Whether you keep up with the latest marketing research or not, it’s clear that video is here to stay. But, with each new report release, we’re able to dive a little deeper into video’s significance—both within the media world and outside it.
Digital advertising company Postclick recently released a new report entitled, “The 2021 Digital Advertising Trends Report,” which sheds some light on just how prevalent the trend towards video will be in 2021.
Keep reading for a few of the report’s key findings.
Postclick Report Findings
Video Is the “Next Big Thing” in Digital Advertising
First, the most important finding (in our opinion): “When asked about the next big things in digital advertising, surveyed marketers identified video, personalization, and artificial intelligence. Video came in first” (Postclick).
This is interesting for a few reasons. First, video marketers saw this coming. The results about what video can accomplish for a business have been striking and consistent for years. Video generates leads, drives engagement, closes deals, and builds loyalty. (Don’t believe us? Check out 67 statistics that back up these claims here.) Ultimately, once you’ve invested in creating your content, there are virtually no downsides to distributing it.
The fact that marketers now point to video as the “next big thing” in digital advertising will likely mean that those who have been slow to adopt video in their strategies have no excuse. After all, if all of your competitors are having success with video content, it’s probably time for you to try it, too.
The second reason that this finding is interesting is that video can actually be combined with personalization and artificial intelligence, the other items identified as opportunities this year.
We’ve promoted the benefits of personalized video content over and over (see here, here, and here) in the past few years, so savvy marketers can take advantage of both of the top two opportunities in digital advertising with personalized video content.
AI is also opening up new possibilities for video content. There are already AI chatbots that can respond with video messages, and YouTube uses AI software for a number of purposes, including removing objectionable videos and selecting “Up Next” content to serve to users after their video ends. AI also aids video analytics by capturing and sorting data about video elements that viewers react to and likely don’t even notice: the colors in a particular scene, facial expressions, and other nuances that we could never track or monitor without AI.
In other words, video is going to be powerful in 2021, and video marketers have a unique opportunity to take advantage of all three of the most promising digital advertising trends in one fell swoop.
Most Respondents Plan to Increase Video Spending in 2021
Next, the report’s second finding related to video.
According to Postclick’s research, 61% of marketers plan to increase their online video spending in 2021. Rounding out the responses, 31% anticipate no change in online video spending this year and only 8% plan to decrease.
The importance here lies in the fact that these responses are from October 2020, meaning that they fully take into account the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the business world. We’ve seen numbers like these in the past, but when economic growth took a hit in 2020, we couldn’t be completely sure whether video would survive budget cuts and priority shifts.
The fact that 61% of marketers plan to increase online video spending in 2021 indicates that video did survive and is in fact a critical component of many businesses’ recovery strategies.
TikTok Will Continue to Grow
Finally, we can’t talk about 2021 video trends without talking about TikTok. The report reveals this finding: “When asked which digital advertising channels they planned to start using in 2021, one-quarter said TikTok, demonstrating once again that online video is increasing in importance.”
Many brands are just now beginning to understand the power of TikTok—a largely untapped market for brands—and plan to jump on the bandwagon in 2021. This finding is so significant that it’s one of the report’s eight main predictions for 2021.
We’ve written about TikTok’s impact on the production industry here, and compared it to Instagram Reels here, but suffice it to say that 2021 is a great time to try your hand at short-form video.
The theme of all these findings, of course, is that video is already a big deal, and it’s only going to get bigger. If putting together your own video strategy is too daunting, give us a call and we’ll put together a custom plan that aligns with your goals.