Classic branding becomes digital: Vertical, short and silent the new standard
Traditionally, television has been the reach medium of choice to achieve awareness and branding goals. Online was primarily seen as an important performance channel. But with television's reach under pressure, branding is increasingly shifting to digital. This also affects the form of your campaign. Placing a TV commercial online for extra reach won't work, because each medium has unique properties. The effectiveness of your campaign will get a boost if you anticipate this. Read on for 4 Tips to make your offline video suitable for online.
A digital campaign is a mobile campaign
All the tips we discuss below can be traced back to the trend that horizontal screens such as TV, desktop and laptop are being used less and less often, while the use of smartphones and thus vertical screens is growing significantly. American research on how long we spend looking at which screens online shows that the share of vertical screens increased from 11% to 56% between 2008 and 2017. A digital campaign is therefore also best thought of as a mobile campaign.
Tip 1: Create vertical video
90% of the time we hold our mobile vertically and 72% of millennials do not even turn their smartphone when watching a horizontal video. The conclusion we can draw from this is that vertical video is the most appropriate format for mobile because it takes into account the unique characteristics of the medium.
This allows vertical video to convey your message better than a standard horizontal 16:9 video. In fact, full-screen vertical videos take up 216% more screen space and therefore get more attention. This format is also available on more and more platforms: Instagram, Snapchat and mobile interstitials. Youtube is currently rolling out vertical video ads worldwide.
Social advertising is an important component of a digital awareness campaign and unfortunately this format is limited there to the stories and you cannot use it in the timeline. For that, it is best to opt for a square video or a vertical video in 4:5 ratio. This will also make your ad 78% and 122% larger, making it stand out more and attract more attention.
Vertical video has impact
Several studies show that it is also worth creating special expressions for mobile because vertical videos have a greater impact on brand values. Research from Facebook from 2016 shows that the brand is remembered 3% to 9% better with a vertical video.
Teads.tv, in collaboration with Ipsos, also conducted research on how to optimize video for mobile and found that square videos are remembered 60% better than horizontal videos and vertical videos even 83% better. In addition, square video increased brand preference by 11% and vertical by 15%. Both are likely related to the fact that the videos were watched 66% (square) and 53% (vertical) more often.
Tip 2: Keep it short
Earlier we wrote that people on mobile look at an expression on Facebook for an average of 1.7 seconds. On desktop, for that matter, this is only 2.5 seconds as well. The most important message, such as your brand name and product or service, must therefore be clear at a glance. Facebook research shows that people are 3 times more likely to act on your ad if the brand and message are mentioned in the first 10 seconds.
Tip 3: Non-forced: From building toward climax to teasing
One of the strengths of television as a branding medium is its forced exposure. With a TV commercial, this gives you time to build up to a climax where the story unfolds and the brand is revealed as the solution at the end. Online, however, viewers often have the option to skip your ad. Therefore, it is crucial to grab attention in those first few seconds.
In addition, you should try harder to keep the attention by teasing with the ending and telling the story in a non-chronological way. By the way, in YouTube the first 5 seconds are shown by default, if you have already shared your main message by then you benefit from free exposure.
There are certainly still online formats where exposure is always forced. Such as pre-roll deployment at RTLXL, Kijk or NPO Start. Youtube is also increasingly moving away from the skipable trueview format. A few years ago by introducing 6 second non-skippable dumper ads and now by making 15 second forced ads possible for all advertisers.
Tip 4: Text is a must
80%-90% of mobile users have their sound turned off. Optimize your ads accordingly by adding subtitles or leading people through your story with short texts in the video that pique people's curiosity to look further. The texts also help people understand the message better. The research by Teads and Ipsos shows that adding subtitles creates 34% more attention, 20% better ad recall and 18% more engagement.
