The marketing world has always evolved rapidly. After all, standing out is often about who has the latest and greatest idea. This even truer in the digital realm where content distribution is streamlined and almost instantaneous. As new technologies and concepts develop, it is essential as a marketer to stay up to date. Here are a few trends that we will likely see in 2015.
Digital video is becoming the preeminent way to promote brands and communicate online. This is principally driven by the fact that video engages its audience through audio, visual data, and motion. Some sources estimate that by 2017 video will comprise around ¾ of all internet traffic. 93% of marketers use video for online marketing, sales, and/or communication. Furthermore, 52% consider video to be the type of content with the highest return on their investment. Digital video is quickly being established as the center piece of many brand’s digital strategies.
Several new technologies have become increasingly prominent and are positioned to make huge splashes in the marketing world. Programmatic media buying, for example, offers a new way to purchase media spots. Essentially, this system uses computer algorithms to purchase media time without human intervention. This approach reduces the chance of entry errors and speeds up the process. It also allows marketers to buy based on a series of parameters and can allow instantaneous delivery of content after purchasing a spot. Programmatic buying has existing for some time, but it is currently in an explosive growth state, particularly for digital video ads.
Interactive marketing features is another major technological trend. For years, certain interactive elements have been a part of digital video marketing, however currently there is an increasing number of options for adding rich media to advertisements. This allows marketers to be a lot of creative and to generate more engaging content for viewers.
With new social networks and platforms for sharing online video such as Vine, Instagram Video, and Twitter’s new Amplify program, short content is becoming increasingly important. Internet users have notoriously little patience and want to be able to consume content as quickly as possible. This has made videos that are mere seconds long (Vines are limited to a mere 6 seconds) to be increasingly relevant. This poses a challenge for marketers who must effectively tell their story in an extremely short period of time.
Smartphones are near ubiquitous in many parts of the world, especially amongst the most lucrative consumer groups. Currently around 20% of video views are happening on mobile devices – a number that has been rapidly increasing and showing no signs of slowing down. This means that taking a mobile-first approach to marketing is an essential element of any successful strategy. With mobile devices becoming more powerful, larger, and all around providing more immersive experiences, it is easier than ever to connect with consumers through their mobile devices.
Sharing video online used to be principally about YouTube, the world’s largest video streaming service. This is no longer the case. While YouTube still represents about 20% of all video views on the internet, sharing via brand owned websites, social networks, and emails is now absolutely necessary. Instead of a few impressions garnered by limited channels, digital marketing is becoming all about an integrated communication strategy that spans a variety of media, allowing consumers to interact with brands almost continuously. The focus of several social networks, including Facebook, on developing native video player functionalities underscores the significance of branding across multiple digital channels.
Consumers are inundated with brand messages more than they ever have been. This means that there is a lot of noise to compete with. Additionally, prospective customers are often annoyed by the amount of marketing they experience. More and more it is becoming clear that pushing targeted, engaging, and relevant content is the solution to this. As such, art and advertising have been coming together in promotional spots that resemble consumable video content more than marketing.
It is clear that the digital video marketing world is changing. To remain competitive in this realm it is essential to track and understand trends as they evolve. These developments in technology and practice will likely define much of what digital video marketing looks like during 2015.