TPP video production booms

The interest we’re seeing in video as a sought-after content marketing format isn’t exactly new. Most of our clients have been quite clear for some years that they need to be thinking about, and investing in, video as a key way of reaching and engaging customers. But what we have seen more recently is marketing departments unlocking considerably more budget for video, and giving it priority status. It’s our sense that there’s a conscious move to disinvest in traditional advertising media, particularly TV. Some of our clients have made this very explicit – that their short- to medium-term strategy is to substantially decrease or even completely wean off of traditional media, and to channel those budgets into performance marketing strategies. Video plays a key role in those strategies, not only because consumers now spend a very sizeable chunk of their time online watching video (one-third of time online is spent watching video in 2019), but also because ROI tends to be higher. For instance, on Facebook, video views campaigns frequently return the lowest cost per result (where the result is a video view) among all ad formats on the platform. Users spend 100 million hours daily watching videos on the platform.

A pretty penny
Until recently, video has typically been viewed as an expensive medium.  But this impression is now changing, precisely because the ROI is so strong, and because the costs are now being compared to those of traditional media – and coming up very favourably. Instead of traditional media spend being taken for granted and video being seen as a “nice-to-have”, video is now serious contender.

Next level engagement
The medium is also just beautifully suited to effective content marketing. It’s deeply engaging and – when it’s done right – has a special genius for offering consumers highly practical and behaviour-changing advice, from how-to makeup tutorials to “life hacks” and influencer marketing across industries. A high percentage (74%) of consumers who watch explainer videos about a product subsequently buy it, according to The State of Video Marketing report.

Relevant, localised content
We’ve recently received a range of video briefs, including beauty tutorials that speak very directly to a South African audience, on topics such as makeup for dark skin tones and natural hair tutorials. There’s no shortage of international video content, but the SA market is still relatively underserved when it comes to relatable local content and available brands and products. We’ve also done more chatty, Youtube-style Q&As with local influencers, recipe content, and “explainers”, which educate consumers about ingredients or trends in an editorial, rather than hard-sell, way, making them well suited for social media and magazine-style sites.

If you need to refine your video strategy, get quality videos produced or see how best to incorporate video into your overall strategy, get in touch with us.