It’s that time of year again, jack-o-lanterns on the porch, scary movie marathons galore, and oh so many treats. However, this year’s Halloween festivities will have to be enjoyed from the comforts of home – but that doesn’t mean you can’t get your fill of happy haunts. 

Brightcove is excited to announce that we’ll be powering the spookiest virtual event this October. 31, an all-day event hosted by AMC Networks’ Shudder, for horror and thriller fans everywhere.  

Here’s the full announcement as it appears on AMC Networks: 

Staying home for Halloween this year? Fear not: Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service for horror, thriller, and the supernatural, is bringing the holiday to you with ShudderFest, a horror celebration you don’t need to leave the house to attend. This incredible day-long virtual event will feature panels, presentations, conversations, and screenings led by legendary genre icons, fan-favorite musicians, and acclaimed directors, writers, and producers, free to all and available anywhere in the world via the shudderfest.com website.

Highlights of the event include a virtual hang with “horror royalty” including genre luminaries Tony Todd (Candyman), Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street) and others; a conversation between the stars and creators of 2020’s Zoom-horror Host and the makers of 1999’s found footage masterpiece, The Blair Witch Project; a panel of musicians who love Horror, including Bright Light Bright Light and Starcrawler’s Arrow De Wilde; Scary Story Time with Scare Me’s Josh Ruben and friends; a special recording of The Kingcast podcast with Creepshow showrunner Greg Nicotero; and a one-time secret screening of a future Shudder Original film that won’t be available until 2021. 

“Most people aren’t able to go out for Halloween this year due to the pandemic, so we decided to bring Halloween home to them with an all-day celebration of everything that’s spooky and scary. And it’s not limited to Shudder members either—anyone around the world can participate in ShudderFest, because Halloween is a holiday that everyone should be able to enjoy,” said Craig Engler, Shudder’s General Manager.

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When Brightcove was founded fifteen years ago, phones weren’t as smart, broadband wasn’t as wide, and “video” still meant DVDs. We’ve grown up right alongside the industry we helped create. During that time, we’ve seen, and even developed, technologies once thought impossible. And we’ve continually refined our platform to serve one key purpose: to empower forward-thinking organizations to use video to achieve their immediate and long-term goals.

We know that video done right can have amazing results. Hearts open. Minds change. People come together. We’re passionate about helping our customers realize the amazing potential of the world’s most exciting and compelling form of communication. We believe we have the most innovative, effective, robust, and reliable platform to help them do that.

And now we have a brand to match.

Our new look and our new voice reflect the boldness of our vision and a confidence that can only come from experience. We don’t just know video. We’ve helped to define it. We’ve set the standard for quality, reliability, analytics, and customer support. Today, our brand truly represents the company we’ve become. And to the businesses that have helped us get here, we want to say thanks for your continued support, now and into the future. We look forward to helping tell your stories tomorrow and beyond.

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Now more than ever, effective employee communication is critical to new ways of working. Driven by digital transformation, geographically dispersed teams, and the ever-increasing need to be collaborative, Government departments are embracing technologies to connect, engage, and communicate within and across agencies.

So how can you communicate in a clear, consistent, and engaging way? Video. As a preferred channel for communications, video is a cost-effective way to engage and unify teams and deliver communications that are sure to delight.

Onboarding

The Public Sector is competing in a contested market for talent, and attracting and retaining the right employees is vital. Delivering a premium onboarding experience is a significant first step in the process, and video empowers you to create engaging experiences in a personal and cost-effective manner.

Videos that make your onboarding experience unique include:

Welcome videos: Deliver your agency’s mission and purpose, share insights from employees on the department’s culture, and showcase the values of the agency.

Policies and procedures: Whether it’s how to use IT systems, department security policies, or even how to use the coffee machine, video is a great way to showcase the learning tools needed to get new employees up and running.

Department overviews: Create videos that showcase the key department stakeholders, and what their role and responsibilities are within the agency.

No matter which type of videos you choose to develop, be sure to connect and engage employees at the beginning of their time with your organization.

Education

Learning new skills is an essential part of career development, but it can be challenging to deliver training in a consistent and timely way. By creating on-demand videos, employees can undertake self-paced learning to develop new skill sets. Instructional videos are also a great way to create interest and inform on topics that might be less interesting if delivered in other formats. Video is also a great way to educate employees around new agency updates, news, and other critical department communications. It is an ideal way to knowledge-share across a wide-reaching audience.

Engagement

Video as a means of communication is a great way to entertain and delight, and this is never more evident that in its ability to engage. Yet to keep engagement high, you need to provide a constant stream of communications and ensure that your messages are relevant and digestible. Video forms an ideal way to measure engagement, as video views, time watched, and other metrics are available to assess participation and the value of the content.

Now, more than ever, you need an effective way to inform, engage, and inspire employees—and transform your internal communications, and video is the tool organizations need to stay ahead of the curve.

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The pandemic accelerated the digital transformation for many organizations, including enterprises and retailers. Video use continues to evolve and even as shelter-at-home restrictions have lifted, video remains the most effective medium for businesses and brands to connect with stakeholders – whether customers, partners, vendors, or employees. 

Whether it’s engaging a distributed workforce, boosting employee morale, training new recruits, or driving sales amid brick-and-mortar closures – a video-first strategy is crucial for long-term business growth and survival. 

Video has changed the way we work for good

According to the Brightcove Q2 2020 Global Video Index, enterprise video views increased by 93% globally, indicating that the way we engage with video for work has changed for good in light of the pandemic. The Video Index also uncovered an increase of 123% in time watching video created by businesses/enterprises compared to a year ago. In other words, people are engaging with video on a scale never before seen.

Smartphones and computers – two devices that see the most normal business use on a daily basis – were at the heart of business/enterprise video growth in Q2. Smartphone views spiked by 216%, and the amount of time spent watching business/enterprise content on smartphones increased by 465%. While computers held a 60% share of all time watched for Q2, down 20 percentage points from a year ago. Smartphones grabbed a 32% share in Q2, closing the gap with computers.  

Both devices are essentially neck-and-neck in terms of viewing share, but smartphones likely will continue to gain – and even pass – computers’ share of views. People are developing new working habits and leaning more heavily on smartphones during the workday for access to video content. Businesses should ensure smartphones are at the core of their communications strategy and optimize content for mobile consumption.

Retailers lean on video to stave off bankruptcies and store closures 

Against a growing backdrop of retail bankruptcy filings, video has emerged as a key driver in helping retailers connect with customers who are increasingly turning to eCommerce rather than brick-and-mortar stores. Global marketing and retail video views more than doubled in Q2 (114%), showing that video has become the foundation of retailers’ engagement and connection to consumers. 

Capturing a consumer’s attention for 15 or 30 seconds may lead to more sales – or at least increased awareness – but using content to truly engage with a consumer is the future. To do this, marketers and retailers need to start looking at video, and video consumption, the way broadcasters do. This means creating a consistent cadence of product videos to showcase what’s new or live streaming the release of a season’s newest offerings. 

Consumers are open to this as they spent 152% more time watching retail video on smartphone devices and 1060% more time on connected TVs – it’s safe to say that consumers are spending more time engaging with brands across all devices than ever before. 

For more insight into how enterprise and retail marketing video has weathered the pandemic, check out the complete Brightcove Q2 2020 Global Video Index Enterprise and Retail Edition. 

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In the first half of 2020, video views for retailers were up by an impressive 125% , as more consumers filled their shopping carts from home in response to the global pandemic. With an anticipated closure of nearly 25,000 retail stores across the US, retailers are heightening their focus on the digital marketplace to stay relevant and more importantly, stay in business.

The digital marketplace is growing, and it’s not slowing down. 

Retailers in almost every category witnessed a skyrocket in online Q1 sales, with a 110% increase in grocery sales, a 58% increase in electronics sales, and a 34% jump in apparel sales . As people looked for safer shopping experiences, their eyes were now being drawn by digital engagements as opposed to traditional ones. 

There was a time when retailers spent millions optimizing their in-store experiences, from physical displays and catalogs to print materials. However, now more than ever, retailers need to shift their focus toward online and video marketing experiences to keep up with current demands.

Nearly 150 million more digital-buyers will enter the eCommerce market this year, marking a 6.9% rise in online shoppers that are demanding a more modern, convenient, and personalized experience. That’s why most of today’s leading businesses, such as Zappos, North Face, Wayfair, Nike, and others, are already ahead of the game, using video to connect with their customers and enhance their overall shopping experience. 

Video brings products to life for online shoppers.

By incorporating video into your eCommerce strategy, you can provide your online shoppers with a more authentic experience. It allows them to see everything from how fabrics look while the wearer is in motion to even a full 360-degree view of the product, giving more insight and detail than a static image ever could. 

Tying video data to your eCommerce platform helps provide ultimate visibility. 

Just as video gives your customers enhanced visibility into a product, it also gives you a deeper understanding of their customer journey. It can give you a unique perspective on how often a video gets watched or how long buyers spend watching content before making a purchase. Tying that insight into your eCommerce platform helps to show areas of content performance or optimization on your product pages. So you’ll know exactly how each video is driving revenue for your business and which kind of video gets all the attention. 

Seize current and future market opportunities.

With the market in such a rapid transition and the upcoming holiday season around the corner, it’s the perfect time for retailers to gain a foothold in the new video economy. In fact, 71% of US adults say they’re planning to do their holiday shopping online this year – and there’s no better way to bring their attention to your products than through video.

That’s why Brightcove is excited to announce that our retail solutions suite now supports integrations for both Salesforce Commerce Cloud B2C and Adobe Magento 2 , helping businesses publish videos across their entire store experiences and bring their online storefronts to life. 

Video is one of the most engaging and effective forms of communication, and it’s critical to gaining the attention and the trust of your customers in today’s market. Be a part of the future of online retail and give your audiences the experience they deserve with video.

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The first half of 2020 brought changes to almost every aspect of life as the COVID-19 pandemic changed our behavior, outlook, and habits. Brightcove’s Q2 2020 Global Video Index found that watching more video than ever before became a global trend that kept on growing. In nearly every corner of the globe, in every household and apartment, streaming news, entertainment, and sports media was on the rise. In Q2, views were up a robust 40% compared to the previous year, following a quarter that saw growth top 23%. 

The Video Index analyzed 400 billion anonymized data points from Brightcove’s streaming customers to draw insights into how audiences in every region of the globe consumed video content in Q2. It looked at when, how often, and on what devices they watched – and what that all means for the industry.

Here’s a look at some of the top insights from the Video Index: 

Connected TVs saw significant growth:

The number of video views on connected TVs increased by 160% in Q2 globally as consumers spent more of their time watching video from their homes. But views on all devices increased during the first half of the year as video remained central to users sheltering at home. Will that trend continue? Or will we see a decline in video views as we come out of lockdown? COVID-19 has been video’s evolutionary moment, and, historically speaking, once consumers adapt to and adopt technology they almost never backslide. We’ll see smaller gains in Q3 and Q4, but, on the whole, expect the growth to continue. 

Small screens are dominant in the exploding Asia-Pacific streaming market:

Smartphones dominated the share of video views in Q2, with 89% of all video starting on the devices…most of which were Android-based. That’s a trend that has been evident in the region for several quarters and is unlikely to change. India, too, saw the share of views dominated by smartphones as the country’s expanding middle class goes mobile-first.

Both regions should see continued mobile strength, especially as next-gen 5G wireless technology gains traction. In Japan, views on smartphones – which had a 59% share of all video starts – were up by 33% for the quarter.

Smartphones are taking the lead when it comes to growth, but what kind? 

According to our data, Android-based smartphones topped the global share of smartphone video views with 65% to iPhone’s 35%. That’s a ratio that’s changed over the past few quarters as iPhones have lost the leadership position to less expensive Android phones flooding the market. Streaming services need to be sure that they consider that when deciding what devices they’ll focus on.

93% growth in video views for Australia and New Zealand: 

With lockdown orders still in place, audiences in the ANZ region saw an overall increase in video views as entertainment and news media captured at-home viewers’ attention. Mobile played a major role in ANZ. Interestingly, longer-form content was as likely to be completed while being watched on a smartphone as it was on a connected TV.

Views across Europe were up 52% and rising: 

For two straight quarters, viewing numbers in Europe have seen their biggest increases on smartphones. Q2 saw video views on smartphones jump 69% from Q2 2019, while views on all devices increased by 52%. CTVs, as in most other regions, also saw big gains in views as consumers turned to the biggest screen in the house to watch more video. On average, viewers watched three times as much content on CTVs as on any other device. 

Get a deeper dive into each region’s specific media trends and insights in Brightcove’s Q2 2020 Global Video Index.

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