• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, May 19, 2016

Far and away, the greatest gift a consumer can give a brand is to share one of its video ads via social channels. Today, “There’s nothing more valuable,” Rachel Pasqua, Practice Lead of Connected Life at MEC Global, told attendees at the OMMA Video conference, on Thursday. “It’s a free ad for you.”

And, Pasqua’s peers couldn’t agree more. “The share value is huge,” said Trevor O’Brien, Partner & CTO at Deutsch. Added O’Brien, if brands can only ask one question of their agency partners, it should be: “Are people sharing what you put out?”

More broadly, what new trends are gaining the most traction with brands?

Virtual reality, O’Brien says. “It just changes how you view content.”

“Shoppable media like Pinterest’s ‘Buy Now’ button,” Pasqua suggests.

Yeah, “Shoppable video is really cool,” O’Brien agreed. “It’s amazing.”

It’s about about the “conversion of [messaging] bots and video together,” according to Craig Elimeliah, Director of Creative Technology, North America, VML. “To me, I think that’s where things are heading very quickly.”