Jack Simpson says, “On Tuesday I ventured into Google’s London office to hear a number of talks aboutonline video and its increasing importance as a digital marketing tool (while stuffing my face with sushi). One of the talks was from Digby Lewis, Buzzfeed’s director of brand strategy for Europe, in which he discussed ‘the art and science of social video’, i.e. what influences the publisher’s video content strategy and the reasons for its success. He also showed us the first Gif of the day, which went down a storm with us because we happen to be massive fans of those at Econsultancy“. Buzzfeed:... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Marketers are reprioritizing video advertising budgets, shifting their spend from traditional to digital video, according to a recent report from Aol. The report was based on data from an annual survey of nearly 300 brands, agencies, and publishers. Nine in ten ad buyers say they are are shifting spend from linear TV to digital channels, with 10% of television budgets being reallocated on average. Some 88% of marketers who are moving TV dollars toward digital channels say they are shifting that ad spend to some form of video, such as desktop, mobile, or over-the-top (OTT)“. The... [...]

Kate Supino says, “Video is quickly outpacing still imagery in online content. Following on the heels of YouTube’s success, the exponential growth of companies like Vimeo, Camtasia, and Movavi demonstrates the public’s voracious appetite for an online multimedia experience. Find out why video has surpassed all other media in the marketing world, how your business can benefit from its successes and which professionals you should hire to make it happen. What Was Wrong With Still Images? There’s nothing inherently wrong with using still images to help convey your company’s message,... [...]

Martin Beck says, “Like Snapchat and Twitter, Instagram is getting into the content curation game. On Saturday, Facebook’s visually oriented social network introduced a new way for people to follow major events, kicking off the effort on Halloween, the most Instagrammable of holidays. If you opened the Instagram app in the US during the weekend, you were given the opportunity to “Watch Halloween’s Best Videos.” By tapping on the prompt, you were taken to a video-only feed created by Instagram’s community team. Within the feed, videos were displayed full-screen without the usual... [...]

Lauren Colman says, “The alignment of an organization’s sales and marketing efforts is a crucial strategic imperative for companies that desire sustainable growth. Despite the evidence of improved business performance, it’s still a rarity to find an organization that has and maintains full alignment. The good news is that the issue is getting far more attention than ever before, and more organizations are making progress. A major cause for the overall lack of progress is that while the issue of alignment is getting more strategic attention from executives, it’s still getting very... [...]

Mike O’Brien says, “Video is getting bigger and bigger, but where is it going? According new research, programmatic video buying and branded video content are just two areas marketers should focus on in the future. Since last year, digital video ad spend has swollen 42 percent to 7.46 bn, a number that is expected to nearly double by 2019. With all that projected growth, it’s difficult to predict where video will go, though new research has made it easier to digest. On Wednesday, AOL released its annual State of the Video Industry Report, which surveyed 295 agencies, brands and... [...]

Jenny Karn says, “Video content has exploded on Facebook since the company changed its News Feed algorithm last year to favor the format. Analysts are even predicting that Facebook will actually deliver two-thirds as many video views as YouTube in 2015 — an absolutely stunning shift. Video has long been an important component of the social strategy toolkit, but the current ranking and action policies make it an absolutely vital format for maximizing organic reach, which means advertisers and agencies need to pay attention. If you’re looking to jump into the Facebook video world,... [...]

Ben Davis says, “Last week two Twitter accounts, Deadspin and SBNationGif, were taken down after the NFL reported them for sharing its footage. The footage was, of course, in the form of Vine video, that most popular format for ‘real-time’ sports clips. With many sports fans now accustomed to searching Twitter for ‘Vine Rooney goal’ or similar (insert joke here, UK soccer fans), these DMCA takedown notices are a big deal. So what does this mean for publishers and users? And has the NFL just blocked its own punt? Are Vines/GIFs not free marketing for NFL? This was... [...]

David Nield says, “Facebook is going big on video, including 360-degree VR-lite video. Now, in a new blog post, the company has explained a little more about what’s going on behind the scenes with its new support for immersive video clips. For the uninitiated, 360 video is filmed in all directions at once and lets the viewer experience the action in front, side to side or from behind. You don’t get depth perception and the ability to move around as you do in true virtual reality, but it’s a start. It’s also the most accessible form of VR right now: If you don’t... [...]

Jill Schiefelbein says, “I’ve created a lot of talking head videos for my business, and I’ve had a lot of success with them. But making a video that’s all you come off asnot all about you is a challenge. If you use videos in any part of your business—be it for marketing, relationship management, staff communication, or training and development, here are four tips to make your talking head videos more conversational. 1. Ditch the scripts and memorization If you’re reading off of a script from your computer or a teleprompter, people can tell. That’s not conversational. That’s... [...]