• 4 Reasons Why Digital Video Will Win The Decade

    4 Reasons Why Digital Video Will Win The Decade

    Last week at CES 2016 in Las Vegas, Robert Kyncl, Chief Business Officer at YouTube, presented the keynote on why digital video will win the decade – and video and content marketers should take note.

    But before diving in, let’s refer back to 2012 when Kyncl made some bold predictions. He said that by 2020, “90% of all internet traffic was going to be video traffic,” and “75% of all video people watched in the US was going to be transmitted through the internet.” Fast forward to the CES 2016 Keynote, Kyncl justified his predictions by educating the crowd:

    • “Cisco predicts that video will actually reach around 90% of global internet traffic by 2019 – so a full year ahead of schedule.”
    • “By 2020…digital video will only reach about 60% of the total pie, not 75, as predicted.”

    However, Kyncl is standing by his latter prediction because he doesn’t think digital video will grow linearly – currently at 25% a year – but exponentially. “So, this being Vegas, I’m doubling down. I believe digital video will overtake TV to become the single largest way people spend free time before the end of the decade,” states Kyncl.

    Per Kyncl, here are four reasons why digital video will win the decade:

    1. It’s inherently mobile

    Bigger, brighter and sharper screens, longer battery life, stronger and faster data speeds, and better sound quality are all trends producing devices constantly improving on the mobile video viewing experience. “And app makers and publishers, from Snapchat to The New York Times, are all investing in making video a core part of their experiences, accelerating mobile video consumption,” adds Kyncl. “And on YouTube, the average time people spend watching video on their mobile device is forty minutes, a gain of 50% year-on-year.”

    2. It’s endlessly diverse

    With digital video, not only can audiences share and search, but choose to consume at their leisure. The mobility is “successfully changing the way we consume video into the way we consume books – you can find one on whatever interests you and consume it whenever and wherever you want,” explains Kyncl. “That openness has led to incredible content diversity. Not only do we have videos on every topic imaginable, entirely new genres of video have been born on YouTube.”

    3. It’s never been more important to music

    Aside from sleeping and working, watching video is the #1 way people spend their time. What’s #2? Listening to music – at just over four hours a day. “And YouTube is a major source of that music,” Kyncl reports, “More than half of all teenagers use [YouTube] as their main way to find and listen to new artists, in large part because we have the biggest and best music library available. If an artist has a live performance, a remix, an acoustic version or an out of print track, chances are you can find it on YouTube. But the best thing about music on YouTube is that music videos can become massive phenomena, whether they’re from established or emerging artists.”

    4. It’s immersive in a way TV can never be

    CES 2016 product and technology trends in Virtual Reality and 360 video are at the forefront of this statement, and leading content creators around the world are using this technology to tell richer, immersive, and interactive stories.

    “Already on Android and soon in iOS, you’ll be able to watch any video on YouTube in VR…making VR truly democratic and primed to grow exponentially,” concludes Kyncl.

    These four reasons and trends all point to digital video’s success during the decade.

    To watch Robert Kyncl’s Keynote in its entirety with compelling cameos from Scooter Braun, founder of SB Projects, Nick Woodman, CEO of GoPro, and Chris Milk, CEO of Vrse, carve out an hour for the video below:

    Fill out the form below to schedule a free strategy call with our team.



    Tim Bradley

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  • 3 Video Trends for 2016

    2015 was a great year for online video – just check out the excellently crafted and entertaining #YouTubeRewind video. And there’s no signs of the momentum slowing as we enter 2016. From a communication professional’s perspective, I’d like to offer-up three trends that will likely have the greatest impact on how video will influence the industry in 2016.

    1. Mobile Video

    50% of video views will be via mobile in 2016. And more specifically, the biggest video platform of them all and the one that reaches more 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S., YouTube, supports that more than half of their video views come from mobile devices. Adults in the U.S. spend an average of 5.5 hours watching video each day, with 1 hour and 16 minutes of that on digital devices. Mobile video should be the biggest consideration for online communicators, especially in public relations and content marketing.

    2. Attention Spans and Viewing Habits

    Mobile devices and their connected counterparts (aka TVs) will continue to contribute to video viewing behaviors and ultimately increased attention spans. 81% of consumers watch videos longer than 10 minutes, and 65% watch videos longer than 30 minutes. Holistically, the number of hours people spend watching videos on YouTube has increased by 60% year-over-year. For mobile YouTube audiences, the average viewing session is now greater than 40 minutes. One interesting tidbit to note is that the weather can actually impact viewing habits; viewers watch 29% longer in cold weather while consumers watch 6x more video content on mobile devices during warm weather.

    3. Demand and Advertising

    According to Cisco’s staggering numbers, video traffic will be 69% of all consumer internet traffic in 2017 and could reach 80% by 2019. Fortunately, video converts better than any other medium according to approximately 70% of marketing professionals, likely due to the fact that the average click-through-rate for video advertisement is higher than any other digital advertisement.

    1+1=$

    YouTube’s mobile revenue has doubled year over year, and according to an eMarketer study, mobile ad spend will top $100 billion which accounts for more than 50% of the digital market. Despite all this, there’s still a huge opportunity for digital content marketers and advertisers in 2016, as only 24% of brands are using online video to market to consumers.

    Ultimately, video will have a remarkable role in how audiences engage online, as well as greatly influence content marketing and advertising budgets in 2016. Research shows 60% of companies who have a documented content marketing strategy rate themselves highly in terms of effectiveness, so it’s very important to have a documented video strategy for – and proceeding into – 2016.

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    Sources:
    https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/en-GB/statistics.html
    http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Mobile-Ad-Spend-Top-100-Billion-Worldwide-2016-51-of-Digital-Market/1012299
    http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/ip-ngn-ip-next-generation-network/white_paper_c11-481360.html
    http://www.codefuel.com/blog/video-marketing-statistics-for-2015-the-next-big-thing-is-here
    http://kantarmedia.us/insight-center/reports
    http://www.emarketer.com/Article/US-Adults-Spend-55-Hours-with-Video-Content-Each-Day/1012362
    http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2014/26719/2015-will-be-the-year-of-video-marketing
    http://www.reelseo.com/50-per-cent-video-views-mobile-2016/
    http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/2016_B2C_Research_Final.pdf

    Tim Bradley

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  • Bridging the print-to-screen gap

    Remember the QR code? These things were going to blow-up, right? QR codes contain enormous potential to bridge the gap between printed material and your mobile screen. I’ve seen some decent examples of their use both in application and design… although the design solution usually involves trying to hide them in cleaver ways. Changing their color to blend in, hiding images within the code or hiding the code altogether (but if it’s hard to find, what’s the point?)

    So with that in mind, we wondered if there had been advances bridging the print-to-screen gap. Are there any QR coed alternatives out there? I quickly found two apps that didn’t require the use of the visually challenging QR code and started my investigation.

    Layar

    Layar Creator – Welcome to Interactive Print

    The Layar app allows you to scan a picture or other graphics that results in additional content on screen. For example, I scanned a picture of an item in a catalog that — once scanned — played a video of that item in action on my mobile device. It was pretty cool as it appeared as if the static image I scanned was now moving! There were additional call to actions — like view product info — but after the “magic” of the moving image wears off, its up to the marketer to decide how to best use this technology to drive metrics. Additionally this app is introducing us to the idea of Augmented Reality, or the live, direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. Cool!

    Clickable Paper

    Ricoh’s Clickable Paper Mobile App

    I watched a promotional video on this app developed by Ricoh. It allows you to scan pretty much anything printed producing a range of mobile possibilities. For instance, scan the cover of a book and you’ll be presented an overlay menu of link options like: Amazon (to purchase book), YouTube (to watch reviews or related videos) or Facebook and Twitter (to share the book and your thoughts). This certainly extends the physical experience for the user, giving the marketer a ton of digital promotional options.

    So, I found these interesting, but don’t consider this an endorsement of either technologies — I just like the idea of different solutions. Give them a shot yourself and you can decide. And these weren’t the only two out there. Companies like Google have also developed technologies that allow a smartphone to scan images and deliver additional content. In the end they may have the advantage because they can integrate the technology into hardware, as opposed to having to access via an app, which is ultimately the biggest obstacle to the growth of the QR code.

    Matter

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