Facilitated by fancier phones and stronger Web connections, brands can finally put video at the center of their mobile strategies. As many are learning, however, video presents some unique
challenges.
Take the matter of getting viewers’ attention. Because consumers have become so quick with their thumbs, brands only have a spit second to engage.
“Numerous
studies and campaigns have made it clear that capturing people’s attention at the very beginning of a video is the most effective way to advertise in a mobile feed environment,” says Matt
Idema, VP of monetization and product marketing at Facebook.
Unfortunately, sound isn’t a smart option. Indeed, when feed-based mobile video ads unexpectedly get loud, a whopping
80% of people react negatively toward the platform and the brand, according to internal Facebook findings.
One solution is adding captions, which increases video viewing time by an
average of 12%, the social giant found. Facebook is now testing automated captioning with willing brand partners, including Kleenex, Sunsilk and Absolut.
Brands should also be paying close
attention to the first few frames of their video, and consider whether those images are sufficiently arresting to delay the all-powerful thumb swipe.
As research conducted by both Facebook and
Twitter suggests, people are burning through a lot more content on their phones than on their PCs.
In fact, 47% of a video’s value is delivered in the first three seconds, while 74% of
the value is delivered in the first 10 seconds, Facebook and Nielsen found last year.
What’s more,
people can recall mobile News Feed content after seeing it for only a quarter of a second, according to independent Fors-Marsh tests conducted by Facebook.
Translation: Engaging mobile
consumers has become a matter of milliseconds, and the clock is ticking.