4 common senses of short video operation!

In the past few years, I have shared some personal views on content marketing at events. In the subsequent roundtable discussion, a guest who looked like a brand owner asked me: What do you think about the impact of short videos on current brand marketing?

I answered it casually at the time, and when I got home and thought about it carefully, I felt that this is still a topic worth discussing. After all, this topic is very hot now, and everyone talks about short videos whenever they meet someone, but the understanding may be inconsistent, so I picked up my pen.

Here are a few of my pure thoughts, I hope they can inspire marketers to think:

1. How to understand the “short” in short videos

Some people think that a short video is one that is less than 5 minutes long, so many organizations that shoot short films are short video organizations; some people think that only a 6-second video like Vine, the originator of short videos, is a short video... So it is really strange to evaluate short videos by their length. For example, most TVCs are cut into 5s, 15s, or 30s... Then is CCTV considered a short video pioneer...?

I think the essence of short videos is [content that is easy for consumers to watch/be attracted to in fragmented time] .

Consumers' demands are definitely different in different scenarios. When watching a movie, consumers' threshold was 50 minutes, but now it can be reduced to 20 minutes; when watching advertisements, consumers' threshold used to be 50 seconds, but now it has become 5 seconds; that is to say, the content is more fragmented, so it looks "shorter", but this short is relative.

My personal classification is as follows, for reference only:

• Short display, 5s-30s is the most common, such as pre-roll ads and Douyin, which are destined to only attract attention due to their short duration;
• Short stories, 30s-5 minutes is common. Except for one or two updates, the content creation of business owners (including brand TVC) requires a story to carry a point of view, so it takes a longer time;
• Short episodes, 10-25 minutes long is the most common. This type of content, such as the Love Apartment extra-episode and Nike Women's customized series, is considered content innovation.

2. It’s natural for brands to make short videos, but they don’t have to be short

As a form of information that is more easily accepted by consumers, it is normal for brand owners to use videos on a large scale and even build in-house teams for it. Of course, the self-made content I am talking about here mainly refers to the content on owned media (official accounts), which should be more video and short video-like. For product introduction, if you can use a short video, don’t just use text; if you can use GIF, don’t just use static pictures... and so on.

In addition to the basic improvement of the original narrative method, there is a trend:

Foreign brands are producing more original content to wow consumers. The reason is that consumers don’t want to see the same content as in the past: According to a report by IDSA, consumers expect brand innovation more than in previous years; (Consumer expectation for brand innovation has increased 33% in the last year.)

Evan

Correspondingly, these brands seem to be producing more and more short feature films with long-form storytelling and not investing in hard advertising. These films either have stories or technology, and either provide novelty or shock. All in all, they are all good content.

They enter different scenes. The time required for storytelling and funny ones is different, while the ASMR (intracranial orgasm) ones are more likely to hold your attention for more than 20 minutes; so once again: time is not a problem, what kind of scene/attention of the consumer is the problem.

In this case, the brand first hopes to trigger a wave of spontaneous dissemination to see if the dissemination effect is good and verify the feasibility of the content, and then find KOLs to distribute it... This kind of thing will definitely become more and more common in China. For example, SK2's "Blind Date Corner" is a pioneer.

Of course, the prerequisite is that we need to believe more in the power of content (or the power of seriousness), and this is also an opportunity that only big brands can afford to play frequently.

3. Don’t ignore hard advertising innovation and optimization

Video hard advertising, especially pre-roll ads, is an area of ​​short video innovation that I think has been neglected in China. At present, the video platforms themselves are doing relatively well. They will have customized content for brands before major TV dramas and shows, such as an ad featuring a former rapper from The Rap of China;

But in other areas... Don’t you see that most brands that have large-scale investment just put the TVC on iQiyi and Tencent... My suggestion is to make targeted simplification. Here are two interesting cases I have seen:

One is a film released by BBDO in New York for a Levi's client: the original film was more than 1 minute long, with a narrative style that goes from lows to climaxes, which is more suitable for consumers who are in an "active listening" background; but they re-edited the film on Facebook's native feeds, with the first scene being a "man unbuttoning his pants", and then the girl looking at him... The film was finished and the logo was printed within 6 seconds.

Another one is GEICO, which was invested by Buffett. This company is really good at SKIP. They have already released advertisements about skip for two consecutive seasons. (Currently, I have only seen Tencent Video set a 6s skip in the mobile + free case. I believe this is the trend in the future)

Strictly speaking, this should be considered creativity, but creativity is based on insights into consumers’ media habits and attitudes toward advertising. In any case, there is still a lot of insights and innovations based on hard advertising that need to be explored. They are questions like the following:

• Gesture operation habits of consumers in different channels (horizontal or vertical
• When does the brand appear in the short video (before or after)
• Video ratio and comfort level in different media
• Does animation attract more attention (there are many uncomfortable scenes on Kuaishou and Meipai, how to avoid them?

Digital/engagement planners should be busy.

4. There are so many short video platforms, each with its own gameplay, so you need to think more

In fact, everyone is talking about short videos now, and people are paying more attention to short video platforms. Indeed, everyone has only 24 hours a day, so allocating some time to short videos is a big deal. Consumers are getting used to going to short video platforms to “have fun.”

According to TrustData's monitoring in June, the total DAU of mobile short video apps has approached 80 million... and the user scale in third-tier and lower cities is twice that of first- and second-tier cities... These data are indeed consistent with the current rankings:

Brand owners are beginning to pay more and more attention to this area, so how will they do it specifically? My opinion is that there are two main ways to play in the short video field:

The traditional way of playing is to view it purely as a medium for exposure, such as the startup screen, information flow and other advertising spaces. For example, gaming clients like to directly place performance-based ads to divert app downloads... This method is relatively simple.

The new way to play is how to cooperate with the platform from the content perspective. The ones that are easier to think of are:

① Implantation. Considering the platform's tone, high-end brands are more recommended to create embedded content, purely for exposure to test the level of disgust of platform users. I have seen natural placements of Pepsi and Monster on many platforms, and the effectiveness remains to be confirmed.

②Competition. Another thing is how to stimulate UGCPGC participation. For example, Oreo can do their traditional Oreo challenge on Douyin, such as how to eat Oreo, how to transform Oreo, etc. Then, we can try mechanisms such as celebrity teachers, giving rewards to participating KOLs, etc.

③Technical effect. Applications such as Meipai provide various filters. If brands are considering platform-level placement, they can give priority to cooperation based on this mechanism. Last year, Starbucks used the starry eyes special effects on Snapchat, and then collaborated on stickers on FaceU, both of which were good cases.

In short, the short video field will become a key bridgehead for digital marketing.

Digital marketers/strategists should pay attention to the storytelling methods, media habits, and technological applications of short videos, and explore opportunities to capture consumers' attention. There is still a lot of room for improvement and many opportunities to create cases.

Finally, I provide some good cases for search reference:

Short presentation: KFC K coffee (an eye-catching tool), Japan's self-deprecating popsicle advertisement

Short stories: Break2 (a challenge becomes a story), Didi Taxi (the one directed by a Thai director)

Short series: Margot vs Lily: Homebody vs Fitness Fanatic (nike women)

Author: Seeing is believing

Source: Seeing is believing