It’s 2020 and we’re all watching more and more video content, with some forecasters predicting the average person will spend 100 minutes each day watching online video in 2021.

It seems hard to believe that we’ll be consuming so much online, but there’s a reason that video is still very much on trend, scoring highly when it comes to customer engagement. A video can be a powerful storytelling tool that can reach right across marketing, PR and public affairs, providing a huge opportunity for businesses to speak directly to their customers.

You may be wondering, with all this hype about video, why I decided to write instead of picking up the camera. As with all forms of communication, there is a method to suit the outcome. Here words speak louder, and I can showcase a few of the great videos and highlight their background and impact.

What’s so great about video?

Creating video content can be perceived as a nice to have, even a vanity project, something that gets made, stuck on a page on a website and then quickly forgotten about.

The reality is quite different. Video marketing is so flexible, and well produced content can be edited and used across multiple platforms, not just websites (where it’s used by 85% of businesses worldwide). Currently video is growing in use by business across social media (84%), emails (55%), YouTube (67%) and at conferences and events, and its presence will only grow.

It’s also a much more expressive and emotive way of communicating your messages, values and personality to your audiences.  Take for example our approach in these videos we made for the National Lottery’s My Home Town campaign:

The aim of the series was to improve public awareness of National Lottery funding on a hyper local level. The videos highlighted how the home towns of six elite athletes influenced them, while also highlighting the impact of National Lottery funding on those areas. Seeing and hearing the athletes tell their personal stories brings the corporate messaging to life in a way that no amount of prose could match.

Do people engage with branded videos?

YES! 96% of people in one global survey said they watched a video to learn more about a product or service, while 68% said they’d rather do this than read about it. Viewers are more likely to share videos than they would with written content, with 48% saying they would share a video with friends, compared to just 5% for blog posts.

You can use videos to engage your audience at various stages of their journey with you.

If you’re at the start of your journey and want to increase brand awareness, a video can help drive people to your website. 53% of consumers worldwide engage with a brand after viewing one of their videos on social media.  And if you are looking to nurture your audience, videos in emails can help to increase click-through rates by up to 300%.

Videos work, and you don’t need to look far to find evidence by the number of brands using video. In 2017, 63% of marketers said they used videos as a marketing tool, but by 2019 that had risen to 87%.

If you’re still waiting to take the plunge and bring your story to life, 2020 should be the year you do it, and we’re here to guide you from storyboard to final production.

Here’s a further look at our showreel:

• Venturefest 2019 – For GC Business Growth Hub we created this highlights video of their expo and conference, which brings together start-ups, growing businesses, investors and innovators.
• George Clarke – We worked with TV architect George Clarke on two campaigns in 2019, creating emotive videos for his Council House Scandal petition, which helped it to reach over 250,000 signatures; and supporting the #lovehome campaign for his charity, the Ministry of Building Innovation in Education.
• Manchester India Partnership – Working with Marketing Manchester we produced and edited a promotional video to support a delegation by the Manchester India Partnership to Bangladesh and India in October.
• Manchester Music Economy – We’re also working with Marketing Manchester on a Manchester Music documentary, which pays tribute to the city’s musical heritage, celebrates the contemporary music scene and reinforces the strength of the city’s music economy.

If you want to find out more about how Social can help you, get in touch.