It’s that time again–a time for New Year’s resolutions and New Year’s predictions about video trends in digital marketing over the next 12 months. It should be noted that in last year’s blog article, Digital Marketing Trends That Will Shape 2017, my colleague Mark Flaharty accurately forecasted the growth of 360-degree video and live video.
Without further ado, let’s peer into the crystal ball for the top video trends among brands in 2018:
1. “Feel-good” videos
Anniversary videos, year-in-review videos, accomplishment videos… anyone who has spent time on Facebook has experienced this sort of content. Brands are beginning to follow Facebook’s lead, employing data-driven videos to stimulate the emotions of consumers, independent of branded and performance-oriented personalized videos which are typically intended to call consumers to action. The idea behind such “feel-good” videos is using personalized video storytelling to foster goodwill in consumers, increasing a personal connection to the brand and driving brand stickiness and loyalty. For instance, Strava produced a year-in-review video dissecting a customer’s athletic activity, while Snapchat offered personalized summaries at the end of 2017 by incorporating users’ snaps and video stories. We expect more brands to pick up on this trend and start infusing their personalization with positivity.
> The idea behind such “feel-good” videos is using personalized video storytelling to foster goodwill in consumers.
2. DIY video creation
Video production was once an expensive and complicated endeavor reserved only for the biggest of brands. A group of people would sit in a conference room and try to come up with ingenious creative ideas for a client. Nowadays every business, large and small, can take ownership of the process and engage prospects and customers with video. Tools of the trade include digital marketplaces such as Fiverr or Refuel and technology-based solutions like Magisto or Waymark. The next step in the evolution of do-it-yourself video is the use of artificial intelligence (AI). Last year AI found its way into ‘vision’ (e.g. Google Vision), ‘speech’ (e.g. Tacotron 2) and creative assets, so video production is naturally the next frontier. Can a storyboard be built automatically, without a creative director? Robots may never outright replace people, but look for companies to use more AI technology (especially for analytics) as a supplement to human brainpower in the creation of video content.
> Every business, large and small, can take ownership of the process and engage prospects and customers with video.
3. Ephemeral videos
Here we are referring to quickly-generated, short-lived videos such as Snapchat, Instagram Stories, YouTube Reels and Facebook Stories. These raw clips and images help consumers develop a sense of excitement and trust for the brand, making them more personal and authentic than spammy posts or sponsored ads. The content can be anything from behind-the-scenes videos to interactive games (e.g. Red Bull’s “Mountain Day” campaign on Instagram) with the goal of continuous audience engagement. Ephemeral videos can undoubtedly strike a FOMO effect, encouraging audiences to take immediate action. Brands can create a sense of urgency with messaging of scarcity and exclusivity in the creative copy, much like how GoodnessMe Box uses trigger words in their videos to provoke a response from customers. Ephemeral video content also opens the door for augmented reality (AR), a brother of virtual Reality (VR), which combines computer-generated footage with live-action video. A good example of AR is face filters–virtual makeup applied to a facial image to make a person appear older, younger or wearing a special mask. Keep a close eye on the ephemeral video trend; it has the potential to make the greatest impact of the three trends we’ve listed here.
> Keep a close eye on the ephemeral video trend; it has the potential to make the greatest impact.
Video, as a marketing initiative, shows no signs of slowing down. Brands continue to develop new personalization tactics in their video content, aiming to build relationships with their customers, so we’re excited to see which of these trends will resonate the most with consumers in the months ahead.
