Top Digital Marketing Trend for 2022: Short Form Video Advertising
Short form video advertising is the top digital marketing trend for 2022. Here’s why.
The pandemic has changed many of our lives in a myriad of ways. It has introduced us to lockdowns, isolation and quarantine, and it’s challenged the way we work and live. We’re going out less and staying in more, we’re increasingly turning to online connections and we’re spending more time on social media and streaming content than ever before.
According to the Digital 2022 Global Overview Report: The Essential Guide to the World’s Connected Behaviours, there were approximately 4.95 billion internet users at the beginning of 2022, a number that grew by a whopping 192 million over the past year. The volume of video content available online has also increased by an incredible amount—and consumers are hitting that play button with glee. In fact, eMarketer predicts that by the end of 2025, digital video will reach a total of 2.2 billion viewers. And in 2022 a big percentage of this will be short form video.
So what exactly is short form video? How is it used for advertising, and how can you make it work for your business?
Top Digital Marketing Trend for 2022: Short Form Video Advertising
What is Short Form Video (and Short Form Video Advertising)?
A short form video is, as its name implies, short. While there is some discrepancy over the exact length, it’s generally a reel that runs for less than 2.5 minutes—usually five to 16 seconds in length.
Short form videos get in and out of the viewers minds quickly and decisively. They’re a shot of brand awareness and give creators a new and innovative way to showcase content, leveraging on the human attention span.
Short form video advertising is simply the process of using these brief visual engagements to increase your business’ views, engagement (likes, comments and shares), brand awareness, leads/click-throughs and, ultimately, actual sales.
Of course your short form videos can also play a role in your brand’s wider digital marketing strategy. Fun, shareable clips distributed on your social platforms can boost engagement and increase awareness exponentially.
Why Should You Use Short Form Video Advertising?
There’s a reason (actually many reasons) that short form video advertising is the top digital marketing trend for 2022.
Effective
All video is an incredibly effective communication tool and can make a powerful impact from a marketing perspective. According to Wyzowl, 88% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by a brand’s video, and 96% say they have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service.
The extraordinary scope of the internet can also help videos become accessible to audiences your brand may not have otherwise reached. And short form gets in and out before the audience even knows they’ve been marketed to.
Brings you into the conversation
Love it or hate it, short form video is seeing a huge surge in popularity right now, which means joining the trend will keep your brand aloft in popular culture. Leveraging the success of platforms like TikTok, and viral TikTok challenges or hashtags like #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, can be a clever way to stay relevant in an ever-changing market.
Tune in to a younger audience
Short form video is especially popular among younger users, meaning your brand could reach a demographic that it may find hard to access via other mediums. A report from The National Research Group commissioned by Snap Inc. found that seven out of 10 Gen Z and millennials would rather engage in a lot of shorter videos than watch a longer TV or video series.
Play to shorter attention spans
It’s been widely reported that our collective attention span is narrowing, so it makes sense that users are attracted to short form videos. Our crammed schedules can also play a role, with around 56% of Gen Z and millennial consumers saying that full-length TV or video series are too much of a time commitment for their busy lives.
Fulfil emotional needs
According to the Digital 2022 Global Overview Report, the recent spike in social video content combined with an increased need for connection has brought about a movement focused on creating a vibe or mood. It’s the perfect time to do so, with 30% of 18–34-year-olds saying they now turn the sound on their socials more than they did before the pandemic. Evoking a feeling from your video ads can be a powerful marketing tool for your brand.
Enjoy greater flexibility
Short form video allows for more creativity with production and greater flexibility in terms of format. This can also make them easier and cheaper to create, as well as require a smaller team (a key benefit in a pandemic world).
Boost accessibility
Short form video ads are also very easy to distribute on platforms like TikTok Ads Manager. And research shows that people are twice as likely to share short videos with their friends than images, memes, posts or any other content.