By Megan O’Neill
As web video has become increasingly popular it has become more and more important for advertisers and brands to create an online video presence. Your company may have gotten away without getting any video up on the web in 2010, but in 2011 you can no longer afford to ignore the growing industry of online video. Read on to find out why.
Everybody’s Doing It.
There are some things that you shouldn’t do just because everyone else is doing it. For instance, you probably shouldn’t approach an angry bull if you’ve go a flashy red suit on or sniff permanent markers until you pass out. However, web video is not one of those things. If everyone and their mother are using web video and you aren’t it will only make you look bad and cause you to lose customers to competing companies with an online video presence.
Think about it this way: If you own a company that sells, lets say, permanent markers and you’ve got 3 major competitors, all of which have videos up on the web then you are missing out. When people who have seen your competitors’ videos are looking at the shelf in the office supply store, trying to figure out which markers to buy, they will certainly choose the brand that made that hilarious video about the bullfighter who tames the bull with markers that they saw last week. You catch my drift?
There Are Only So Many Original Ideas. Get ‘Em While They’re Hot.
Okay, I don’t want to claim that there are a specific number of creative, original ideas and that one day they will all run out. After all, there is always someone who will come up with a totally original and surprising idea for a web video campaign (like the Old Spice response campaign this year, for instance). However, the truth of the matter is that with so many companies jumping on the web video bandwagon the chance of someone else coming up with the same ideas as you is substantially higher. That’s why you need to act now! Jump on the boat in 2011 or you might find yourself sitting and watching another brand’s online video campaign and thinking to yourself, “Arghh! I thought of that 2 months ago! Why did I wait?”
There are all sorts of new trends that have hit the world of viral marketing over the past year. People are doing cool things with HTML5, creating interactive YouTube videos and interactive games, creating cool YouTube takeover campaigns, response campaigns and more. These ideas are still relatively new and surprising, but if you don’t act now they’re going to be old hat. Get into web video in 2011, while its still approaching its apex and you’ll have more of a chance of standing out and not just fading into the piles of copycat campaigns.
Online Video Is Everywhere.
Online video is everywhere and it is only going to go further in 2011. This year we’ve seen Facebook become a major online video engine with viewers watching 16 minutes of video on Facebook per month and growing; the New Twitter launched, allowing users to watch videos directly from their Twitter feeds; more and more television viewers are cutting the cord and making the switch over to online video; and connected television services like Google TV and Apple TV are bringing web video to the television set.
We are also expecting a huge boom in the mobile video industry in 2011. Not only are more and more people getting smartphones, but network speeds are also increasing and more and more online video sites are launching HTML5 video players to allow for mobile video viewing. With so many people watching online video, and the number growing exponentially, you must understand why you have no other choice than to cater to this market.
Web video has been a huge success in 2010 and has seen tremendous growth and evolution. This trend will only continue in the coming year and if you aren’t a part of it you will only be hurting yourself. Is your company using web video currently? Do you plan to get in on the action in 2011? What are your online video predictions for the new year?
