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Keeping Pace With New Video Formats

Written by Mike Axinn.

Since its inception online and the early days of YouTube in 2005, we’ve seen video grow from a tangential component of online presence to a fully centered and wholly necessary aspect of branding in the digital arena. According to Tubular Insights, Video now makes up the lion’s share of content online and, ever increasingly, on mobile devices.

Making Sense of Your Video Options

The wide range of different platforms and formats includes, to name just a few, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, live feed, and even animated gifs, each with its own inherent delivery mechanisms. Employing them in combination can help you reach new audiences and add nuance and depth to your message.

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With online video now promising a greater return on investment than television, the flexibility and open-mindedness to explore those different formats may be the difference between growth for your brand and stagnation. A multi-faceted approach means being able to treat each video platform and format on its own terms without losing site of your overall goals. For example, a short form video on Instagram or Snapchat is the ideal way to ensure you reach a younger more-mobile audience, while a longer video on YouTube or even a live feed on Facebook or Periscope allows you to resonate that message with a broader audience and include more info.

Video Production Costs

All this does not necessarily mean higher production costs. In fact, the malleability of these formats means that marketers who recognize the opportunities can expect to generate material for multiple formats from a single shoot or event. It requires little more than the vision and understanding to include these formats in your production and distribution plans. Employing professional production methods for you large format videos ensures that the final product is streamlined, well-made, and the best representation possible--videos that look and sound great, and are compelling across the various formats! As always, the videos can and should fit into the broader branding and ethos of an organization, an organic extension of marketing or branding efforts.

TV or Adwords

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When budgets allow for it, a successful television launch can certainly be the catalyst for massive longterm viewership on YouTube. Alternatively, YouTube TrueView, recently merged with AdWords, is not only cost-effective but pretty much essential in making the most of your potential to reach a targeted audience.

Home page and above mosaic by Adnan Islam, license link.

Download Now! Free Whitepaper: How to Make a Great Video

Video: Magic Bullet or Swiss Army Knife?

Written by Mike Axinn.

If video is a magic bullet for marketers, many are still figuring out how to fire it. So much potential, but where exactly does it fit amongst all the forms of marketing content? 

The truth is that video is more of a Swiss Army Knife. It’s got lots of tools: words, graphics, sound, music and photography – plus the very thing we do most when we sell a product, talk.

To get the most from a video, we need to figure out which of these tools to use and how; its form. But in order to do that, we need to think first about its function, what we need the video to accomplish.

Start by asking who your audience is and which style of video will resonate most with them. For a mainstream consumer audience, used to watching commercials, something scripted with flashy graphics and humor can do the trick. An audience of industry experts with technical knowledge is more likely to respond to a respected insider presenting new information in an elegant but unfussy style. Potential business customers will respond strongly to testimonials from other, similar concerns. Need to attract new employees? Try something fun featuring your team following engaged in work and play.

Video is also a secret weapon in situations where you might otherwise just be talking. So if you’re headed to a conference, a trade show, a fundraiser or sales call, take a tip from late night television hosts and be sure to show up armed with a video to spice up your act.

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Download Now! Free Whitepaper: How to Make a Great Video

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