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You have to stop thinking about all visual content (video and animation) in the same way that you think about TV advertising

People used to talk about online video…

Why?

Because it was an easy term we could all bandy about that differentiated the kind of content you put online versus the kind of content you put on TV…

Often this content was differentiated by price – TV: big budget brand advertising…

Online: smaller budget more functional/rational content…

This price spend was also dictated by the assumed size of the viewing audience (TV: big audience… Online: who knew) …

But now we just talk about content…

Why?

Because the exponential growth of video across the spectrum of viewing devices (TV, Mobile, Online, Social, OOH, Cinema etc.) has fundamentally changed the viewing habits of the audience.

They don’t think about online video anymore…

Just like they don’t differentiate streaming services like Netflix from TV or Cinema…

It’s just another option where they can watch what they want to watch when they want to watch it…

So why are so many advertisers, brands and businesses approaching their visual content as if it's TV? With one-off campaigns and activity targeted around major events in their calendar?

When what they should be doing is thinking like regular content producers. TV and magazines have been thinking this way for a while…

Some brands are starting to catch on, and if your agency, brand, business or organisation is smart it will too.

Stop thinking about the campaign and start thinking about content and more importantly start thinking about content at scale…

Because video demand is growing daily and if you want your audience to know about you and what you are doing (and not what your competitor is doing) …

You need to feed that need.

We know what you’re thinking right now…

 

“Yeah I hear you but what you don’t understand is that video is expensive” …

 

Our response:

 

Well that’s because you are still thinking in terms of one video at a time… Often for one specific need”.

 

Yes, video for a one-off campaign can be expensive…

Every time you need to pull out the cameras for a shoot, every time you need to add more craft with more crew and expertise, there is a cost involved.

So why aren’t you thinking about maximising those times by planning and thinking about all the other opportunities that can be designed, crafted and captured every time you put together a video?

For example, if you are shooting something as simple as a talking head interview video – can you capture some frequently asked questions content at the same time?

Can you shoot content that you park and use at a later date? More is more…

When you are producing animation…

Why aren’t you thinking about the other opportunities that can be leveraged from the assets you’ve already created?

You’ve paid for them to be designed…

Why shouldn’t you do more with them?

Can you make another video out of them?

Can you use the characters or assets in other collateral?

Then there is the question of craft…

Every video doesn’t have to cost a fortune.

You need to match the customers’ needs to the video content you’re producing.

Many brands are already building out their content library by thinking about the steps I’ve outlined above for live action video and animation and where appropriate adding user-generated content from their audience that speaks to their audience.

By producing and marketing more videos and using video analytics to track and measure the results of each video, you will also find that you now have the opportunity to measure which approaches worked best with your target demographics in terms of tipping your sales needle where you need it to be… 

Without breaking the budget on each individual video launch.

Lastly, you also need to understand one fundamental truth about visual content…

The key to getting your content seen and acted upon is no longer about just having high-quality video – The key is that your content has a creative vision.

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