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10 Things You Need to Know About Video

Watch out - it's crawling out of its box and getting into everything

1. If you love your video - and its ability to generate revenue - set it free. Realizing that broad exposure is key, top content producers are abandoning destination sites for open distribution and syndication strategies.

2. Even free circulation around the Web is restrictive and limiting. It's necessary to facilitate video's spread across different environments, from mobile devices and TVs
to the University quad and the living room
.

3. Consider a method behind the madness of open distribution. Video, and the way it's distributed, can be geared to blend in with a sea of CGM on YouTube, an intimate personal page on Facebook or a weight-loss community.

4. Promiscuity might be the name of the game, but an abundance of content networks and video-sharing sites means there are just as many partners to ignore as invite. Focus on sites that offer high streaming quality and metrics on ad viewership and engagement.

5. Interruption is dead. Less interrupted videos will increasingly outperform those laden with pre-rolls, mid-roll or even overlays.

6. The trend will be for brand marketers to think more like content creators. There is no reason why advertising can't be more entertaining than the programming it accompanies, and thus legitimately win consumers' attention. 

7. Marketers who insist on interruption will take the opportunity to develop a narrative and foster interaction rather than running the same spot over and over. Spots will invite viewers to engage the content.       

8. Continue to embrace consumer-generated video, and its creation around particular communities, movements and brands. Engagement peaks when a consumer is actually contributing to the creative process.

9. Illegal downloads are a reality to contend with. There are pirates in these waters. This phenomenon is destined to be with us for years to come, so figure out how to monetize it.

10. Prepare for video of Steve Carrell lecturing that cheerleader from Heroes for being late. This will be the year content is able to be modified and remixed by consumers who will then turn it into something new.

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