What do moonwalking ponies, funky chickens and Wednesday-loving camels all have in common?
It may sound like start of the strangest joke in the world, but they have all played their part in probably the most exciting chapter in the history of social video advertising. That may sound like a bold statement (it is!). But there is no doubt that 2013 was a watershed year for brands using social video.
At Unruly, we have seen first hand how the market has exploded over the last few years. Through the Unruly Viral Video Chart - the world’s oldest and largest online video database - we have seen the incredible growth in online video sharing and witnessed how shifting consumer trends have shaped the ever-growing social video ad market.
There’s no doubt that over the last 12 months we have seen some extraordinary campaigns. From Dove smashing all kinds of records with its “Real Beauty Sketches” video to Kmart suddenly becoming cool thanks to the kind of joke that would not look out of place on an 11-year-old’s social media page, it’s certainly been an incredible year for ads.
But just looking at some of the standout social video stars that captured the hearts of web users across the planet provides only half of the picture. During 2013, we have also seen trends that will shape social video marketing for years to come.
From less becoming more thanks to the launch of short-form video apps such as Instagram Video and Vine, to mobile finally living up to the hype with video engagement rates on smartphone and tablet devices exploding, a lot has happened over the last 12 months.
We have also seen more and more brands embrace their roles as content creators - although in a year dubbed #Empty13 because of the lack of tent pole events, they didn’t have much choice.
But what can we expect in 2014? Here are our seven predictions:
1. New Tools Will Emerge To Help Real-Time Marketers Become More Agile.
In 2014, we’ll see the emergence of new tools and platforms to support the macro-trends towards content marketing and real-time marketing, with more brands becoming newsrooms for their niche. It will lead to greater investment in content discovery, content curation and content creation as brands vie with each other for consumers’ share of mind on social platforms.
Brands will need a bigger tool kit which allows them to spot which content is trending (news stories, images and videos) and respond quickly. The rise in short-form content has been a significant help here, as it has whittled down production lead times and enabled brands to be relevant and develop longer, deeper relationships.
2. Mobile Will Truly Become The First Screen.
Engagement rates on mobile devices exploded in 2013. Looking at Unruly’s campaigns alone, click-through-rates (CTR) on smartphones and tablets more than tripled.
It’s a trend that looks likely to continue into 2014, with mobile video predicted to increase 25-fold between 2011 and 2016, accounting for over 70 percent of total mobile data traffic by the end of the forecast period (Source: Cisco).
In fact, more than 70% of Twitter’s ad revenues worldwide came from mobile in Q3 2013, according to the company’s IPO filing. At Facebook, mobile has already grown to 49% of ad revenues and will likely move ahead of desktop as a percentage of revenues as soon as Q4 2013.
It means during the next 12 months, we are going to see marketers spend larger chunks of their advertising budgets on mobile. How much will depend on how well companies specialising in social advertising find formats beyond the banner.
3. Music Videos And Advertising Will Blur Even More.
The thin line between advertising and music videos became a lot thinner in 2013.
Of course, product placements are nothing new. From shameless movie plugs to Hollywood being ‘caught’ with shopping bags, we have all seen A-listers flaunt their supposed tastes in fashion and cars for extra money over the years. But over the last few months there have been a lot more ads which could arguably be identified as both a music video and a full-blown ad.
Notable examples include Beyonce’s video for H&M, singer Arianna and rapper Pitbull’s ‘The FIAT Song’ and Volvo’s partnership with Swedish House Mafia. This ‘trackvertising trend’ is set to continue in 2014.
During the next few months, we expect to see a lot more ads that push the boundaries between music video and ad. It only makes sense. Music videos are by far the most shared videos on the web.
4. Social Video Will Amplify TV Spend And Demand TV Budgets.
Social video advertising - which sits at the intersection of social, mobile and video, the three hottest trends in digital marketing - has long been overshadowed by TV.
But in 2014, we are going to see social video demanding a far larger share of the marketing pie. This will be fed by the launch of Facebook’s new video ad platform, while Twitter will also play a big part in 2014.
Video is clearly very important to Twitter’s strategy. That’s why it shelled out $90M for Bluefin Labs, the social TV analytics company, in February this year, partnered with Nielsen to add social buzz to TV measurement, and has been partnering left, right and centre with the big US TV networks.
Twitter’s proposition to brand advertisers is to amplify on social what they’re doing on TV. It’s a compelling pitch, and they’re well ahead of Facebook with it. And mobile is the critical channel for social amplification as it’s the device everyone is clutching whilst they’re watching TV.
5. Brands Will Question The Value Of A View.
The value of a video view will come under huge scrutiny in 2014, as more and more brands will want to know their ad is actually in view and we’ll see a growing demand for guaranteed viewability.
Secondly, the main purpose of digital video will change from purely brand awareness (cited by 94.6% of US media agencies as the prime objective of their campaigns) to other metrics further down the funnel.
It’s not just about YouTube now. Smart marketers and brands are engaging consumers in their own native environments across the Open Web.
We’ve already seen markers adopting the “share” as a measure of engagement and advocacy; over the next few months we expect to see more and more brands using video to deliver uplifts in other brand metrics, such as purchase intent.
6. More Brands Will Play The Long Game With Short-Form Video Platforms.
Whether you wanted a six-second fix or your 15 seconds of fame, the short-form revolution, led by Vine and Instagram Video, was certainly a big feature of 2013.
Boasting 200+ million users between them, advertisers have also been quick to embrace the notion that less really can be more, with 40% of the top 1,000 Instagram videos coming from brands (source: Unruly Viral Video Chart). Such popularity showed a real hunger to look at other video alternatives beyond YouTube.
Brands experimented with short-form content in 2013, but in 2014 we’ll see platforms such as Vine and Instagram being integrated more meaningfully into marketing programmes.
But the success of Vine and Instagram Video is only the start. The rise in short-form content has only kick-started the further fragmentation in the video ecosystem, the cracks of which will only become deeper in 2014 thanks largely to Facebook’s game-changing move into the video market.
New players like Snapchat, Line and Keek will also have their say as advertisers look to make the most of this new trend of ‘ephemeral content’ over the coming months.
However, ultimately the consumer will decide what and how much content they consume. The challenge for brands will be how to make best use of these new channels.
7. Brands Will Make It Big In Brazil.
The World Cup in 2014 is a huge opportunity for brands hoping to make it big in Brazil, which was recently dubbed by The Wall Street Journal as the “social media capital of the universe”. What’s more, Brazil is a country of self-confessed video junkies. It boasts the highest levels of video sharing in the world, so there’s an opportunity to kick-start a viral cascade that will ricochet around the world.