The age of video dominance seems to have dawned all over the media world. It feels like every industry is feeling the pinch to get into some sort of video marketing of its own. That’s because video media has proven to be not just more effective in reaching an audience than traditional print sources, but better at grabbing and holding their attention, too.
One need only look at the success of YouTube, undisputed king of the video boom, to realize the power of the new video-focused world. YouTube is now seeing an average of four billion unique video views a day, overwhelmingly from younger users. If that sounds like a ton of video, it is — and all that content is brimming with value for marketers.
In fact, Dr. James McQuivey, with Forrester Research, has found that just one minute of video can be as effective as 1.8 million words. Small wonder, then, that more emphasis is being placed on media training and video production in the workplace.
Much of this new content is being produced in-house, which can offer more control of the final product. With such an overwhelming volume of video content being pushed from all sources, however, it’s hard to capture the attention of a typical web-surfing viewer. Now more than ever, first impressions are important in marketing and web video. On average, a video has only 10 or 15 seconds to really hook the viewer before they decide to move on. Accordingly, it’s the professional video storytellers who tend to garner the most views. In response to the need for this level of dedicated video production, many businesses are turning to a boutique media company of some sort.
This practice of outsourcing video production has the advantage of placing the process entirely in the hands of experts in the business of catching and holding views online. Some production companies will go a step further to provide group media training for their clients, ensuring they look and sound their best to convey the message.
When you’re talking about a media form that can reach as much as 54% of the US population in any given month, it’s crucial that it be designed to cut through the digital noise. As long as companies need that sort of expert video production to market successfully, it’s likely the role of boutique media companies will only grow more pronounced over time.
