Menu
Online video is booming according to all of the statistics out there at the moment. YouTube is the second largest search engine, one in three people watch an online video each week, 100 hours of video is uploaded every minute – the list goes on (check out the infographic at the bottom of the page for more online video stats from mushroomnetworks.com). It certainly seems like if you’re on the internet then you’re watching video somewhere. Its all very positive for the video industry and a signpost for marketers to what consumers are doing online and how their habits are evolving but its not quite the be all and end all of video just yet.
Its easy to overlook other channels that video can be used in and assume that world just goes online in 2016. There are still valid and useful reasons to use video in the real world and nowhere is this more prevalent than on a recent visit to the toy store, Toys R Us.
As you walk down the aisles of the vast toy store there are shelves stacked high with games and toys for children of all ages. As if that wasn’t enough for the beginning of a ‘pester power’ assault from the kids there are video displays dotted around which show the toys in action. So not only do you see boxes and boxes of games and toys but you also get to see just how awesome these toys are as they are shown and demonstrated being played with in the glossy adverts and videos.
Its a perfect way to bring the products to life at the point of sale and possibly help the consumer make the choice to buy the product there and then. It has the added benefit of happening in real time too i.e. they don’t have to click on a link, wait for delivery like a web purchase, the customer can literally pick it up off the shelf, pay for it and take it away with them there and then. It can be the difference in converting a sale or not.
It also works if there is a doubt as to what the product is or how to use it as the video can work almost as a ‘FAQ’ or an additional sales tool for further information.
As the high street suffers against online sales, bricks and mortar retailers need to look at as many different ways as possible to enhance the customer experience and video displays are one great way of doing it. Interactive video is also something that consumers react well to where viewers can choose what they watch and see in store but ultimately taking video offline can have a really positive effect.
Its also useful in areas where customers will be waiting, particularly for long periods and, again, can enhance the customer experience.
There is also the almost forgotten DVD, its important to remember that not every demographic group has access to or responds to online video. The grey market may be an area where a DVD is still a useful marketing tool and certain brands still use this to good effect. In the United States, the Arthritis Foundation is one such organisation that sends DVDs to its stakeholders as do the Parkinson Disease Foundation. It appears that companies and organisations that have a lot of information to convey still use DVDs as a source of communication to allow customers to watch it at their own pace in their own time. Holiday companies use the medium to good effect even now like Scuba Travel and Expeditions.com who specialise in slightly more adventurous holidays such as this one to Antarctica.
Its always worth considering how and where your viewers are going to watch your promotional video, if its an online video the chances are that it will be on a mobile, tablet or laptop in which case the sound and picture quality may not the best but if you can send a DVD where it could be watched on a large screen TV with surround sound then there is a better chance of the viewer getting the full effect of your video. Particularly useful if you are selling exotic locations or holidays of a lifetime.
So if you are considering video as an asset in your next marketing campaign think away from just online video because your target market or the messages that you are trying to convey migt work equally as well offline as well as online. Video is undoubtedly moving towards this way but offline video still has its uses for the right products and services in the right markets. For all of the innovative and creative uses for online video across social media and web channels there is still a very real and effective need for video as a simple and useful information source. It doesn’t always have to go viral or be shared to be a powerful marketing tool.