Marketing agency Millward Brown created a presentation called “Digital and Media Predictions 2014″ that gives a strong indication of what we can expect.
“In 2014, we’ll see more marketers seeking to generate interaction between screens via interesting approaches such as TV ads with hashtags,” says Duncan Southgate, global brand director for digital at Millward Brown. “However, the most successful marketers will build a cohesive, clear, and consistent presence across screens and closely align advertising expenditure with the time their audience spends on each device.”
Here are Millward Brown’s top five predictions for video marketers:
Brands will experiment with micro-video platforms, like Vine.
Micro-video became a force in 2013, with Coca-Cola, Oreo, and Red Bull experimenting with short videos or animated GIFs on Vine, Instragram, and Tumblr. The key for marketers is to combine creativity with simplicity, says Millward Brown. Branded Vine videos are four times more likely to be shared virally than traditional online videos, it notes.
2. Spending on mobile media will increase, especially for youth brands.
When trying to reach young people, smartphones are the only screens that matter, says Millward Brown. Since this audience is especially fickle, marketers need to connect when them on their level, using their language and youth-centric style. Constant innovation will be the key in 2014.
3. Marketing budgets will continue to shift from TV to online video.
For TV marketers who wonder whether or not online screens can deliver like TV, Millward Brown says don’t worry. It studied the effect of moving 40 percent of a campaign’s TV budget online in China, and found that reach increased 20 percent. In 2014, video campaigns will need to work well across all screens. Look for marketing agencies to be restructured since it will no longer make sense to have separate TV and online divisions.
4. Marketers will experiment with new screens, such as smart watches and Google Glass.
We’ll see new screens hit the market in 2014, such as Google Glass getting a general release and Apple unveiling the iWatch. Those new screens will represent new opportunities for video marketers. The challenge, Millward Brown says, is to learn what wearers want from those new screens and offer something useful.
5. The line between TV and online video will disappear.
The screen won’t matter to the viewer in 2014, and it shouldn’t matter to the video marketer, either, says Millward Brown. Viewers will be happy to start watching a program on a smartphone and resume it on a big-screen TV. Video marketing needs to move just as fluidly, and marketers will need to do greater research to understand who’s watching.
Read Millward Brown’s full report, which includes even more video marketing predictions here.