Online video consumption and how brands can survive

30 Dec, 2023

Over the years, long YouTube videos dominated the video marketing industry, making the platform the second most popular search engine in the world after Google acquired it. For most, it’s the place to relax, learn new insights, review products and worship celebrities.

It even gave now well-known artist, Justin Bieber, the rise to stardom as he sold out New York’s Madison Square Garden in 22 minutes — three years after his mother posted his video, aged 12.

But, although the platform is still going strong by recording $28.8 billion in 2021, recent developments in the industry are shaping how people consume video worldwide. In this blog, I’ll examine what’s changed and what the future may look like for brands.

Online video platforms, 2004-2017

It’s crazy what a wardrobe malfunction can influence. When Jawed Karim and his friends — Chad Hurley and Steve Chen — couldn’t find a video of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, and Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during the Super Bowl, they launched YouTube to make access to video easier.

That single decision changed the world of video content as it was — middlemen journalists and broadcasters lost the leverage they wielded over publishing and distribution. Since then, YouTube has grown from having over two million new videos daily to roughly 3.7 million daily uploads.

But competitors like Instagram, Vine, Snapchat and recently TikTok are pushing for short videos, a total opposite of what YouTube dominated the industry with.

Let’s have a look at one after the other:

Instagram - October 2010

Launched in 2010, Instagram was known as the photo-sharing app. When friends wanted to post pictures of events or talk about a new favourite coffee, Instagram was the go-to photo-sharing platform. It gathered 25,000 users in one day and was downloaded 100,000 times after the first week. And by December, the number of Instagram users reached one million.

In 2013, Instagram introduced video-sharing to allow users to upload 15-second videos on their pages. But the potential for short videos was still not recognised at this period.

Snapchat - September 2011

Sharing funny but embarrassing moments can be tricky because you don’t want them to spread. From bawling your eyes out after a breakup to slipping in the bathroom, you want that confidence you can only get knowing the video you shared has disappeared.

This was the key differentiator between Snapchat and other social media platforms — you can share all your vulnerable moments because it doesn’t require you to be aesthetically pleasing. And everything you share can disappear.

In 2012, Snapchat added videos to the platform, allowing users to share 10-second videos with each other. This resulted in seeing 50 million snaps per day and, by 2016, Snapchat had garnered 150 million daily active users.

But the dopamine rush wasn’t enough to pioneer short-form videos on a large scale.

Vine - June 2012

Dom Hofman, Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll launched what they thought would only help people capture videos in 6 seconds for their friends. But Vine became the pioneer of short-form videos among teenagers.

This was the nail in the coffin of sub-par video content as 6-seconds meant you had to get to grab interest or fall off. Those who did this well, like Andrew Bachelor, aka King Bach, garnered over 10 million followers.

Unfortunately, Vine had no monetisation plan, and that didn’t change even after Twitter acquired it for $30 million in October 2012. This coupled with issues with management led to Vine’s demise in October 2016.

Musical.ly - August 2014

Vine was successful because the 6-seconds limit meant users didn’t need a professional budget to make videos. People with no experience could whip out engaging videos that sometimes went viral.

For example, Jack & Jack — two 18-year-old Nebraska rappers without a record deal — regularly dominated the iTunes download charts thanks to their five million Vine followers.

Facebook introduced an auto-play feature in September 2013 while Instagram increased the video limit to 15 seconds in June. As a result, the internet got used to short-form videos.

But these improvements only set the stage for a fresh video-sharing platform — Musical.ly. It allowed users to:

This attracted influencers and celebrities, especially musicians who could now post snippets of their songs and have fans re-use the audio as background music for their videos, making the songs popular.

The result?

Musical.ly had gained over 200 million users by May 2017 when it was acquired by Bytedance and merged with TikTok. And today, TikTok has over one billion monthly active users.

What is the effect of TikTok on online video consumption?

Much has changed with the emergence of TikTok:

All as an attempt to compete with TikTok’s projected 15% yearly growth rate. TikTok's average time spent is 52 minutes, but on Instagram, that’s down to 28 minutes.

YouTube, though, has over 2 billion monthly logged-in users with 1.5 billion already engaging with Shorts.

This points to one thing:

Short-form videos are here to stay — creators and brands have to find creative ways to engage their audience with videos.

For example, on Instagram, reels receive the highest likes and have the most reach, compared to other content formats like carousels and images. And Shorts produces 30 billion views daily.

Why is online video consumption growing?

Two reasons:

1. Work From Home

2. The coronavirus pandemic

Here's how:

Work From Home

In 1973, Jack Niles — a NASA engineer — coined the term "telecommuting", which meant working from home and communicating via the internet.

And in 1979, IBM permitted five employees to work from home as an experiment. The count rose to 2,000 by 1983 and call center staff who already worked via phone had the option of doing so from home.

But in modern times, working from home has become widely accepted. According to GetApp, remote workers have increased by 400% since 2010, with companies like Zappier and GitLab taking remote-first approaches.

The Coronavirus Pandemic

Before 2019 when the pandemic started, only 5.4% worked from home but the pandemic made doing so necessary for safety.

Now, 70% of full-time workers do so from their homes and in 2022, 16% of companies are remote first. Although some are going back to the office, 84% of employees are happier working from home.

How does this affect online video consumption?

Good question.

With more people working from home, short-form videos serve as break-time companions since they only last for 15 to one minute.

What's worse?

37% of Americans watch movies at work, 40% watch on the bus and 44% watch movies on the plane.

All of this means that with more access to streaming and social media platforms, online video consumption will continue to increase.

What does this mean for brands?

The obvious assumption is that long-form video is dead, but that was said about email and physical books too.

In terms of advertising and entertainment, short-form videos provide a fine mix of video effects and length to get to the point.

But building relationships goes beyond product demos and dance routines. Whether you’re using TikTok, Reels or YouTube Shorts, you still need long-form to keep the attention gained from short-form videos.

How brands can win at short and long-form videos.

Mix up the content styles

Most brands educate their audience to death and this contributes to having a boring personality. You can use short videos to entertain and engage your audience in a brand-focused way while using long-form videos to empower and educate your audience.

This may look like this:

Embrace originality

Instagram announced in 2021 that its algorithm will degrade videos with external watermarks. As much as there is software to remove the TikTok logo, for example, it means social media platforms are biased towards original content.

Does this mean reinventing the wheel? No.

And it definitely doesn't mean you should spend hours trying to create “perfect” social media content or videos.

Using short videos to answer questions from your audience, share your brand story, and fill in the gap in a trending topic will increase brand loyalty and awareness.

Approach content creation like a fan

The beauty of short-form videos is that you don’t have to record them in a studio. Whether it’s at your table or lunch desk, you can make a quick video to share opinions and geek out on interesting things affiliated with your brand.

55% of TikTok users say it helps them discover new things while 36% want to learn about a product through short-form videos.

What does that mean?

Take off the blazers and corporate speak because your audience — whether in B2B or B2C — are humans who either deal with a toddler at 3am or stare at the ceiling daily wondering what to eat. But when you create a feed that’s pleasing to human emotion, you show a personality they can relate to, which leaves your brand on top of minds.

What are the disadvantages of short-form videos?

Yes, because everything with advantage also has the other side of the coin.

1. Everybody says we now have the attention span of a goldfish, yet 500,000-1 million books are published every year. And if you add self-published books to the count, you’d be looking at roughly 4 million books yearly. Do we have a short attention span or low tolerance for half-baked content? Because the barrier to entry is low, it’s easy to add to the noise on the internet, so brands have to be more aware of what qualifies as the type of content that promotes the business.

2. User-generated content is losing its meaning because brands now engineer it for promotion. UGC used to be from actual product users, loyalists and amplifiers, but it’s now mostly done by a “UGC Creator” who is paid by brands and given briefs to act. The question here is — UGC should build brand loyalty and increase Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), but what happens when potential customers think all brands pay for their UGC? Brands will have to work out a way to either show that they didn’t engineer their UGC or develop an entirely different testimonial format soon.

3. Brands that suffer from FOMO will burn unavailable resources by running ads for the wrong product. Advertisers are pumping money into TikTok because the cost is cheaper than mature platforms as it’s not yet a saturated space. 40-80% of purchases are impulsive, so imagine advertising a Lamborghini or other luxury products on Instagram. These types of products will most likely perform better on YouTube since there’s more length for storytelling. It's also now easier to mistake having a million likes on TikTok for finding product-market fit, which can lead to wasting resources.

What’s next for the video marketing industry?

Companies like SEMRush and Triple Whale are crushing online content creation at the moment. But with LinkedIn promoting video creation on the B2B platform, it’ll be interesting to see what B2B marketers come up with seeing as video is a more advanced tool in the hands of B2C marketers.

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