Video Was the Big Winner in 2020

BY Tim Londergan
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Seth Godin is credited with saying, “Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, but about the stories you tell.” And for your marketers and advertisers, your job is to help them tell their story. This need gives us a clue as to why video was the big winner in 2020.

Whether it was Zoom calls, virtual training, recorded live events or asynchronous video messaging, the use of video swelled in 2020. We all called on video to connect, educate, debate, explain, and build relationships during this challenging year.

Video was the big winner in 2020 because it is now easier, cheaper, and makes great business sense. According to socialmediatoday​.com, 87% of marketers believe video delivers an efficient ROI. They predict that video will account for 82% of all internet traffic by 2022!

24% of marketers used video for the first time in 2020

If your clients have not embraced video to tell their story, they are not alone, but certainly in the minority. 14.5% of marketers don’t publish video content. Also, 24% of video marketers used video for the first time in 2020. As a starting point, let me suggest the 2021 Video in Business Benchmark Report by Vidyard. It is a guide to best practices and can identify opportunities and evaluate the success of video marketing by your clients.

Video was the big winner in 2020 because the concept aligns with the self-​serve shopper. Today’s B2B buyers, in large part, have already made a purchasing decision before they ever talk to sales. The more educational content they can absorb, the more informed they will be.

Over half of SMBs moved toward using internal resources for video production this year. The most common types of videos are explainers, demos and how-​to guides with the average length of 6.06 minutes. Social media, websites and, of course, YouTube are the most popular distribution channels. Speaking of YouTube, it’s interesting to note that more than 2 billion logged-​in users visit YouTube every month to watch over a billion hours of video. People, on average, watch 16 hours of online videos per week. That’s a 52% increase in the last two years! One-​to-​one video grew almost five-​fold in 2020 over the prior year.

Video was the big winner in 2020 because everyone is becoming a creator. We no longer contend with huge production budgets and a video staff. The explosion of user-​generated "record-​and-​share" videos for sales, marketing and internal communications is the new norm. It is especially effective now that people have become confident using the embedded webcam in their electronic devices. 60% of all videos created in 2020 were user-​generated or user-​recorded. That represents a 128% increase over user-​generated content in 2019.

Retailers produce the most videos

As expected, high tech companies were the most prolific users of video. Financial, education, media, and professional services companies also use video in a big way. However, when the experts totaled the number of produced videos by sector, the retail and consumer goods sectors exceeded high tech. This is because the storytelling aspect of promo videos and product explainers are tasked with educating online audiences. 38% of Vidyard respondents have posted customer testimonials. One-​to-​one video grew five-​fold in just one year.

Larger companies are doubtless the heaviest users of produced video. Meanwhile, 75% of video content by companies under 200 employees is user-​generated. With lower barriers of entry, small companies are posting video at a faster rate, and you should be encouraging and helping your clients to do the same.

The 2021 Benchmark Report is a wonderful addition to your selling toolkit. Added to the data in AdMall, you can use the details to explain video engagement, performance, demographics, and analytics. Talk to your clients about the power of video and help them tell their story.


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