To keep pace with surging demand for online video, publishers, agencies, and brands will need to build and embrace the video content stack
Software may be eating the world, but video is feasting on the attention of today's consumers. Snapchat recently announced it generates 10 billion video views per day, growing by two billion in as many months. According to Cisco's Visual Networking Index, online video consumption will grow by more than 300 percent over the next four years. Which means that by 2020, video will account for 80 to 90 percent of all online traffic.
What this means for publishers, agencies, and brands of all sizes is that production of video content must either keep pace with consumer demand or else risk becoming irrelevant and ultimately invisible.
The challenge is a lack of resources and infrastructure to scale video content production. In the coming era, though, this needs to become a core competency for editorial and marketing teams. Digital video as a discipline needs to be internalized. Simultaneously, these teams will need to steadily increase the quality and shareability of their content in order to cut through the noise and reach audiences with any efficiency.
Of course, software is doing its best to eat the world of video production. This past year has seen the rise of a new technology and services stack to address many of the challenges of scaling online video.
Here are five discrete layers in the video content stack:
1. VidMob
Problem: The most challenging and time-consuming aspect of video marketing is editing. It can also be very expensive.
Solution: A platform and marketplace dedicated to connecting video creators with professional editors at disruptive rates.
Layer: This is the editing layer in the video stack. VidMob provides access to 4,000+ qualified video editors and a suite of tools that make it possible to scale high-quality video production for companies of all sizes. Through the company's mobile app, you'll upload raw video and photo assets to a Project and include direction such as music choices, copy, and logos. When you submit it, editors immediately respond with bids as low as $25 depending on the scope. When a bid is accepted, VidMob becomes a workflow tool. You'll receive drafts through the app, where you can provide feedback to the editor and receive subsequent versions. Once you accept the final version, it can be downloaded to your phone and published directly to Facebook and YouTube. The company's roadmap includes an enterprise dashboard to support broader collaboration.
2. Frame.io
Problem: Providing detailed feedback about a video via email is inefficient and anachronistic for one person. Tracking input from a group of people is downright impossible.
Solution: A centralized, purpose-built online environment for collaborating on video projects
Layer: This is the collaboration layer in the video stack. Frame.io is a powerful, cloud-based platform that enables editors, directors, agencies, clients, and other content stakeholders to efficiently collaborate on a video project. The core functionality is the ability to enter frame-by-frame feedback and annotations on a video. It's not unlike working on a Google Doc but infinitely more powerful because you're playing with HD video at 24 to 120 frames per second. The most impressive aspect of Frame.io is its speed: uploading videos, playback, foldering, versioning, synchronized side-by-side viewing, and more. It's lightning fast, and that's tough to replicate. Frame.io is cross-integrated with the major editing suites, making it even more seamless and efficient.
3. Blue Jeans
Problem: The inability for teams in remote locations to watch videos together and have a real-time conversation about them
Solution: Host videos in a web conferencing solution for seamless playback to all conference participants in real time
Layer: This is the communication layer in the video stack. Blue Jeans is a video-first web conferencing solution. As with GoToMeeting or WebEx, it includes dial-in, screen sharing, and other key features for web-based conference calls. The big differentiator is that it defaults to video. You use Blue Jeans because you always want to have a video conference, and it's optimized for specifically for this. The killer feature, though, is the ability to upload HD videos to Blue Jeans and watch them with your conference guests in real time without any latency or choppiness. If you want to provide feedback, just hit the spacebar. The video mutes and you can talk to the group. Otherwise everyone else is muted while the video is playing, yet you can still see one another to gauge reactions.
4. Shareability
Problem: Great content and shareable content are not necessarily the same thing. Shareable content requires a set of emotional dynamics that inspire people to send it to their friends, family, and followers.
Solution: A battle-tested creative, production, and distribution process with shareability at its core
Layer: This is the creative, production, and distribution layer in the video stack. Shareability is a new type of media company, one that has virtually perfected the process of delivering blockbuster (read: viral) brand videos. Their secret sauce includes creative input from Academy Award winners, YouTube gurus, and creative agency veterans. Distribution is powered by a network of key influencers, bloggers, and strategic media buying. True to its name, Shareability is obsessed with the idea of shareable content. This singular focus has enabled more than 25 of its videos to hit the front page of YouTube, including last year's third-most shared ad in the world: Ronaldo in Disguise. Above is the company's recent Mother's Day campaign for Cricket Wireless.
5. VidYard
Problem: B2B video marketing largely exists in its own silo, separate from email, web, and other forms of marketing that drive leads into a sales funnel, which means its not easily measurable.
Solution: Connect video marketing to your CRM system alongside other major channels
Layer: This is the measurement and analytics layer in the stack. VidYard is primarily a B2B video marketing solution. Video is a way to convey information and thought leadership to a targeted audience. Just as consumers are watching and demanding more video content, so are those on the buy side of business products and solutions. VidYard provides detailed analytics and conversion metrics for these videos, complete with integrations to the major CRM and marketing automation systems. So if you use VidMob to edit your video content or Shareability to create viral content, you'd use VidYard to see how it performed, converted, and ultimately generated ROI.