for your dream keynote speaker to attend, wherever they are in the world. No need for them to be fighting to get enough light on them in the middle of the night to make it live! Avoiding live video also eases the stress levels of organisers and speakers and solves any bandwidth issues that can result in lower quality video during streaming.
More wisdom from Ben & co every month in your inbox, you know you want it.
Of course, if you bring in the experts (that’s us) to pre-record your videos, you also get slick looking and sounding videos which adds to the overall quality of your event and gives it a premium feel. High quality video really does make all the difference if you want your virtual event to stand out as truly professional.
Fashion, music and more.
For fashion shows, gigs and similar events, professional video is absolutely essential to ensure attendees get the full experience. We say this because we love you; nobody is going to be excited by your latest line or incredible stage presence if you’ve shot at weird angles or on poor equipment.
We know there’s a lot to consider when hosting a virtual event so this is another area where working with the pros really pays off. We can work in tandem with your events platform and event planning team to ensure that your videos capture the essence of the event and are absolutely perfect in size, shape and quality.
We also bring snacks to keep you high energy throughout the shoot, just so you know!
If you’re starting from scratch, our friends at True Events have a handy guide on how to host virtual events but content optimised for virtual is one of the keys to making it a success.
Retail.
Bringing craft and Christmas fairs, retail expos and the like to the digital realm is a powerful way to support product based businesses of all sizes. Video plays an important role in these events too, enabling stall holders and sponsors to show off their wares with branded visuals which highlight all the benefits of the product.
At DHP we’re big fans of lifestyle led marketing and bringing that into the mix for virtual fairs will take your event from generic online retail to online experience. This style of video marketing can be applied to all kinds of products, provided you’ve got the creativity to see it, which is where we come in!
Planning your 2021 virtual events?
Whether your 2021 event plans focus on virtual or hybrid styles, let’s chat about how some super sexy videos can make them even better.
The benefits of animation
2nd December, 2020
For now and forever.
With 10% of brands not using video in their marketing saying the reason they don’t is that they’re unable to convince key decision-makers, we’re here to share just a few of the benefits to animation so you can turn those naysayers into yes-men.
Animation is one of the most effective mediums for communication and, therefore, marketing, as demonstrated by its fascinating history, but what are the key things that make it so great right now?
For easily digestible info.
One neat trick is that animation can condense a lot of information into a short and fun narrative. No matter how complicated your message is, it can be made approachable and easy to understand simply by using animation.
With short-form videos becoming the norm across social media, the ability to condense information into bite size chunks has never been more important. Leveraging the tools of animation and an experienced video marketing team you can ensure you make exactly the points you want to make in no time at all.
For making the unachievable achievable.
When it comes to branding, the benefits of animation are unrivalled. In an animated environment you can showcase the brand identity in a bold way, making sure every moment of video immerses the viewer in your brand.
Additionally you can achieve the abstract and unachievable, free from the constraints of physics and the costs of an SFX team. In the digital world, anything is possible so your creative team can envisage the absolute ideal when it comes to messaging and we can make it come true!
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For quick and easy changes.
Another badass benefit is how easily adaptable animation is should you want to add more or remove certain content. As your pricing, message or brand evolves, your animated videos can be updated making keeping your marketing up to date quicker, cheaper and easier than if you were re-shooting the whole campaign.
This also makes animation great for repurposing – short on a Christmas video campaign? Switch out the music for sleigh bells and drop a few beautifully decorated trees into your old campaign and voila! No need for actors, locations or “how do we arrange a shoot during lockdown” stress.
Joe shared even more ways to make your videos stretch further in our latest DHP TV episode.
So why aren’t you talking with more animation?
Now you know about the benefits of animation, why not get in touch with our award winning animation team and discuss your video plans for the new year?
Video for education
17th November, 2020
Clear communication through the power of video.
What do you think of when we say “educational videos?” It’s actually a term which encompasses far more than you might think. Today we’re going to look at the many ways you can use video for education and celebrate some of the gold standard examples we’ve seen this year.
Grab your never-been-used notebook and fanciest pen and let’s get learning!
Marketing.
One obvious way for the education sector to utilise video is in their marketing. A great promotional video gets across not only the key information about the course or establishment, but also highlights the ethos and lifestyle on offer.
Working with BSC on their football and language program, we put together a series of videos shot in the style of a sports commercial to grab the attention of parents and students across the world. The campaign was hugely successful garnering almost 100k views on Facebook in under a month and causing an increases in website traffic of over 100% with large increases in key markets such as Spain (+665%), Mexico (+2.5k%), UK (+199%), Ireland (+1.5k%) and Brazil (+300%).
At the University of Oxford, the team celebrated 100 years of Oxford degrees for women by speaking to current students and staff for a short, powerful video which celebrates the historic occasion.
The combination of old photographs and modern interviews shows how much things have changed and positions them as a champion of education for women. An A* in video marketing if you ask us!
Education.
Alongside marketing, videos are amazing for educational purposes, enabling complex concepts and big ideas to be broken down so they can be understood easily. Charles Stanley are making the most of this in their series for those new to investing by using video to make a scary topic like finance much more approachable.
From personal finance to personal fitness, who can forget the success of Joe Wicks’ live lockdown PE series? The first video alone gained over 7.1million views as parents and kids got together to learn how to make exercise fun and beat the lockdown blues.
People love to learn and video offers a quick, easy and fun way to share knowledge whether you’re scripting a whole series or jumping on a live broadcast. If you’re looking for some tips for using your videos on social media, we’ve got you covered right here.
Internal communications.
The education sector, along with many others, has had a lot to deal with during the pandemic; not only closing schools but also taking care of the health and wellbeing of staff and students.
The University of Cape Town has made excellent use of video to inform faculty, students and parents about their response to the pandemic, where they can find support and to share educational materials about COVID-19 itself. By posting these videos on their Facebook page they also made it easy for members of the university to share them with friends and family, spreading important information while demonstrating the university’s own values.
Graduating with distinctions.
We love seeing how different brands and industries work with video so we couldn’t not share a few of the other amazing ways we’ve seen video used for education and in the educational space generally this year.
The University of Manchester released a beautiful tribute to their community which acted as both a message to students and a promotional video. They show the university at its best while putting compassion front and centre.
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Across the pond, Texas State shared an inspiring message to their 2020 graduates proving that positivity and community is what will get us all through.
And of course we’ve been educating you on all things video and marketing this year, most recently with Joe’s top tips on making your video stretch further.
Ready to educate?
Whatever your brand has to offer, creating educational videos is a fabulous way to reach and engage people. Our team are ready and waiting to help you be the next graduate in the marketing hall of fame so get in touch now.
Animation in film
3rd November, 2020
Animation on the silver screen.
Animated films are such a standard part of the movie industry now that it’s hard to imagine a time when they were a big deal simply by nature of being animated. Let’s pick up where we left off in the history of animation and look how and why it came to be a core part of film making.
After Snow White.
Despite approximately eight animated feature films being released before it, Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the one that changed the game. Before its release, the upcoming movie was referred to as “Disney’s folly” but the creators successfully softened and moulded the traditional humour of animation into a magical experience which captivated audiences in the 1930s and continues to do so now.
Snow White showed that animation could offer more than slapstick and visual laughs; it could make people feel many more emotions and be used to tell deeper, more complex stories.
During the war.
Studios were forced to make cut backs during and after World War II simply to stay afloat. With Disney’s “Pinocchio” and “Fantasia” and Fleischer Studios’ “Mr Bug Goes To Town” all flopping at the box office due to difficulties getting them out to foreign markets, the industry had to reconsider animation, at least in the short term.
Most other studios chose to abandon their work on animated features but Disney opted to try a more economical style of animation and released Dumbo. Their creative thinking paid off and the loveable elephant brought in a profit at the box office.
Much like Disney, we’re big on out of the box thinking and determination when creating video.
While American cel-animated films dominated, countries like Russia, China and Japan worked on their own styles of animation. Although few of their works saw international success, they did receive recognition from within the film industry and inspired UPA animators to develop a much sparser and more stylised type of animation which earned Oscar nominations for their first two theatrical shorts.
Animation for adults.
It wasn’t until the late 1960s that animation expanded to reach adult audiences with A Boy Named Charlie Brown hitting cinemas in 1969. The philosophical, psychological, and sociological overtones of the Peanuts franchise made them enjoyable for kids and adults alike.
The anti-establishment counterculture boom quickly infiltrated Hollywood leading to several short underground films and parodies like Bambi meets Godzilla which is still considered a great classic among animation experts. At the same time, the popularity of psychedelia made the re-release of Disney’s Fantasia a hit with 60s teenagers and college students, finally making a profit nearly 30 years after the initial release.
On our side of the pond, The Beatles’ animated musical feature Yellow Submarine released to widespread acclaim from critics and audiences alike. It was so well received that Pixar co-founder, John Lasseter, has credited the film with bringing more interest in animation as a serious art form. It’s still regarded as a landmark of animation for showing a broad audience how animation could be quite different from the well known television cartoons and Disney features.
Pushing the boundaries.
Over the next few decades, animators and studios worked hard to push the boundaries of animation.
In 1972 Fritz the Cat became the first animated feature to receive an X-rating which was used to promote the film. It became the highest-grossing independent animated film of all time and inspired Bakshi to continue using animation to make political statements using an artistic blend of techniques and some live-action. The following year he became the second to have two financially successful animated feature films in a row when he released Heavy Traffic.
French/Czech science fiction production, La Planète sauvage, was awarded the Grand Prix special jury prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival. The imaginative film was also ranked the 36th-greatest animated movie ever by Rolling Stone in 2016.
Japan’s anime became a big part of the country’s mainstream culture and they embraced original video animation in a way not yet considered in the US where video was reserved for releases which were unlikely to be popular in cinemas or television. In 1985 Studio Ghibli was founded which went on to release some of the greatest animated films of all time.
As the 80s came to a close Disney and Pixar came together to create smash hit, The Little Mermaid, which included the first piece of feature animation to be created with the Computer Animation Production System system.
After the success of Pixar’s Toy Story in 1995, computer animation grew into the dominant animation technique in the US and many other countries. Even animation that looked traditional was more and more often created fully with computers. By 2004, only small productions were still created with traditional techniques.
The move to 3D.
In November 2004, The Polar Express became IMAX’s first full-length, animated 3D feature. The 3D version earned about 14 times as much per screen as the 2D version prompting a great interest in 3D animated films.
Visionary director, James Cameron, famously delayed work on Avatar from the 1990s until 2006 to allow technology to reach the necessary degree of advancement to adequately portray his vision of the film. His patience paid off and when Avatar premiered in December 2009 critics highly praised its ground-breaking visual effects. It broke several box office records and remains the second highest-grossing movie of all time when adjusted for inflation. It also became the first film to gross more than $2 billion and won three Oscars for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects.
The power of animation.
At every stage of animation’s evolution its power is clearly demonstrated; the power to make people feel, to express complex concepts, and to connect people. Animation has so much to offer beyond the big screen too – brands can utilise all the benefits of animation on a smaller scale to create marketing magic in a digital world.
If our exploration of this incredible medium has sparked your interest, get in touch with our award winning animation team.
The history of animation
20th October, 2020
If it’s good enough for cavemen, it’s good enough for Gen Z!
Humans have felt the need to show things in motion since the dawn of time. Part of how we understand our surroundings is through movement; from where things are to how one thing relates to another. In this article we want to look back at how and why animation came to be so we can understand the power of it in the modern world.
Let’s rewind several thousand years.
Bronze age man captured leaping goats on their pottery, clearly showing they understood the importance of motion. It also demonstrates the value of captured movement in art and for communication; we don’t know about you but we’re not decorating things we use every day with ugly or pointless imagery!
The original stop motion.
From the 1600s to the late 1800s people were fascinated by things which appeared to move. From the magic lantern, which projected still images which could seem as if they were moving, to the zoetrope and praxinoscope which spun still images to create the illusion of movement, humans were invested in animation and the fun that could be had with it.
Moving to the big screen.
The early 1900s saw stop motion animation become a popular pastime as cartoons and silent films began showing at theatres. Betty Boop and Felix the Cat were born and developed a following. The silent era was defined by its humour as we used this incredible new invention to connect to each other through laughter.
Humour remains popular in animation today as a way to draw people in and get a message across. We all love to laugh and our brains absorb information much more easily when we’re happy, that’s why marketing that makes people feel rather than think is so powerful.
Sound and colour and feature films, oh my!
In 1923 Walt Disney introduced the world to Mickey Mouse in what was billed as a “sound cartoon.” It was the first cartoon which had sound printed on the film and changed the face of animation for good. The focus remains on humour
As the 1930s dawned, colour crept onto the screen as studios like Walt Disney, Warner Brothers, MGM, and Fleischer competed for audiences and new discoveries in animation. Bugs Bunny and co began making regular appearances in the Merrie Melodies series and in 1937 Disney released Snow White, the first hand drawn animated feature film.
From big screen, to small screen, and back again.
From the 1960s onwards, animation became normal programming on televisions as a variety of cartoons that we still know today drew in fans of all ages. Meanwhile the big screen continued to see improvements in animation style and execution, culminating in 1964 with an Academy Award win for The PinkPhink (of the Pink Panther series) and the release of the first x-rated animated feature film, Fritz the Cat!
Rule 44, that’s all we’re saying!
Feelings sell more than facts ever could.
Through every era we can see that humour is part of the power of animation. It allows us to connect with each other and with ideas quickly and easily making combining animation with emotion a powerful way to increase reach and sales.
Early cartoons were just a few minutes long too proving that size isn’t everything! To work with an award winning animation team on your next ad campaign, get in touch.
Festive marketing in 2020
6th October, 2020
Video marketing that embraces the Christmas spirit; both of them.
Q4 already? How did that happen? As we start figuring work out in this new normal many of us are working on holiday marketing campaign planning. What does that even look like in 2020? The hard sell is definitely out, replaced by compassion and an understanding of what consumers are struggling with.
So if you’re back in the office and suddenly realising that your latest launch needs a totally new strategy or you’re cracking into your festive marketing, here are 5 tips for a budget friendly video marketing campaign with empathy.
Why video? Well because 87% of video marketers say that video has increased traffic to their website. (Wyzowl, 2020), definitely not just because we bloody love video here!
1) Read the room.
Spend some of your planning time checking in with your customers; where are they at right now? What’s weighing them down? What do they need?
It doesn’t matter how incredible your family focused marketing materials are if your audience are preparing for a lonely festive season due to lockdowns or wanting to protect their loved ones. Your campaign needs to meet people where they’re at and understand what they’re dealing with.
2) Get creative.
We’re all sick of hearing that these are unprecedented times but it’s worth remembering when you’re planning your marketing. All that generic, festive marketing advice and what you’ve learned yourself from years of testing is somewhat out the window now. We’re starting from scratch and it’s time to get creative about every aspect of your business.
We love to find inspiration in the most unlikely places and keep an eye on what’s working for brands and businesses in all industries. If you’re only watching your competitors it’s worth broadening your social media stalking to include innovative brands in different areas, you never know what’s going to spark your next idea or the next big trend.
3) Sell the solution, park the problem.
Do you know what makes us feel more positive during global pandemics? Solutions! Opting for solution focused marketing is a simple switch that keeps your messaging positive and offers a light at the end of the tunnel.
If you’ve read the room you already know what problems your customers are having so build your campaign around how your product or service solves their problem. No need to remind them that everything is awful before offering that solution, most of us are pretty clear on all the things that are tough right now!
Don’t fall into the trap of making huge promises; honesty combined with demonstrating the lifestyle of someone who solved that problem is a gentler way to make the sale.
4) Sexy stock.
There’s a reason that 92% of marketers make videos with assets they already have (Animoto, 2017); it saves time and money! Having a catalogue of your own content to dip into and re-use in future videos is a gold star way to shorten turnaround time on video projects.
No need to worry about it getting old either, give it a totally new look with some stonking stock footage and nifty editing skills and you’ll be laughing all the way through the long weekend you’ll be able to take off. You’d be surprised at the difference a festive backing track makes to your videos too!
Make the most of having more staff available now more of us are back to work by having someone create a folder of all your marketing materials so you can just add to it in future. Organisation for the win!
5) Don’t be Scrooge in the wrong places.
Reducing costs is hugely important at the moment but don’t scrimp where it matters; delivering what you promise and customer service needs to be top priority.
When it comes to your video marketing, opting for nimble shoots rather than big productions is a great way to keep costs down but keep in mind Thomas Jefferson’s words; “The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time.”
The Father Christmas of marketing.
Sorry to drop the C-word in October but we’re determined to help businesses bounce back from covid. We believe you can take control of how this quarter, and next year, goes and nailing your marketing will make all the difference.
Whether you’re looking to outsource or just want some advice, our sack is full of festive marketing ideas and time and cost saving tips that we’ve picked up from working with the likes of Nike, Puma, Sky and Adidas.
Video on social media: we tested it so you don’t have to.
22nd September, 2020
Helping you nail video on social media, first time.
Last month we launched DHP TV, our video series sharing all the best marketing tips and tricks from the best in the business, and we don’t just mean us! Naturally, we wanted to maximise the reach of this new project so we’ve tested, tweaked and run the numbers and now we’re sharing all the information you need to ensure your videos get the best results across social media.
Video generates more engagement than any other content type on Instagram – Mention.
Grab your notebook or save this article so you can save yourself the time, money and stress of trying to figure it all out yourself.
LinkedIn loves native video.
We love high quality video so we’re not fans of the compression that happens to video on social media, that’s why we prefer to share links for you to watch our videos on Vimeo. Sadly both the social media gods and users don’t like that very much as we discovered when comparing the LinkedIn stats for video shared via a link vs posted natively on the platform.
- 86% increase in clicks for videos posted natively on LinkedIn.
- 48% increase in engagement rate for videos posted natively on LinkedIn.
When utilising video on social media, especially on LinkedIn, we recommend uploading the video to the platform itself rather than posting a link to view if elsewhere.
IGTV doesn’t stand alone.
We were psyched when IGTV launched; long form videos, yes please! Links in captions? Don’t mind if we do! We’re still IGTV fans but we’ve learned that sharing to your grid is the key.
IGTV videos shared to the grid garner 650% more views than those posted only to IGTV.
Keep your sexy grid aesthetic while maximising reach by designing and uploading a thumbnail that looks amazing square. Don’t forget to use the swipe up link option when sharing your IGTV videos to stories too, it’s no more effective than sharing it as you would a feed post but it looks extra cool!
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Captions.
Less is more when it comes to captions on videos. Your video should stand alone so simply introduce the topic or tell your audience why they need to press play in a super short caption. Shorter captions also result in a 367% increase in views on LinkedIn videos!
Learn more about getting the most from videos on social media.
Speaking of captions, 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound, so ensuring your video’s message is clear without sound or that they include captions increases both watch time and views.
Go forth and conquer!
Now you’ve got all the stats and tips, it’s up to you to implement them. If you’re stuck on the video creation side of things, we’re waiting to help you. Shoot us an email and let’s figure out how video can work for you and the best way for you to make it.
Let’s get back to work
15th September, 2020
Turning it around together
It’s been a rough year for businesses around the world; we’ve seen small business owners make huge changes to their structure and big businesses use their platforms to support us all through the crisis. From Instagram’s “support small business” sticker to Puma promoting mask wearing to Walktrue shouting out important charities, businesses have banded together to keep each other and the economy going.
As we look to September, many of us moving from pyjama bottom Zoom calls to conference rooms, we’re tasked once again with finding a way to to move forward but if the last 6 months have proven anything, it’s that we can figure it out together.
From chats with our clients and our own experience through coronavirus so far, we’ve come up with 3 suggestions to help brands and businesses find their feet again and hit the ground running.
Work backwards
With all that’s happened, consumers are in a very different state of mind and being driven by different things right now. Now your team’s back together, book in a meeting to discuss your goals for the final quarter of 2020 and how you can achieve those in the new climate.
Tying your marketing strategy in to your goals is nothing new but re-thinking how you’re approaching marketing could look something like:
- A change in brand messaging.
- Different methods of connecting with customers.
- Switching to user generated content over stock images.
- An increase in hope-led marketing and a decrease in FOMO or fear based marketing.
- A new colour palette for your Q4 campaigns.
- Focusing on organic social rather than paid ads.
Team work
Whether you’re B2B or B2C, supporting other businesses is going to be important in turning this year around. Consider creative ways of doing so from the obvious of hiring other amazing businesses to giving a shout-out to complimentary companies that your audience would be interested in.
Teaming up with related businesses to offer extra value to clients or including a list of recommended service providers in your welcome pack or documentation is a great way to encourage those who are making investments in their businesses to get the full kit ‘n’ caboodle!
Big or small, this is something you can implement to continue the community building and networking that gave many of us some hope during lockdown.
Think positive, dream big
We get it, seeing the hard stats about how you’ve been impacted by COVID is a definite mood killer but, for all the tortured artist quotes, innovation and creativity thrive on a positive attitude. It’s going to be tough but try setting aside a few hours each day or week to focus on your end game; conjure up the big dream that saw you start your business in the first place and use that to drive you.
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Work to create some positivity within your team too; ease them back into the office (bonus points for supporting your team and local coffee shop by buying them a nice coffee), encourage them to think outside of the box and keep open, honest lines of communication open with them.
Fostering a climate of positivity brings the very best out of your team, and you, leading to better ideas, better quality of work and better results.
Devilishly helpful productions
We’re implementing all three of these tips here at DHP and we love chatting to businesses about marketing, strategy and business growth. Sometimes we need an outsider to really see where we’re at. Bringing in a second set of eyes always helps us when we’re editing videos and it’s no different for marketing so come and tell us your pain points and let’s work out how your business can move forward.
DHP TV: video marketing but make it sexy
19th August, 2020
Making your marketing almost as good as ours!
We have an announcement that’s going to change your life, increase your conversion rate and boost your bank balance. Can we get a drum roll please?
Say hello to DHP TV!
We’ll be sharing all the top secret tips that make our videos devilishly handsome so you can do it yourself. Don’t say we never give you anything!
If video ads can convince Jeff Bezos to change his mind, you know they’re good.
Let’s first address the big question we know you’re asking.
And you know what about video marketing?!
We’re not ones to brag, OK maybe we are, but we’ve worked with the likes of Nike, Sky, Virgin racing, Unilever and Warner Bros and those guys don’t just hire any old video production company. Our director and MVP, Ben Collins, trained in video production at the University of Cape Town before spending six years establishing himself as a director and producer of broadcast commercials, music videos and television series across the globe.
Working alongside Ben are a team of the most creative and talented people in video marketing. We value out of the box thinking here at DHP so we very purposefully put together a group of people with different skill sets and backgrounds to ensure vibrant planning discussions and endless creativity. In short, our team are the best and our work proves it.
You’re just going to give us generic advice though, right?
Guess again my cynical friend! Here at DHP we hate generic. No, really, you don’t get to become a creative genius by sticking to the status quo. We want you to raise your marketing game because that pushes us to stay ahead of the game; the better your DIY videos are, the more creative we have to get with ideas, style and production. So really this is a somewhat selfish endeavour to keep us on our toes.
So what will you be learning at our brand new infotainment centre?
- Wanky french terms
- Planning like a pro
- Ensuring your visuals are on point
- Making your audio as sexy as your video
- At home alternatives to expensive tech
- Video conferencing like a rock star
It’s not just us you’ll be hearing from either; we’ll be chatting to some of our clients and the most creative people in the tech and marketing world.
Frankly, we’ve got something for everyone. Whether you’re a small business owner looking to improve your video content, a vlogger, or even a big corporate looking to add some extra shine to your video marketing, you’re going to learn something useful from DHP TV.
“The team are always full of ideas that are helping us to shape our brand.” – ai Corporation
The DHP TV challenge
As it’s 2020 we can’t launch without a challenge (or a very large beer) so we challenge you to take our advice and run with it! Hop on over to DHP TV and create a video implementing what you’ve learned. Don’t forget to tag us and use the hashtag #DHPTV so we can tell you how awesome you are and share your epic content.
Head over the DHP TV right now and become the Hitchcock, Boyle or Scott you were born to be!
How the power of video ads changed Jeff Bezos’ mind
30th July, 2020
Video ads convert, it’s that simple
Not to throw shade at Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, but we could have told him back in 2009 that video ads weren’t just for companies with “an unremarkable product or service.”
Clearly he checked the stats himself though because in 2019 he spent $6,879 on advertising. We’re guessing he saw that 88% of video marketers are satisfied with the ROI of their video marketing efforts on social media or that YouTube is one of the most popular sites for teens, millennials and seniors, amazing for reaching a broad audience!
Here’s a few things we’d have told him if he’d asked us to prove that video ads are worth it.
1. Videos fuel sales
Consumers are looking more and more for videos to decide what to buy and where, whether it’s reviews on YouTube, influencers on Instagram or explainer videos embedded directly onto websites. Video is a quick, easy way to learn about a product, service or brand and decide if it’s for you.
79% of people say a brand’s video has convinced them to buy a piece of software or app.
It’s also not reserved for B2C brands, video ads are converting for B2B companies too; 59% of executives say they would rather watch a video than read texts. It’s not surprising, video can get everything across in a much shorter amount of time so for busy executives it’s bound to be preferable.
2. All the cool kids are doing it
There’s a reason that 91% of video marketers consider video an important part of their marketing strategy and 84% of marketers rank video creation skills important when hiring for a new marketing position. Video is being pushed by platforms and marketers because it works.
On Amazon’s own platform during this year’s pandemic sellers have increased their ad spend. According to Feedvisor, food sellers are spending 65% more on ads, with beauty and personal care ad spend up 24%, electronics up 34% and apparel up 10%. Businesses who invest in marketing will always fare better than those who don’t.
If you’re smarter than Jeff Bezos, get in touch!
3. Blending in is a badass ad strategy
Have you heard about native ads on social media? They’re any ad content, video included, which sit naturally in the platform it’s on. Think sponsored tweets, video ads in the Facebook feed or appearing in recommended blocks. They’re ads that blend in to the content around them, seems like a terrible idea right?
Wrong! Native ads produce 40% higher click-through rates than other formats and garner 55% more views.
Now factor in that Facebook video engagement is higher than all other categories of post at 6.01% and you know that’s a recipe for success.
We stan a billionaire who admits when he’s wrong
For all our Bezos mocking, in 2019 he stated that he was wrong about ads and Amazon is now one of the biggest ad spenders in the USA. He could afford to be wrong and miss out on billions of potential sales, but we’re not all Jeff Bezos.
We love creating video but we didn’t get into the business for shits and giggles, that’s just an added bonus! We know the power of video advertising, we see it demonstrated over and over again in every marketing report that comes out. Video offers things that other marketing methods simply can’t, and they’re the things that make the difference as Jeff has realised.
If you can’t afford to miss out on the proven ROI of video, shoot us an email right now.