Video Marketing: What’s Changed in 2024

Video content has become the most powerful tool in marketing, grabbing people's attention, delivering messages effectively, and getting viewers involved. However, the world of video marketing is always changing, with new ideas and changes in what viewers want.

With new technology accelerating rapidly in terms of its capabilities, new consumer preferences and behaviour to tackle, and online platforms that continue to evolve, there’s a lot in store that could make or break your video strategies. 

That being said, there are some fundamental principles behind video content that never change. So, what do you simply need to tweak or adopt, and what needs to go right back to the drawing board?

What is video marketing?

Video marketing is the strategic use of video content to promote and market a brand’s story, value, products, or services. It encompasses creating and sharing videos to attract, engage, and convert an audience. With the rise of digital media, video marketing has become a key element in content strategies, allowing brands to communicate their messages more effectively and connect with their audience on a deeper level.

In 2024, video marketing involves more than just producing advertisements. It includes a variety of content types, such as tutorials, live streams, customer testimonials, and behind-the-scenes footage, distributed across multiple platforms like social media, company websites, and email campaigns, among others. The objective is to create compelling content that resonates with viewers and drives them to take action, whether that’s making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, engaging with more or longer form content, or following a brand on social media.

Benefits of Video Marketing in 2024

The rise of video across all kinds of content strategies has been significant, particularly over the last 10 years or so. But with new technology and evolving platforms, it’s set to become an even more exciting area in the year ahead.

Shifting Viewership from Broadcast to Digital

There's been a significant shift in how people consume TV and movie content, moving away from traditional broadcast TV towards digital platforms. This trend is pivotal for video marketing strategies in 2024, as the digital arena offers new opportunities and challenges.

The landscape of television is changing dramatically, with traditional broadcast TV seeing a decline in viewership. More people are turning to online platforms for their entertainment needs, favouring the convenience and flexibility that digital content offers. A report from Nielsen in 2023 found that linear TV now accounts for less than 50% of all TV viewing. 

YouTube, with its huge repository of content and global reach, has seen a remarkable increase in hours watched. In 2022, YouTube was the most downloaded entertainment app in the world, beaten only by Netflix and TikTok. This platform, along with others like it, is at the forefront of a video content revolution, offering new opportunities to reach diverse audiences. Similarly, the rise of Connected TV (CTV) has opened new avenues for consuming TV content through internet-connected devices. A study published by the Leichtman Research Group found that in 2013, 44% of households had a Connected TV—a figure that had risen to 88% of households by 2023. The increase in CTV usage highlights the growing preference for on-demand and streaming services over traditional TV broadcasting.

When it comes to video marketing, these shifts signify exciting new avenues to work with these changing audience preferences and drastically expand the reach of your content.

Posting Full-Length Video to Social Media Platforms

The ways in which full-length TV shows and movies are being consumed are also changing. Social media platforms like YouTube are no longer just for short clips and teasers; full-length scripted and unscripted episodes, even movies, are finding a home on these digital stages. This emergence of long-form content on social platforms represents a completely new way of consuming TV and movies, with implications for rights holders and marketers alike.

Repackaging and distributing existing TV content on social media platforms can be a game-changer. This strategy can breathe new life into previously aired content while also tapping into the social media-savvy audience that prefers these digital platforms. It's a way to extend the reach and lifespan of content, making it accessible to a wider, potentially global audience. Not only that, it creates a brand new revenue stream for studios and rights holders by providing new monetisation opportunities for older content.

Enhanced Engagement

Video marketing is incredibly effective at capturing and holding the audience's attention. Videos, with their dynamic and visual nature, can engage viewers more deeply than text-based content, making it easier to convey complex messages and leave a lasting impression. The draw of platforms like YouTube and TikTok, with billions of views daily, is evidence of video’s draw. And for brands, this viewership and engagement translates into bottom-line impact. For example, 89% of people say a marketing video has convinced them to buy a product or services.

Increased Reach

As people increasingly consume video content, incorporating videos and expanding your platform usage in your digital marketing strategy can drastically expand your reach. Videos are more likely to be shared and can go viral, helping to extend your brand's visibility across different platforms and demographics.

Search Engine Optimisation

Including video content on your website can enhance SEO efforts. Search engines prioritise content that provides a rich user experience, and videos can increase the time spent on site and improve search rankings. Google often shows video content from platforms like YouTube directly in search results, too. 

Plus, YouTube in itself also behaves as a search engine—in fact, it’s the second largest search engine in the world behind its parent company, Google. So, strategising how your content can be surfaced to your target audience directly on the YouTube platform is just one more way that video marketing complements SEO. 

Versatile Content Format

Video marketing is versatile and can be adapted for lots of purposes, from product demonstrations and customer testimonials to educational content and brand storytelling. This versatility allows businesses to use video across different stages of the marketing funnel, and to encourage all types of user actions.

Insightful Analytics

Video platforms offer detailed analytics, providing marketers with valuable insights into viewer behaviour, engagement levels, and content performance (check out this detailed guide on YouTube Analytics as an example). These metrics can help in refining marketing strategies and optimising video content for better results. With AI on the rise, the insights into user interactions with video content is only set to improve how you can assess and improve your video marketing performance.

Stronger Emotional Connection

Videos have the power to evoke emotions, tell compelling stories, and create a personal connection with the audience. This emotional engagement can strengthen brand loyalty and foster a sense of community among viewers.

Enhanced Personalisation

AI can analyse viewer behaviour and preferences, allowing for the creation of personalised video content—a capability that’s only set to evolve and improve. This means videos can be tailored to individual viewers, increasing relevance, engagement, and the likelihood of conversion.

Improved Accessibility

Video overcomes a lot of accessibility challenges when it comes to online content consumption, including audio over reading, and closed-captions for people with hearing loss. AI-driven tools like automatic captioning and language translation also make videos more accessible to a global audience, expanding the reach and inclusiveness of video content.

10 Types of Marketing Videos to Try

Explainer Videos

Explainer videos are typically short, often running between 1 to 3 minutes, and are designed to clarify a product or service's purpose and workings. They’re especially helpful for breaking down complex concepts into digestible, easy-to-understand pieces. 

By combining visual and auditory elements, they can improve understanding and retention for your target audience. These videos can be animated or live-action and often follow a problem-solution format, quickly addressing the viewer's pain points and demonstrating how the featured product or service provides a solution.

Product Demos

Product demonstration videos go in-depth into how a product works, showing off its functionality, features, and real-world application. They’re mostly used to guide potential customers through the usage and benefits of a product, helping them visualise how it fits into their lives or work processes. 

These demos can be particularly useful for tech gadgets, software, or any product where functionality and design are key selling points. By showing the product in action, you can effectively communicate your value proposition and differentiate from competitors.

Testimonial Videos

Testimonial videos feature satisfied customers talking about their positive experiences with a brand. These are powerful marketing tools because they offer social proof, leveraging the credibility and trustworthiness of real users to influence potential buyers. 

Longer form case study videos provide a narrative that details the customer's journey from problem to solution, showing the impact of the product or service on a person’s life or business. 

Brand Story Videos

Brand story videos delve into the heart of what your company stands for, its history, mission, and the values driving its operations. These videos are storytelling tools that aim to connect emotionally with the audience, building a narrative that resonates with viewers and helps them feel a part of the brand’s journey. 

Through compelling storytelling, brands can differentiate themselves in the market, building a strong brand identity and loyalty. By sharing stories of challenges, successes, and the unique journey of the brand, these videos cultivate a sense of authenticity and trust.

How-To Guides

How-to guides or tutorial videos are mainly educational tools that guide viewers through a process, teaching them new skills or improving their understanding of a product, service, or other offering. 

These guides are hugely valuable in offering actionable advice or step-by-step instructions, making complex tasks manageable and accessible. They position your brand as a knowledgeable and helpful industry leader, increasing customer trust and engagement. By providing clear, concise, and useful content, brands can address customer needs and questions, enhancing overall user experience and driving views and engagement.

Animated Videos

Animated videos are a versatile and creative way to communicate messages, making it easier to explain stories, ideas, or data through engaging, colourful, and dynamic visuals. 

They can bring to life abstract ideas that might be difficult to represent with live-action footage, offering endless possibilities for creativity. Animation can simplify complicated subjects, making them more understandable and enjoyable for the audience. 

These types of videos are particularly useful for educational content, ads, or explaining technological processes, providing an entertaining and memorable way to absorb information.

Live Streams

Live streaming gives you an unedited, real-time interaction with audiences, allowing for immediate feedback and engagement through Q&A sessions, interviews, events, or behind-the-scenes tours. 

Live streams can build excitement around product launches or events, and they humanise the brand by showing the faces and personalities behind it. They are effective in creating a shared experience and can significantly boost engagement and loyalty by providing an authentic and immersive experience.

Personalised Videos

Personalised videos are made for speaking directly to individual viewers, incorporating their name, preferences, past interactions, or other personal details into the video content. 

This customization enhances the viewer's connection with the content, making the message more relevant and engaging. Personalised videos can be used in lots of contexts, such as personalised product recommendations, customer onboarding, or milestone celebrations, to create a unique and memorable experience that strengthens the relationship between brand and customer.

Social Media Videos

Social media videos are concise, attention-grabbing clips tailored to the fast-paced nature of platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok. These videos are designed to convey a message quickly and effectively, often within a few seconds to a minute, to capture the viewer's interest in a crowded social media feed. 

The goal is to create shareable, viral content that resonates with the audience, driving engagement through likes, comments, shares, and ultimately enhancing brand visibility and recognition.

UGC Social Games

UGC games on social offer interactive experiences that go beyond traditional video watching, allowing viewers to engage with the content in a more dynamic and immersive way by participating directly. These challenges and games often lean on interactive features on social platforms to provide a more engaging way for fans to interact with content and participate in a community around their favourite brands. 

It’s a type of video marketing that is particularly effective in areas like sport. Check out this example, produced by Little Dot Studios for the Barclays Women's Soccer League, of Aston Villa’s Alesha Lehmann participating in a snapshot challenge on TikTok.

Video Marketing in 2024: The Old and the New

Connecting with your audience on a human level has always been the pillar that holds up successful content strategies. But markets, audience preferences and consumer behaviour fluctuate, so knowing what’s ahead ensures your video strategies remain relevant and engaging for viewers.

Technological Breakthroughs

In 2024, we're seeing big changes in video marketing, driven by technology. AI and machine learning are leading the way, helping create videos that are more tailored to individual viewers. These technologies are making video creation and editing smarter and are also improving how we engage with audiences, such as offering content that fits their needs in real-time.

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are also transforming the scene, mixing the real and digital worlds in exciting ways. Companies are using AR and VR to create unique experiences, like showing products in your home or hosting virtual events for new product launches.

The introduction of 5G technology is another game-changer, making video streaming much faster and higher quality. This is especially important for watching videos on mobile devices, ensuring that live streams and other content can be watched anywhere, anytime, without any lag or delay.

The Evolution of Platforms and Content Formats

In video marketing, the scene keeps changing with new platforms and video types. Marketers need to keep up, adjusting their methods to make the most of these new opportunities. There's a growing number of social media apps and video platforms, each with unique traits and audiences. Understanding these can help make sure the right people see and connect with your content.

In 2024, short-form videos like TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts have become even more popular, influencing how people watch and enjoy videos. These platforms prefer quick, engaging content. However, long-form videos still play a crucial role. They're great for in-depth tutorials, documentaries, and showing what goes on behind the scenes, building trust and loyalty with viewers. Long-form also lends itself well to “marathon” viewing of episodes for fans of specific channels, playlists or series.

There's also a rise in interactive and shoppable videos, creating a new way for people to watch and shop at the same time. Imagine watching a cooking video and being able to buy the ingredients right there and then, or buying products shown in a story-driven video. These changes are making video content more interactive and are blending storytelling with shopping, opening new doors for brands to attract and engage their audience.

Shifting Tides in Consumer Behaviour

Over the past couple of years, there has been a noticeable shift towards short, impactful videos that provide quick value. This trend shows a preference for content that's both brief and beneficial, impacting various stages of the consumer's buying process, from discovery to purchase. That’s not to say that longform content should be written off, but it's imperative that short form, vertical content for channels like YouTube Shorts are incorporated into your future video strategies.

As personalisation in marketing becomes increasingly important, it also brings privacy concerns to the forefront. Consumers want content that feels personal and relevant but are wary of their privacy being compromised. This creates a crucial balance for marketers: to deliver personalised content while respecting privacy and building trust. Successful video marketing now requires creating content that meets individual needs without overstepping on data privacy, emphasising ethical data practices and a commitment to meaningful engagement.

Placing Authenticity and Value at the Centre of Content Strategies

In 2024, being real and adding value is key in creating content strategies. People want to see real stories and authentic experiences from brands more than ever. Companies showing their true selves, having honest conversations, and sharing real-life moments are hitting the mark with their audiences. Storytelling remains essential, helping to build emotional ties and a sense of belonging, going beyond just selling something.

Alongside this need for authenticity, there's a big focus on sustainability and being socially responsible. Today's consumers are more thoughtful about where they spend their money, preferring brands that match their values and are committed to making a difference. When videos show a brand's dedication to sustainability and social responsibility, it not only showcases the brand's principles but also sets it apart in a busy marketplace. Thus, video marketing has evolved into a way to express a company's core values, helping to create deep, value-based connections with viewers.

6 Stages of Marketing Video Production

Ideas for videos are great, but building a strategy is just the first step. Executing it with high-quality, engaging video content requires a carefully thought out and rigorous process, from ideating to publishing.

• Concept and Scriptwriting: This initial stage involves brainstorming ideas, defining the video’s purpose, and writing a script. It sets the foundation for what the video will communicate and how it will engage the audience.
• Pre-production Planning: Here, you plan the shoot details, including casting, location scouting, and scheduling. It’s about organising all elements needed to ensure a smooth production process.
• Production: This is the actual shooting stage, where you capture all the footage according to the script and storyboard. It involves directing actors or talent, setting up scenes, and recording the video, ensuring you’ll easily be able to repurpose clips into multiple formats and ratios.
• Post-production: After filming, this stage includes editing the footage, adding music, sound effects, and visual effects. It’s where the video comes to life and gets polished into the final product.
• Review and Approval: Before release, the video should go through a review process where stakeholders can suggest changes or approve the content, ensuring it meets the objectives and quality standards.
• Distribution: The final step is distributing the video across your channels, such as social media, websites, or advertising platforms, to reach the target audience and achieve the marketing goals.

Each of these stages is crucial for creating videos that capture attention, convey the intended message, and drive viewer action. Without them, you can spend a lot of time and budget on a video that just doesn't hit the mark.

How and Where to Distribute Marketing Videos for Maximum Impact

It’s not just the creation of your videos that needs careful strategising— how and where you distribute the content is equally important for success. Here are some best practices:

• Understand Your Audience: Before distributing your videos, know where your target audience spends their time online. Different demographics have preferences for different platforms, so tailor your distribution strategy to where your audience is most active.
• Tailor Content for Each Platform: Each social media platform has its own best practices for video content. For example, Instagram Stories, TikTok and YouTube Shorts are ideal for short, engaging videos, while YouTube and Facebook support longer, in-depth content. Tailoring the video's length, format, and style to each platform leads to increased reach and better engagement.
• Optimise for SEO: In general, matching your content and format to each platform improves how unique algorithms discover and show your videos to users. But it’s also important to make your videos discoverable in search results. On platforms like YouTube and TikTok, use keywords, tags, hashtags and compelling descriptions to improve your video's visibility. SEO is crucial for ensuring your videos are discoverable by a wider audience.
• Leverage Your Website: Your own website is a powerful platform for distributing video content. Embed videos on relevant pages to enhance user experience and keep visitors engaged longer, which can also help in SEO efforts.
• Email Marketing: Include videos in your email campaigns to increase open and click-through rates. Emails with video content can drive more traffic to your website or specific landing pages.
• Social Media Advertising: Consider using paid advertising on social media platforms to promote your videos to a wider or more targeted audience. These platforms offer sophisticated targeting options to reach specific demographics, interests, and behaviours.
• Partner with Influencers: Collaborate with influencers or industry leaders to share your video content. This can extend your reach to their followers and lend credibility to your brand.
• Track Performance and Adjust: Use analytics tools to track the performance of your videos across different platforms. Monitoring views, engagement, and conversion metrics can help you understand what works best and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Tailoring Strategies for Specific Social Media Platforms and Distribution Networks

Lots of platforms are beginning to expand the video formats available to users and creators. For example, TikTok has experimented with the max length of clips to provide access to longer content, and YouTube has introduced Shorts. As platforms experiment, 2024 is a good time for brands to do the same, too. But here are some general tips for customising your video strategies by platform:

• Understand the platform's unique features: Each social media platform has distinct characteristics and user expectations. For example, Instagram Stories and Reels are ideal for quick, engaging content, while YouTube is great for longer, more detailed videos.
• Optimise video length: Tailor the length of your videos to suit the platform. Short-form videos work well on TikTok and Instagram, whereas longer videos can be more appropriate for YouTube or Facebook.
• Consider the audience: Each platform tends to attract different demographics. LinkedIn is used by professionals, so content should be more formal and business-oriented. In contrast, TikTok has a younger audience that prefers fun, creative, and casual content.
• Adjust video format and style: Vertical videos are preferred on Instagram Stories and TikTok, while landscape works better for YouTube and Facebook. The style of the video should also match the platform's tone – professional on LinkedIn, casual and entertaining on TikTok.
• Use platform-specific features: Leverage features like YouTube's SEO options for titles, descriptions, and tags, Instagram's hashtags, or TikTok's trending sounds and effects to increase the reach of your content.
• Engage with the community: Interaction is key on all platforms. Encourage comments, shares, and likes, and respond to feedback to boost engagement and visibility.
• Monitor and adapt: Each platform uses its own unique algorithm to surface content to users. While the inner workings of those algorithms are not made public, keeping a close eye on your individual video performance helps you see what to tweak to better please the algorithm (and users). Use analytics tools provided by these platforms to track the performance of your videos. Analyse what works and continuously adapt your strategy to optimise the impact of your video content.

Get Broadcast-Quality Video Content to Grow, Engage and Monetise Your Digital Audiences

The landscape of video marketing in 2024 is vibrant and dynamic, shaped by technological innovations, changing consumer behaviours, and a strong emphasis on authenticity and value. As we navigate these evolving trends, it's clear that strategic, engaging, and meaningful video content is crucial for businesses aiming to connect with their audience on a deeper level.

Little Dot Studios, with its expert grasp on digital storytelling and content creation, is your ideal partner in this journey. We specialise in turning creative ideas into powerful visual narratives, ensuring your brand's message not only reaches but also profoundly connects with your audience.

Elevate your brand's narrative with Little Dot Studios, where storytelling meets digital excellence. Connect with us today to craft a video marketing strategy that’s ahead of its time.