Video comes of age
From Radio 1 employing vloggers to Amazon’s acquisition of Twitch, we’re facing a new age for video, writes Charlie Muirhead, CEO, Rightster – and it’s much more engaging…
Video is the format of the moment. And why not? Not only does it bring brands to life online and fits perfectly into content marketing strategies; it also monetises existing creative content for a new life online, while benefiting from digital’s trackability and demonstrable ROI. All the while helping publisher sites to stay relevant, increase dwell times, and generate revenue for their own offerings.
Recent consolidation in the Multi Channel Network (MCN) space supports the fact that video is reaching both maturity and recognition as a viable media option. MCNs have established themselves as a key component to helping brands deliver long term success on YouTube. This is mainly due to the importance of audience development, given that finding video content on YouTube can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack, and working with YouTube natives.
From our own acquisition of base79 and Viral Spiral, to Disney’s purchase of Maker Studios and Big Frame’s sale to Dreamworks, video based businesses are hot property. Big Hollywood production houses seeing potential for online access to their bespoke content to build awareness and engagement with audiences for their major releases.
We are already seeing multiple supporting videos being released online for fans to spread and communicate more about the latest in new film and TV releases. The kind of content film studios would previously have held for DVD extras is now being used to build pace, discussion, and extend audience engagement online around a big release.
Everyone with a webcam or smartphone can be a channel owner, and use the online space to share their lives and passion points with their friends and peers.”
This is a pattern we will likely see spread beyond TV and film productions as video grows still further, and one which mirrors the production of fan-made content from entrenched fandoms.
Amazon’s acquisition of Twitch, the live video streaming site dedicated to gaming, fits perfectly into the retailer’s business strategy to grow into a content hub, following their integration of Lovefilm.
Equally, Radio 1’s acknowledgement of successful British vloggers as hosts for a new video and audio show highlights the power of video’s reach and audience buy-in online. Some of the most popular YouTube stars have bigger inbuilt audiences than many breakfast DJs.
These are often audiences who have inbuilt relationships with their chosen YouTube channel owners, built through the kind of dialogue, sharability and audience feedback which only online video can deliver.
They also represent ‘tribes’ of audience types, like-minded groups of people who share interests and approach in much the same way as magazine readers used to be typified by title and personality trait.
Most of all, many entrenched fanbases of these YouTube stars are young, hovering around that key 18-24 age bracket (or younger), digital natives who are ruthlessly editing out other channels and often first to adopt and adapt to new emerging trends online. These are often the target audience many big name brands want to get on board – and they can often under-index through traditional media channels.
Led by trends from the US, the British media definition between traditional and social stardom is becoming increasingly blurred.”
Their influence is hard to ignore. Variety recently released research that the five most influential figures among Americans aged 13-18 were not the usual raft of pop, TV and movie stars but rather YouTube personalities.
This latest news from Radio 1 and Amazon shows that this impact has not escaped notice. Led by trends from the US, the British media definition between traditional and social stardom is becoming increasingly blurred.
Digital natives simply don’t see a distinction – they see people like them, with content they like, admire and find useful. The fact that the world’s largest online retailer and the broadcaster with a set charter to reach and engage with younger audiences is seeking to tap into the potential of these online video audience is hardly surprising.
What is slightly more astonishing is that these are among the first to do so, truly adopting online video as not just a way to broadcast their own messages into the digital space, but also to engage and embrace its strengths as a two-way street into pockets of like-minded, frequently mass audience groups in their own right.
So is this the dawn of a new age for video – one in which the medium turns into something beyond simple ‘push’ broadcasting and into something more engaging? I can only hope so.
If those watching the online space have spotted anything recently, it should be video’s malleable and sharable nature. I almost hesitate to mention the Ice Bucket Challenge, which has just about peaked now, but video is benefiting from its universal and democratic nature.
Everyone with a webcam or smartphone can be a channel owner, and use the online space to share their lives and passion points with their friends and peers.
The acquisition of Twitch, a channel dedicated to gaming, shows how single-issue content can deliver in spades for brands. And as established vloggers move onto the nation’s airwaves as well as across people’s computer, tablet and mobile phone screens, the online video space is going from strength to strength.
The challenge now is for other brands to see the variety of video’s potential and use it in media scheduling accordingly. Video can feel like a complicated and fast-moving medium, and brands and agencies have to ensure they’re taking appropriate steps to unlock its vast potential.