2017 was a huge year for video, and for Brightcove. In the last 12 months we have seen some great video projects across Australia and New Zealand alone.
Overall, Brightcove delivered 1.3 billion hours of video across 34 billion streams, and there’s no signs of it slowing down in 2018. With billions of hours of video being produced and consumed everyday, it’s never been more crucial for brands to use innovations in video to cut through the noise.
With a new year upon us, here are the trends set to define video marketing in 2018.
Not all heroes wear capes
Hero videos, the large header videos on a website, make for a much more immersive, in-depth visual experience for website visitors. When combined with autoplay functionality, hero videos offer brands an unrivalled way to immediately draw in and engage users. Brands such as Sydney Festival and the Sydney Opera House are using hero video integrations across their homepages and event pages to act as a ‘visual teaser’ to attract audiences.
Whether a company seeks to educate its audience, showcase latest products or promote an upcoming event, hero videos will play a pivotal role in keeping web visitors engaged in 2018.
Brands as publishers
In a world where engagement is everything, brands have begun to realise that the way they connect with customers is undergoing a major facelift. In 2018 we will see more brands becoming media companies to meet new audience needs, with a focus on audience-centricity and targeted content.
Xero TV , the online video hub of New Zealand based cloud accounting platform Xero, is a great example of this trend. The content hub provides a one stop shop for a range of audience-centric videos, from small business tips and advice to how-to-videos and case studies, creating an engaging video-based learning tool that’s easy to access.
Forget about the price tag
There was a time where companies would need to fork out tens of thousands of dollars to produce their own video content. This is no longer the case, with a range of companies offering scalable and cost-effective ways to shoot, edit, and produce video content. There has never been a better time for brands of all sizes to get on board with video using these offerings.
Video across the board
No longer restricted to the marketing department, video is starting to be used as a tool to educate, communicate and engage a variety of stakeholders across entire organisations.
Companies like Mazda Australia , AMP , and Dunkin Donuts are using video for internal communications with company-wide video hubs, live and on-demand town hall meetings, and video training. From corporate training to human resources, internal communications, and customer support, 2018 is the time to take advantage of video beyond the marketing function.
The winning formula
With billions of hours of video being consumed each day, brands need to think strategically around the kind of content they produce and channels they use to draw in audiences. As well as being an effective way of facilitating interaction and engagement from online audiences, video also has the potential to drive ROI (return-on-investment) and produce real business results. Those with their finger on the pulse use video as a key tool to keep up with audiences and drive their bottom line.