Everyone knows that online video is now the dominant force, whatever message you are trying to convey. The statistics are overwhelming and indisputable.
But simply serving up any old video simply does not cut it in a world where capturing eyeballs is the holy grail for marketeers, bloggers, broadcasters, publishers, charities, politicians and every Tom, Dick and Harry who wants your attention.
In an age where everyone and anyone can capture high quality video on a simple smart phone and instantly publish to the world, this is good news for professional filmmakers like myself. The truth is you can do more to damage your brand or message more quickly than ever before, by publishing poor quality.
That is why there is no substitute for experience, and the creative genius of a filmmaker who knows what he or she is doing and has the tools and the vision to make your content stand out from an ever-increasing and ever more demanding crowd.
Excuse me for a moment if I am guilty of blowing my own trumpet here, but I’ve been creating video content for a very long time. I’ve filmed with two of the biggest icons of the twentieth century in Muhammad Ali and Princess Diana, and in this millennium my video content has been broadcast in most countries of the world. My current production is about to be broadcast to a potential audience of 1.3 billion on the Chinese State broadcaster CCTV. But I also value social media and online content just as highly, if not more so, than broadcast.
The key to my success is that I move with the times and recognise the demands of the modern world in which we live. Whatever the medium used to share my content, I have never lost sight of the fact that “Content is King” and “Quality lasts forever” and I have embraced the endless possibilities of social media and the internet every step of the way.
It is not easy . . .
Take a look at the short video sting above for my sports brand #visionsport and you will see a simple but effective demonstration of the quality that online viewers now take for granted. If you want your logo and brand showcasing like this we can help you – and you will be staggered to know we can deliver something like this in a very short time indeed, for as little as £99 + VAT. [2018 prices]
Below is a short tease I produced yesterday in less than 10 minutes to promote my upcoming documentary #ManUtd #TheReligion – the story of how fans from all around the world come to the Theatre of Dreams every week to worship my football team. I am not saying this is the best thing I have ever created. It is not. But just because I did this quickly and it looks professional does not mean it is easy.
The truth is there is more to this than simply having a camera, the means to edit and the software to do fancy effects. Let’s be honest you would not hire any old guy with a camera to photograph your daughter’s wedding. So why would you risk your reputation and your image with someone who does not have the experience or the skills to make you stand out from the crowd?
Let me leave you with some of the headline statistics (quoting sources where links are available) that are in the public domain and common knowledge [when this article was first published in 2018]. [For the 2020 update please scroll down the page]
- 82% of Twitter users watch video content on Twitter
- YouTube has over a billion users, almost one-third of total internet users.
- 45% of people watch more than an hour of Facebook or YouTube videos a week.
- More than 500 million hours of videos are watched on YouTube each day.
- More video content is uploaded in 30 days than the major U.S. television networks have created in 30 years.
- 87% of online marketers use video content.
- 72 Hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every 60 seconds.
- One-third of online activity is spent watching video.
- Saudi Arabia is the country with the highest daily online video access, with 98 percent of online video penetration among the population (via statista).
- 85% of the US internet audience watches videos online.
- Every second, a million minutes (17,000 hours) of video content will cross global IP networks by 2021, according to Cisco (via Forbes).
- The 25-34 (millennial) age group watches the most online videos and men spend 40% more time watching videos on the internet than women.
- Over 500 million (half a BILLION) people are watching video on Facebook every day (via Forbes).
- Over half of video content is viewed on mobile.
- 92 percent of mobile video viewers share videos with others.
- 90% of Twitter video views happen on a mobile device.
- Periscope users have created more than 200 million broadcasts.
- 10 million videos are watched on Snapchat per day.
- 51% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI.
- Marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users.
- Sixty-four percent of consumers make a purchase after watching branded social videos (via tubularinsights).
- 59% of executives agree that if both text and video are available on the same topic, they are more likely to choose video.
- Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined.
- Views on branded video content have increased 258% on Facebook and 99% on YouTube as of June 2017 (via tubularinsights).
- Video drives a 157% increase in organic traffic from SERPs.
- Videos up to 2 minutes long get the most engagement.
- 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound.
- Video on a landing page can increase conversions by 80% or more.
- Native videos on Facebook have 10 times higher reach compared to YouTube links.
- The average CVR for websites using video is 4.8%, compared to 2.9% for those that don’t use video.
- Having a video on a landing page makes it 53% more likely to show up on page 1 of the SERP.
- 46% of users act after viewing an ad.
- An initial email with a video receives an increase click-through rate by 96%.
- Cisco states that Live internet video will account for 13 percent of the total video traffic in 2018 (via Forbes).
- Video attracts two to three times as many monthly visitors.
- Blog posts incorporating video attract 3x as many inbound links as blog posts without video.
- Combining video with full-page ads boosts engagement by 22 percent.
- Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text.
- Internet video traffic made up 69% of all global consumer Internet traffic in 2017.
- By 2019, internet video traffic will account for 80% of all consumer Internet traffic.
- The average user spends 88% more time on a website with video.
- You can now use GIFs in Facebook ads! Check out https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/03/08/video-marketing-statistics who carried out a case study that demonstrates their trial of a Facebook GIF advertisement outperformed any other live Facebook ad they were running.My thanks to WorldStream for compiling the statistics and sources of this data in the list above.
2020 Update
Two years later, I’m re-visiting this subject and the appetite for video content is greater than ever.
This year my own experience during the coronavirus pandemic is that my YouTube Channels have all become more popular, even triggering a huge rise in the demand for more of my video content offline – with my DVD sales soaring since the start of the year. My sales via Amazon and my own website have more than doubled year on year for April, May, June and July. While I’m also streaming my feature length documentary that premiered in the cinema at the end of 2019.
Online video explosion
Meantime, here are some great news stats and links from Supplygem where the 2020 headlines relating to the online video explosion are:
- 85% of US internet users watch online video
- YouTube has more than 1.9 billion users
- Seven out of 10 YouTube videos are viewed on mobile
- Over 500 Million People Watch Facebook Videos Every Day
- Most Facebook video are viewed without sound
- Video tweets generate 10 times more engagement than text
- On Linkedin silent video are 70% more likely to be viewed all the way through
- 65% of users will skip a video ad as soon as possible
- 52% of marketers used live video in 2019
- 96% of people say they’ve watched an expert video to learn about the product