By Anant Sharma
Video dominates today’s digital marketing channels and is poised to continue dominating over the coming years. Vertical videos have gained popularity because they mirror modern consumer preferences. Given this, optimising this format in the most impactful ways is critical. Although video marketing is not new, consumer expectations have grown, and as the battle for viewer retention intensifies, the importance to cater to their convenience is reaching an all-time high.
The internet was dominated by users who became accustomed to the 16:9 aspect ratio for videos (landscape). However, the advent of social media introduced consumers to the vertical video format, which marked the development of this format. 57% of video plays worldwide come from mobile devices, and 94% of users hold their phones vertically, so it’s probable that they’re just more ergonomically sound for modern users. Following this trend, marketers are investing increasingly more in vertical videos.
Its relevance in today’s world
Vertical videos are gripping the social media and digital marketing spaces. Platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat, among others, have adopted and preferred vertical content formats. Facebook jumped on the bandwagon shortly after its peers, launching the Stories feature on its platform in late 2016. Instagram launched reels and IGTV, and YouTube allowed full-screen vertical video playback. While these platforms are already constructed and tailored to keep users engaged, vertical videos have a unique characteristic that makes them more immersive, particularly for younger audiences. Vertical content is more convenient for mobile users since it eliminates the need to rotate their phones to landscape to watch full-screen videos.
Since the rise of social media and its shortened content formats, the average human attention span has shrunk to that of a goldfish. Most vertical video content on the internet today is between 10-60 seconds to cater to that diminishing attention span, and vertical video content makes it easier and more convenient to focus on the action by removing unnecessary peripheral details. Vertical videos can reach a wider audience and offer significant marketing potential.
Vertical videos going beyond the ordinary
Vertical videos not only benefit users and social networks, but they also do wonders for businesses. Marketers who employ vertical videos to promote their products achieve better results, particularly in terms of views and engagement. Furthermore, due to the smoother experience, vertical video campaigns likely have a 9 times higher completion rate and a larger proportion of the consumer’s attention, making it a more effective tool for conveying brand messaging.
Today, brands use the vertical video format for nearly everything, from web series entertainment to educational content on LinkedIn. With the increased adoption of smartphones, vertical content is recorded virtually every second of every day, transforming how world events are reported and consumed. Due to the continued innovation across the major platforms encouraging vertical video creation and consumption, brands across categories continue to invest in ways to capitalise with solid content and precise delivery. New interactive features will continue revolutionising how we narrate stories, opening up opportunities to engage with audiences worldwide.
For example, car ads and campaigns are usually shot horizontally. However, Mercedes Benz shows vertical video is as effective in showcasing cars and their features as horizontal video.
They creatively capture the shot fully when working with the limited vertical video space. They tilt the camera at an angle to give the viewer a full panoramic view of the car or shoot an aerial view looking directly down on the vehicle. The vertical video format gives them more freedom to highlight the details in close-ups, like the interior, engine, and logos. (Image source: Mercedes Benz, Tik Tok)
Another example is Samsung. The vertical video today holds so much value that Samsung even optimised a concert stage for the phone screen. The brand threw a show in London with a three-tier stage that happens to fit perfectly in a vertical frame.
Similarly, popular brands like Amazon Prime, National Geographic, Louis Vuitton, and Taco Bell use vertical videos to improve their content engagement and drive traffic to increase revenue.
To conclude
Vertical videos will be a mainstay in the coming years, bringing another radical change in how we consume content. With social media platforms investing more heavily in the format and algorithms and user interfaces (UI) being tailored to serve more of it to users, vertical video is likely more than just a passing social media trend but a pivotal paradigm shift in the digital marketing sector. Marketers would be wise to jump on this evolution and cater to the consumers’ demands as an important part of their video marketing strategy.
The author is the co-founder and creative head at Momo Media.
