⏱️ This post is part of a blog series, “Great Scott! The Future of Marketing is...” that will answer questions about marketing trends from emerging technologies to changing views about the role and purpose of marketing.
When you receive the weekly (unsolicited) screen time report from your (judgmental) smartphone, ever wonder how much of that time was devoted to watching videos?
The average person consumes around 100 minutes a day—or 11 hours per week—of video content. That’s the equivalent of watching 25 continuous days of video in 2020 (which may actually feel achievable given the year we’ve had).
More video content is uploaded in 30 days than the major U.S. television networks have created in 30 years. Put another way, it would take you more than 5 million years to watch the amount of video that will cross global IP networks in one month of 2021.
Considering the proliferation of content, it’s no wonder people are giving so much of their time and attention to video. And where there’s time and attention (and ROI), you better believe there are marketers.
Video has always been part of the marketer’s playbook, but video marketing for social media has taken over the internet in the last 10 years. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and even LinkedIn are developing more options for video in response. And if the popularity of apps like TikTok are any indication, short-form videos are the rising star within the trend.
Despite launching globally just three years ago, TikTok made the top 10 list of the most downloaded apps of the 2010s. Available in 150 markets, the 15-second video app boasts an impressive 2 billion downloads and counting. It was one of the most downloaded free apps in the Apple App store this year, second only to Zoom, which is almost a public utility at this point.
Social videos offer marketers the opportunity to tell their brand’s story in a memorable and sharable format. When executed properly, the impact is considerable. Marketers who use video report a 54% increase in brand awareness and 66% more qualified leads per year. A whopping 93% of marketers say they’ve landed new customers thanks to the use of video on social media.
High-quality videos have a few things in common: they’re engaging, direct, and elicit a strong emotional response. Brands that inspire a higher emotional intensity receive three times as much word of mouth marketing as less emotionally connected brands.