127 things you probably didn’t know about video marketing [infographic]

Anyone working in our industry knows the power of video marketing for getting your brand message out to the masses but we stumbled across an interesting infographic put together by websitebuilder.org.uk that uncovers some fascinating insights about video that you might not already know. 

Check it out below for 127 facts about video marketing that might just give you a couple of nuggets of information that you need before planning your next online video campaign. 

A series of three-minute videos will feature Scottish brands like The Craft Beer Clan of Scotland and also  illustrate how store deliveries are made

Glasgow-based wholesaler JW Filshill is embarking on a year-long video marketing campaign called ‘Leading The Way’, which shines a light on the inner workings of the business.

A series of three-minute videos illustrate how store deliveries are made, what goes into deciding on orders, and provides an insight into staff training and community involvement.

“The project is all about us showing our customers and suppliers that we are transparent about all aspects of our business, that we understand the complexities and vagaries of running a family business,” explained JW Filshill MD Simon Hannah.

The videos, each showcasing a different side to the company, will be released once a week from the start of August, available on JW Fishill’s website, social media and YouTube channel.

Hannah added: “It’s an ambitious project for us but we are determined to get the message across that we are a growing independent company operating in an exciting sector that offers significant opportunities for growth. We want to encourage people to engage with us – staff, customers and suppliers.

“We also hope our video stories will encourage people to pursue a career in wholesale – as our videos will show over the coming months, there are roles in sales, buying, marketing, finance, warehousing, distribution, retail and business support, administration and logistics among others. It’s a dynamic industry that never stays still for long – that is what we want to demonstrate.”

The clips feature The Craft Beer Clan of Scotland, clan brewing company arm Flavourly.com, and Brewgooder, the world’s first craft beer that donates all its profits to clean water projects. JW Filshill’s ‘We’ll support you forever more’ community marketing campaign, in-store merchandising and local sourcing are also highlighted.

Alan Cunningham of Glasgow-based food and drink marketer Totalize Media produced the videos.

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Businesses and brands are ratcheting up their use of video in social media marketing, according to a new study from Wochit.

The company, which provides a video creation platform, revealed in its “Social Performance Index Report” that the average publisher of social videos increased their video production output 65% during the second quarter of 2017 compared to the first quarter.

Furthermore, the data demonstrated that increasing video production to grow overall Facebook engagement is an effective strategy. “Our analysis revealed a strong correlation between the number of videos posted on a Facebook page and the total number of views received,” Wochit wrote in a report on its findings. “According to our data, the ratio (r) between them is 0.56 (r2 = 0.32), meaning 32% of the total views of a Facebook page can be explained just by the number of videos posted to the page.”

In another finding of interest to marketers, the study showed viewers prefer square aspect-ratio videos to vertical and horizontal. Square videos generated significantly more views, shares, comments and likes. Wochit said that square’s advantage is likely down, in large part, to mobile viewing; square video takes up 78% more screen space in the mobile social feed.

Marketers often struggle with how long they should make their videos. Wochit offers a bit of insight, saying the vast majority (77.8%) of videos remain between 30 and 90 seconds long. However, probably because of Facebook mid-roll video ads, there was a 38% increase in the number of videos exceeding 90 seconds in Q2 over Q1. Engagement with longer videos also increased. “While 90+ second videos are now just 15.47% of the total, we expect to see this shift continue,” Wochit said in its report. “Longer videos open monetization opportunity through Facebook’s mid-roll ads.”

While most marketers hope to create a viral video, the likelihood of that happening remains remote. Wochit found only 1.1% of videos go viral, which is defined as receiving more than one million views.

For the Social Performance Index Report, Wochit analyzed more than 5,000 videos from more than 100 publishers that were shared to over 300 Facebook pages in Q2 (between March and May of 2017).

As online publishers scramble to feed video-hungry platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, some are using this one simple trick: Just post ads!

Publishers including Business Insider and Cheddar now frequently employ the tactic, which often involves reediting a TV commercial or marketing video by a third-party company, adding some subtitles and music, and reposting the resulting clip to their own social media accounts and websites.

For example, financial news company Cheddar posted a video to its Twitter and Facebook accounts featuring the “Sock Slider,” a contraption designed to help people put socks on their feet without stretching or straining. The video, complete with a Cheddar logo in one corner and an “as seen on TV” logo in the other, featured the same footage as a 60-second TV commercial for the product but with Cheddar’s own music and captions, rather than the commercial audio.

Since it was posted Wednesday, the Sock Slider video has racked up over 130,000 “views” on Facebook alone. On Twitter, pre-roll advertising for other companies was even running ahead of the repurposed Sock Slider commercial.

“Our audience on Facebook loves this content. It’s what works in the news feed where people scroll quickly with the sound off,” said Cheddar Chief Executive Jon Steinberg, adding that videos about “gadgets and cool visual tech or gizmos” perform particularly well.

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Consumers, meanwhile, may never know the video they’re watching actually started as a TV commercial.

“Some [of the videos] are ad content, though these posts are unpaid and not sponsor content, but others have nothing to do with content from ads,” Mr. Steinberg said.

Sock Slider had no involvement with the post and didn’t pay for it, Mr. Steinberg said. Allstar Marketing Group, which owns the Sock Slider trademark, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Some suggest the repackaging and reposting of ads highlights the “pivot to video” mentality many publishers now demonstrate. The push to churn out video content to feed platforms and to attract potentially lucrative video advertising is increasingly viewed as a potential solution to an increasingly challenging business model problem.

For publishers, repackaging a commercial is often a simple process that can take an experienced video editor relatively little time, and the result is a win-win situation for all parties. The publisher gets some quick and easy video content it can post to social media and potentially sell advertising against, the platforms get to brag about the millions of videos being uploaded to their services, and the company that originally produced the video gets more exposure.

Publishers might also get paid a commission on any sales they help drive by including affiliate links alongside the videos. If these links drive users to purchase the products, then the publisher gets a cut.

Business Insider regularly posts repackaged marketing videos to the various social media accounts it operates. On Thursday, its Insider brand posted a video multiple times about a gardening product called Drill Till, including the same footage featured in marketing videos posted on the Drill Till website. The video was originally produced by product development company Mind64.

Eric Miller, chief executive of Mind64, said his company is asked regularly by publishers for permission to use its marketing materials and is typically happy for them to use its videos as they see fit. Mind64 does retail placement, branding, video and other marketing for a range of products, Mr. Miller wrote in an email.

Both the Sock Slider and the Drill Till posts included affiliate links.

According to Insider’s editor in chief, Nicholas Carlson, 80% of the publication’s videos contain original footage produced by Insider itself. But it’s happy to use marketing content also, he said, describing the approach as “resourceful.”

“Sometimes a marketer will have made a video that nobody’s seen, but the way we use it to tell a story gets way more eyeballs and it’s because we’re experts at telling stories,” he said.

Repackaging marketing or advertising content is in itself a form of reporting, Mr. Carlson added, because it involves tracking down its owner, obtaining permission and reporting the story behind the footage.

The video isn’t always cribbed from TV commercials or product websites. Crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter also offer up a gold mine of video content for publishers to dip into, often featuring interesting innovations or product ideas.

In some ways the phenomenon isn’t a new one. Marketing videos produced by companies are regularly featured in editorial content on TV, for example.

But as long as companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter have a business interest in consumers viewing more videos, they’ll find a way to ensure consumers view more videos. For publishers, that often means getting their hands on whatever video they can find, even if it’s an ad.

Write to Jack Marshall at Jack.Marshall@wsj.com

Consumption of video content is on the rise. So how can pharma use this increasingly popular tool? Jon Mowat highlights some of his favourite examples of video marketing to provide inspiration.

It’s no secret that video content is the dominant force in online marketing, with social networks moving towards video-first futures and 4G data plans becoming increasingly common and ever-more reliable, allowing users to hit the ‘play’ button without fear of buffering.

In fact, according to eMarketer, US adults now spend 1 hour 45 minutes each day on digital video sites (such as YouTube, Vimeo, Netflix), in addition to any video content they consume during their 1 hour 9 minutes browsing social platforms. That’s almost 3 hours of potential online video viewing every day.

These are incredible stats that will only rise as we approach the end of the decade, especially as 5G mobile is on the horizon – another technological leap that is also likely to expedite the adoption of telehealth services.

Pharma companies are no strangers to hopping aboard the broadcast bandwagon, producing short films to send out the right message and generate healthy brand awareness, but for those less consumer-facing businesses, knowing what type of content to produce can be difficult.

Bearing that in mind, here are three pharma video campaigns to give you some inspiration:

Sanofi – T1 Diabetes Youth Challenge

This video documents an inspirational campaign that showcases how those affected by diabetes don’t have to be defined by their condition – with participants hiking up Mount Kilimanjaro to prove the point.

Sanofi produces diabetes medication, and a statement on its website reads: “Sanofi is committed to working to address the diabetes public health concern worldwide through its integrated treatments and medical devices.”

The focus of the video is on the young participants and their desire to reach the top, working together and driving each other on, taking care to manage their condition every step of the way. Sanofi’s branding is minimal – just showing the logo at the end – but the messages of positivity underlines the company’s commitment to helping those living with diabetes.

GSK – The GSK Story

This is a great example of brand positioning, detailing GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) history and introducing future goals. Such videos help boost internal communications, ensuring all employees are aware of where the company is and where it is heading.

It also introduces charitable aims and a commitment to ethical trading, reassuring viewers that this is a business in tune with its corporate responsibility, one that is looking to create a positive impact on the world.

Animation is an excellent means of communicating big ideas – quickly dissecting complex projects and taking audiences on visually-captivating journeys, in this case enabling GSK to achieve a lot in just three-and-a-half minutes.

Pfizer – #QuitWithHelp

Pfizer’s #QuitWithHelp campaign employed the F2Freestylers, a pair of social media icons for lovers of silky soccer skills. The F2 have over 6 million subscribers to their YouTube channel, so can definitely be considered ‘influencers’, i.e. they are well positioned to take your message to the masses.

This video illustrates how you can achieve great things with a little teamwork. Bill balances a cigarette on top of the crossbar, before Jez kicks a ball from 50 yards away, knocking the cigarette into the bin. The underlying message here is that it’s easier to ‘quit with help’, i.e. by seeking the advice of a medical professional to give up smoking.

The video (hosted on Pfizer’s channel rather than the F2Freestylers’) has achieved over 1 million views, and was a social media smash, giving Pfizer great brand exposure and hopefully encouraging a fair portion of those viewers to stop smoking, painting the company in a very positive light.

Successful video strategies

There is no doubt that video can be incredibly powerful for propelling your online presence, and innovations such as 360-degree films are perfect for medical marketers. The medium of moving pictures allows you to show rather than simply tell, which is why it’s so effective at resonating on deeper levels.

Whether you document epic challenges, use animation to tell your story or team up with social media superstars, much can be achieved when you start shooting.

About the author:

Jon Mowat is the founder of UK video production company, Hurricane. As a former BBC documentary filmmaker, Jon knows how to tell a good story and he uses his skills to help international brands convey messages that connect with target customers. You can follow @HurricaneMedia on Twitter and connect with Jon on LinkedIn.

Read more on this topic in pharmaphorum’s magazine Deep Dive: Digital and look out for Deep Dive: Digital II, launching later this year. Sign up here to receive complimentary copies of Deep Dive as soon as they are published.