By Maarten Boon, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Bynder

Video has been a popular format of advertising for many decades, with its roots firmly in the TV world. As technology has improved and new digital channels have emerged, video is now in even higher demand by brands as it’s become one of the best advertising formats for customer engagement. Spending on video ads grew by over 25% in 2019 to be worth $17.8 billion, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau 2019 Video Advertising Spend Report.

Today, ad spend on Facebook and Google is set to outpace ad spend on TV as audiences spend more time on their mobile devices. However, consumers are now bombarded with so much content, that video advertising has needed to transform with the way it’s being consumed in order to be effective.

As they pivot to become more digital-focused, marketers need to rethink their video strategy in order to capture their audience’s attention in a much shorter space of time. They need a video strategy that is flexible, non-linear, efficient and scalable, and doesn’t limit creative execution and performance. Only when they get this right, they can convert passive screen scrollers into customers.

But many marketers don’t realise the limitations they have in place that prevent their digital video strategy from really taking off – from siloed video teams to unscalable content creation processes. So, what do brands need to do to transform their video content marketing strategy to stand out in the complex digital advertising landscape?

Remain agile

Historically, video production was rarely conducted in-house, as it requires a significant investment in hiring talent and entire production teams that can create content of a high production-value. But, as different digital platforms and channels emerged, brands found that content performance was dropping because their content wasn’t designed with each specific channel in mind. Marketers now need variations of each video asset that adheres to the specifications and requirements of each individual digital platform. It emphasises the need for a tailored approach across their video content marketing strategy to make the desired impact on its audience and make better use of their resources.

To ensure relevancy and consistency when creating alternative versions of the same video content, brands need to be able to continuously monitor results and make tweaks accordingly. Being able to analyse the performance of video content in real time and then optimise it can enable marketers to improve the effectiveness of their strategy in an instant.

Today, technology has caught up with brands’ need to produce different variations of high-quality video content to fit each individual platform. With access to intuitive video content creation tools, brands can finally establish in-house video production teams with confidence. By equipping them with the right technology, any marketer can remain agile in the ever-changing digital landscape, create effective video content at scale, and tailor it where necessary so it suits the audience, platform and screen on which it’ll be viewed.

Overcome fatigue

For video content that’s published on digital channels, a captivating story arc is essential to overcome ad fatigue. Storytelling in digital ads needs to be clear and concise. For video content where the audience consists of passive screen scrollers, the story hook should be given upfront. Although a cinematic approach can look great, the value in setting the scene and slowly building up to the climax in a video created for digital is minimal and risks losing the audience’s attention. It needs to be snappier so that the audience consumes the message that the brand wants to tell them almost instantaneously.

Creating video content for digital platforms by making it much shorter, bringing the climax to the beginning, and adding more text like subtitles to make the message clearer for those listening without audio, can enable brands to make use of what they’ve got – without having to come up with a new story or creative concept entirely. One way to execute this quickly and cost-efficiently is to use graphics with text as a piece of visual language to communicate the video’s main message from the get-go.

Experiment and adapt

Looking to the future, it’s likely that audiences, as we know them today, will largely stick to digital-first platforms. Even over the last year, there’s been an explosion of different streaming and on-demand platforms, as well new social platforms like TikTok and features like Instagram Reels.

What’s clear is that the overall trend will remain focused on digital channels. Depending on their audience targeting strategy, brands will need to stay open-minded and consider emerging digital platforms as launchpads for their brand. Software is coming of age to help brands meet the demands of the diverse range of digital channels we have today. And, while nobody will know for certain how this space will evolve, it’s important that brands prioritise keeping their video content fresh and relevant.

Cutting through the noise is achievable for any brand. But, only by tailoring their marketing strategy to the platforms that scream opportunity, implementing more efficient content creation processes and factoring in more engaging audiovisual content into their marketing strategy can they truly stand out. Video is the future – are you ready?