Video Marketing – What state is it in ? 2015

Remember the end of 2014 and the start of 2015, when marketers and bloggers alike rolled out predictions for the next year in social media? Well, we’re more than halfway through the year, and it’s time for a 6-month check-in on those predictions.

Specifically, we’re looking at video marketing. Every year, the end-of-the-year lists place video at the top of the coming marketing trends, and every year video gets hotter and hotter. But has it reached a boiling point? Has video fulfilled all the heady predictions around it? Have we reached peak video?

First, let’s look at an infographic from almost exactly a year ago. Syndacast released a report with numbers that confirmed that video is one of the driving forces in marketing, and is only set to grow. Some highlights from the infographic include:

-by 2017, 74% of all Internet traffic will be video

-65% of video viewers watch more than ¾ of a video

-Using the word “video” in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19%, click through rates by 65%, and reduces unsubscribes by 26%

-93% of marketers use video for online marketing, sales, or communication

While there aren’t hard statistics on the state of video marketing for the year just yet, we can look at a few highlights from the last 6 months where video played a large role.

Periscope/Meerkat

The March release of Periscope and Meerkat, after a buzzed-about debut at SXSW, was met with skepticism and excitement. The live-streaming apps allow anyone from anywhere to easily live-cast anything. Celebrities, musicians, comedians, and politicians jumped on early, broadcasting behind-the-scenes looks, special access, and sneak peeks. Brands like Mountain Dew and Red Bull experimented with the platforms early on, and B2B brands followed suit, hosting webinar-like live-chats and Q&A sessions with an off-the-cuff video component. While B2B might be the last in line to adopt these more casual social platforms, four months after the release of Periscope and Meerkat, it’s safe to say that they’re on their way to market penetration, and have changed the video marketing game significantly. If video wasn’t at the top of every marketer’s list before, these apps have made it a must-do.

AdWeek posted a survey about excitement and likelihood of use around the Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather fight here:

YouTube turns 10

The grandfather of video, the platform that made broadcasting simple and available to everyone, turned 10 years old this spring.  Their video montage celebrating it is a mashup of the platform’s wackiest and most memorable videos, and will make you realize how much YouTube has been THE place for zeitgeist-y cultural moments of the decade. Most of the videos are home-made sensations, but some are from brands or performers simply using it to get their product or message out there. Across all the videos, however, it becomes clear that the platform made “viral” a household phrase and a marketing goal. If anything, this milestone certainly proves that ten years in, YouTube is here to stay.

Viral Campaigns

The start of the year saw video marketing charge forward while Super Bowl spots mostly flopped. A standout was Newcastle’s Band of Brands campaign, which poked fun at the old dog tradition of broadcast commercials and made a splash with their own take on digital video. Since then, digital video campaigns have continued to have a serious presence, especially with heartfelt campaigns, such as the new #LikeAGirl video and the Duracell/Army spot. If you’re waiting for digital video campaigns to stop coming and for the notion of a viral sensation to go away, 2015 isn’t your year.