Five things you need to know about video marketing

1. Don’t be afraid to use hyper-fragmentised videos

Online video has all of a sudden created an infinite shelf for content, and the fragmentation it renders is ample. Over 35 hours of content is uploaded to You Tube each minute.

Now, if you’re a beauty product enthusiast, not only can you watch a dedicated channel all about make-up tips, but you can also go straight to niche topics to find videos on how to do Lady Gaga’s eyes as featured in 'Bad romance'. Marketers can promote their brands and products subtly by cutting through the clutter via hyper-fragmentised videos.

2. Great content can come from anywhere.

Online video is just an extension of the video fragmentation story. As TV fragmented from a few terrestrial commercial channels to hundreds, new content surfaced in different forms across Asia-Pacific.

Online video is fragmenting video at many times the order of magnitude and the variety of content creators is changing in similar ways. From FMCG to film studios, record labels to bedroom video bloggers, video-sharing sites have become a home to the rampant growth of professionally-produced and user-generated content.

3. Engaging ads are becoming content

Fragmentation and online video propel marketers to rethink about advertising. For years, marketers have tried to build ads and force viewers to watch them by bundling them with content. But viewers choose to watch these engaging ads instead of content. 

Over the years, TV has offered higher monetisation by displaying more ads per hour. But now, the trend is reversing due to the exponential growth of online video. Eventually, fewer ads will be shown but with more advertiser impact generated from each view, delivering even higher monetisation to content creators.

4. There is no online video, just video.

We are seeing a convergence as the war between online video and TV is coming to an end. With the rise of IPTV and mobile devices, the segregated worlds of television and the web is collapsed into one seamless entertainment experience.

Marketers are fascinated by the business potential brought on by an expanded universe of content from a variety of sources including television providers, the web, content libraries and mobile applications.

5. Use video to open doors to untapped markets.

Engagement is the key to any successful video campaign and there is no 'one-size-fits-all' solution. Whereas for deep-pocketed sports advertisers, sports events like the Indian Premier League (IPL) is one of the 'must-have' Asian media properties. Video streaming of IPL matches opens up a new form of distribution for sports rights and introduces new opportunities for brands to expand into different untapped markets.