Jack Simpson says, “If the vertiginous rise of video-sharing and streaming platforms such as YouTube, which receives more than 6bn video views from 1bn unique users every month, has taught us anything it’s that people have a voracious appetite for video. It should be no surprise then that more than four out of every five marketers plans to use video in their email campaigns in the future. Why should you be using video? The old adage goes that a picture paints a thousand words, but a video does that and more. It is more immersive, is easier to understand, and creates a more immediate... [...]

Geoff Weiss says, “Vertical videos, long considered a vexing eyesore when uploaded to YouTube amid two gaping black bars — and which even spawned a popular meme known as Vertical Video Syndrome — are suddenly looking like the favored orientation du jour for video platforms, marketers and media companies alike. The about-face began earlier this summer when Snapchat unveiled its highly-anticipated ad strategy. Rather than jamming horizontal television ads into a digital interface, as had been the norm, the mobile-born platform made vertical video a key touchstone of its pitch to... [...]

Doug Conely says, “My last article explored the best way to design the video ad teaser experience, this time we’ll consider the full engagement video experience. As a brief recap, I provided four tips to engage people in full-screen teaser video ads: stream video through available ad unit ‘windows’, maximise the video size, set user expectations, and respect the consumer journey. So, once the user has engaged in the full-screen experience (sometimes a 970×546 overlay on desktop and full screen on mobile), how can brands keep their attention for as long as possible? Here... [...]

Robert Rose says, “Have you heard? Video on the web is popular. OK, I state the obvious – but video has truly emerged to become both a huge opportunity and challenge for brands in their content marketing efforts. In terms of how big the opportunity is for B2B marketers in particular, consider that a study by Forbes and Google found that 75% of senior executives watch work-related videos on business-related websites at least weekly. And these videos drive action. In that same study, Forbes and Google found that 65% of those executives have visited the provider’s website after watching... [...]

Amy Gesenhues says, “In its first ever report on branded video content, YouTube says video views for the top 100 brands have nearly doubled during the last year, with monthly views of branded content up 55 percent since 2014. Focusing on Intebrand’s top 100 brands, YouTube worked with the YouTube marketing firm Pixability to analyze how the top brands are performing. According to the data, branded content has generated more than 40 billion views total over all time, with more than 18 billion of those views happening during the last year. YouTube says the top 100 brands have uploaded a total... [...]

Amy Gesenhues says, “BuzzFeed was the undisputed leader in online video content last month, with two of its content divisions — BuzzFeed Video and BuzzFeed Food — earning spots on ReelSEO’s top ten list of video creators in June. Using video analytics from its parent company, Tubular Labs, for June 2015, the video marketing guide ranked last month’s top ten most watched video creators across the big four social networks — YouTube, Facebook, Vine and Instagram. Focusing on brands that created mostly original content, ReelSEO reports that BuzzFeed’s combined video views — from... [...]

Larry Alton says, “Every successful business knows that content marketing is a major part of improving conversions and attracting new customers today. However, too many businesses rely solely on writing and stagnant imaging and ignore one of consumers’ favorite types of content marketing: video. In today’s fast paced world, many consumers prefer a short video rather than a long article to describe a product, service, or concept. Most people learn better when they can both hear and see the information, so videos often translate better to the customer’s way of thinking. In fact, according... [...]

David Moth says, “At the beginning of this year I wrote an article detailing Econsultancy’s efforts to start using more video on the blog. Our biggest problem back then was coming up with ideas that our audience would be interested in, rather than just creating video for the sake of it. Six months down the line we still haven’t got much further with our video strategy for various reasons that will eventually become clear. But I thought it would be useful to provide an update so people can hopefully benefit from our own efforts at developing a coherent strategy“. Video content... [...]

Jack Simpson says, “A few weeks back I wrote a post about how the top five UK ecommerce brands use Pinterest.  As you can probably tell by reading some of my posts I’m a sucker for video content, so today I’m going to be focusing on those same brands but looking at their activity on YouTube. Just to recap, the top five ecommerce brands in the UK according to the Internet Retailing UK Top 500 are: Amazon UK. Argos. House of Fraser. John Lewis”. How the top five UK ecommerce brands use YouTube ‘Econsultancy’ Blog  [...]

Lindsay Kolowich says, “Video has become one of the most powerful forms of marketing content. As people become less and less patient, the text-only approach is no longer cutting it. We’ve moved into a visual-centric world, of which video is a critical piece. One component of your marketing strategy that video’s especially great for? Explaining to web users what your business does, what you stand for, and why customers need you. This is called “the explainer video,” and it’s a quick, memorable way to make an impact on people who might buy your product but... [...]