The use of out-of-home (OOH) short-form video content in advertising and other campaigns evolved throughout the course of 2017, a trend that is likely to continue in 2018.
Strong statement, yes, but what’s the support behind this and how will this impact brand marketing in the years to come?
As Marketing Charts mentioned in its summary of PwC’s annual Entertainment & Media Outlook report, OOH advertising is expected to grow from $9.2 billion in 2016 to $11 billion in 2021, with the share of digital OOH advertising climbing from a 39.4 percent share of total OOH ad revenues in 2017 to 46.5 percent in 2021. In addition, mobile video is projected to grow at a rate of 31.2 percent from 2016 to 2021, which would put this content category on par with other types of mobile advertising.
PwC’s outlook suggests that OOH short-form video will continue to evolve and transform throughout the next three years, with this format offering brands substantial opportunities to engage with audiences.
2017 was also a year for other developments in the short-form video content space, with Marketing Week in particular highlighting trends such as live-streaming, interactive OOH advertising, and screen agnostic strategies.
Importantly, live-streaming, particularly through Facebook Live, continued to make a large impact among online audiences, with Wowza reporting that Facebook Live videos were watched by 80 percent of audiences, and that these videos saw stronger engagement, per a report by Hootsuite (people comment 10 times more on Facebook Live videos and watch three times longer than with other videos).
So, what’s in store for 2018 when it comes to short-form video content and its impact on advertising and branding?
Keep an eye on interactivity and screen-agnostic strategies, which are predicted to be some of the most exciting developments in the short-form video content space. Expect the use of interactivity in OOH advertising to be put to use in creative ways in 2018 in order to provide strong brand-centric experiences.
Creating experiences for consumers will continue to be an emerging trend in short-form video content, particularly in terms of video that is screen agnostic and can be rolled out across various forms of media: TV, desktop, mobile, and OOH display screens.
An increasing number of brands are turning to short-form video content to engage their audiences, often by producing or using short-form videos and playlists in branded channels, apps, and websites. Building on this trend are companies like The QYOU, a business co-founded by G. Scott Paterson that is focused exclusively on the creation and curation of short-form video content.
The bottom line is that increasingly businesses and brands need to think beyond the traditional media outlets to reach a larger audiences; they also need to think beyond long-form video content.
Case in point, in a post about content marketing, Rebecca Lieb, an analyst with Altimeter Group, mentioned that content producers should be mindful of what happens when interactions between brands and consumers move from screens to wearable devices and digital assistants (like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa). In 2018 and beyond, content producers and marketers might do well to think about how these types of experiences for consumers can be influenced and personalized with short-form video or through other methods.
