7 Video Marketing Trends & Strategies We’ll See In 2023 and Beyond
By 2023, there will be almost a million minutes of video-per-second crossing the internet and 82% of all consumer web traffic will be video. Video marketing trends are so important for marketers to get attention online.
It’s no surprise that video’s popularity continues to grow thanks to mobile tech and apps advancing its delivery and consumption, along with giants like Facebook and Google actively pushing it.
Most importantly, the preference for video creation over other types of content continues to grow with consumers, making it vital to marketers and brands.
To help keep on top of this, let’s look at different trends in video marketing to expect through 2024.
Super Short Video Ads
Google originated this trend back in 2016 with the launch of YouTube’s 6-second “bumper” ads. This new format wasn’t just for shortening attention spans in general, but specifically to fit the growing trend of mobile video and shorter videos being created.
It was also to the reality that most people would just watch the countdown on a long video ad until they could click the “skip” button. And since, mobile video and short-form videos have since become the norm.
Now is a content landscape of constant scrolling and swiping, capturing attention and becoming memorable needs to be within seconds on any social network, especially on the exponentially growing and extremely competitive Instagram.
More Long-Form Video Content
Yes, this might sound like it’s going to contradict the trend above, but the distinction between video advertising and video content marketing makes a world of difference. An advertisement is more designed to catch attention and delivery a quick message.
Content marketing looks to provide value to a target audience, usually through being informative, entertaining or both, while (organically) tying into the brand’s message and product. This value is why people would want to watch a video that’s 3-5 minutes or much, much longer (that could be considered essentially a long commercial).
This can range from a company’s internal team doing a product walk-through to the popular “unboxing” video trend with an influencer opening up a product for the first time as part of a review or demonstration.
It can take fans behind the scenes to learn more about a favourite brand or be a short movie that’s made with entertaining or artistic motivations that creatively integrates a brand into the story.
MailChimp’s Wi-Finders is a collection of 5-minute videos set in a different international city. It connects with all kinds of entrepreneurs and remote workers, who do or can benefit from MailChimp’s products. By keeping it about the human side of business and not explicitly selling their product is what makes the videos interesting. Mailchimp created it in 2019, many brands are following this trend and we believe in 2021 we will see more long form video content from popular brands.
Vertical Video
Love it or hate it, vertical video is here to stay. One giant flashing sign is the exponential growth of the “stories” concept. Almost all social media platforms are using it and some big web publications followed this trend. People watching videos on their mobile phones so most of them don’t want to change the phone’s orientation.
Vertical video doesn’t change storytelling rules, it’s more about how you present it to everyone. For impactful vertical videos, using a real person is so important. You should think of it as a “portrait mode” of storytelling. Everywhere can be a stage with the vertical video, because a person can fill up almost the entire canvas.
Increased Facebook and Instagram Video Ads
Over the last year or so this trend may seem obvious to most marketers, brands, and consumers, which is why it’s important to hammer home in 2023.
Facebook has over 2.3 billion daily active users, with Instagram hitting 1 billion daily users in mid-2018. Social Media Examiner took a survey of marketers and found the majority plan to increase their Facebook and Instagram ads compared to other platforms. This means Facebook and Instagram have the most potential, but also the most competition.
Getting More Google and SEO Friendly
Last August Google added auto-playing video previews to their search results on Android devices. This means that when people search, relevant videos can appear at the top of their search results, while playing a preview, making them extra eye-catching.
We can expect this to arrive on iOS devices this year, giving plenty of incentive to make videos SEO-friendly and not forget YouTube.
Maximizing Video Value
With so many options of where, how, and when people view videos, brands and marketers will have to get the most value from their production. For example shooting a long-form video that works in both horizontal and vertical format (or re-editing a horizontal video into vertical, if possible).
Then producing the video so that it can be cut into bite-size clips for short bumper ads and Instagram Stories, which could lead people to the full video on YouTube or IGTV. You can get help from different video editing tools to maximize your video’s performance.
Quantity Over Quality
Yep, you read that in the right order. Social Media Examiner also found that marketers plan to ramp up the video production over all other types of content in 2020. What they didn’t ask if said video content would be good or not.
This means the best opportunity against a rush of everyone pushing video, is to invest in quality. And by quality, I don’t necessarily mean production quality. A video doesn’t have to be fancy, it depends on the audience and delivering the message properly.
An expensive video filmed on a set and actors might resonate with an audience less than a cheaper video that’s more authentic. Such as having a internal team advocate or influencer simply share their experience or give instructions through their front-facing camera on their phone.
Written by: Rachel Hardy