Online advertising; the growing trend
In 2017, online video ads were more prolific than television ads. More and more industries are recognising the potential online videos have of reaching a wider audience and creating more brand recognition. In 2017, marketers spent double the amount on corporate videos online than on television adverts. This trend is expected to continue into 2018 and beyond.
Short form video
In 2017 video ads were kept short, usually coming in at about 10 seconds long. This was done for a good reason. Web users have more control over their online content than over their television content. If you don’t like something online, you can close it down very quickly. On top of that, web users have a much shorter attention span than in real life. The internet allows for instant gratification so people don’t want to watch long, irrelevant videos. Below is an example of a short duration branding video, this was designed to give the image of smart, sassy and professional services.
Branding Video Edit by Rockmans Creative Media from Rockmans Creative Media on Vimeo.
This online impatience is symptomatic of younger adults and unfortunately for advertisers, this age bracket is often the target market – they’re the most active consumers and the most profitable. Because of this, a short, to-the-point video ad seemed to work best online as it was quick enough for watchers to sit through and thus infinitely more effective than longer adverts that weren’t getting viewed in their entirety.
The emergence of Long form video
We’re predicting a new trend for online adverts in 2018: Long form videos. In 2018 as brands are trying new and innovative techniques to gain attention and reach a bigger demographic. There was growing success in long form video adverts in 2017, but the trend has yet to reach its full potential. This marketing strategy works a little differently to short adverts which clearly push the product. Instead, long form videos build a narrative that is so subtle and engaging that you can’t even tell it’s an advert. The big product reveal comes at the very end of the video, at which point the consumer has already watched the ad in its entirety. The best brand videos over 90 seconds evoke an emotion or deeper meaning. They give people a reason to watch a video in its entirety. It’s not always an easy accomplishment particularly in some target markets such as industrial brands but it can offer huge rewards in terms of publicity, brand recognition and revenue. The below is an example of a long form video that uses the brands sponsorship of a Polo team to promote it’s wines.
Celebrity endorsement = engagment
There are a few different ways to make long online adverts work, as long as the content is engaging. Perhaps the simplest way is by celebrity endorsement. This would work the same way celebrity endorsements work for television ads in that the celebrity’s fans watch the content and feel more favourably towards the product because of the celebrity’s involvement.
Kim McCosker in Kitchen Studio
There are, however, some advantages to using celebrities for online video content instead of television ads. Firstly, because online content can be longer, you can use the celebrity endorsement in a more indepth way.
The internet is more of an informal place where social content can work well, so you can allow your consumers to feel like they are getting a real incite into the celebrity’s personality and offer a unique perspective. This is likely to engage users as they want to find out more about the celebrity. Another advantage of online content is that it is interactive. You can start debates, get people talking and gather more attention.
Other forms of long content ads include documentary style content, event videos – such as videos from festivals, etc. – or even a mini web series similar to a television program.
However you choose to use long form video ads online, we’re predicting big payoffs for successful long-form videos!
Was this information useful? Please share via the Social Media buttons below, or for more details on our video production services see our home page.