We took a trip to Europe with the ISE2Seas project to attend this year’s Video First Conference.
Published: November 2018
450 attendees gathered in a TV studio on the outskirts of Brussels to hear from the likes of YouTube, Facebook and Wistia to find out the latest industry buzz on video strategy and marketing techniques.
CREATE STORIES, NOT ADVERTS
Delegates network at Video First ’18
Stories are what engages an audience. Creating sharable content that emotes positive inspirational stories helps to build brands. YouTube is no longer the platform where clips of children biting fingers go viral. That’s happening on Facebook with shorter more visual content. YouTube has seamlessly moved towards distributing more traditional TV based content, where audiences are happy to sit and watch long-form content.
ENGAGING INTERACTIVE CONTENT
There was a heavy focus this year on how to implement video within large organisations, including looking at how BNP Paribas Fortis use video to communicate internally. Alex Schofield from Wistia shared examples of recruitment videos, which help companies stand out from the competition by sharing insight in to their values, so they attract the right talent.
And it’s not just traditional video that’s being used for recruitment. Tom Ruijgrok from BlueBillyWig shared their campaign for Albert Heijn, the largest Dutch supermarket chain. Each year they need to recruit at least 25,000 staff. When they chose to use an interactive online video, with menu choices at key points, the viewer could steer the narrative and find out exactly which roles they were interested in.
INSIDE THE HUMAN BRAIN
Using technology such as heat mapping software scientists are able to understand how the human mind processes images and sounds. They can interpret that data to determine what engages with audiences. By tracking viewers eye movements Roeland Dietvorst from Alpha.One explained that if there are multiple action points you risk losing your audience and he reinforced the message that cleaner graphics with less clutter on screen are more effective.
ENTERTAINMENT CHANNELS
Anke Müller introduces Facebook WATCH
Facebook’s Strategic Partner Manager for Central Europe Anke Müller shared how mobile is democratising people’s watching habits and that 40% of total video watch-time is coming from friends sharing content they like. With the creation of the Facebook WATCH feature users can stream broadcast content from the pages they follow, share it with their friends and watch together across devices. Following its successful trial in the US, where they obtained viewing figures of 50 million per month, Facebook WATCH has been rolled out across Europe, with significant uptake by UK broadcasters, brands and musicians.
PERSONALISATION OF CONTENT
It’s all very well producing amazing content, but how do you convert those viewing figures into sales? Anthony Belpaire from Google introduced us to the YouTube Director Mix, an online tool allowing content creators to create fully customised content. By combining clients’ customer insights with Google’s data it enables marketers to target specific audiences with bespoke adverts.
DISTRIBUTING YOUR CONTENT
Having a video strategy with the right mix of creative and media enables you to target your content to the right audience. For example using code, like the Facebook Pixel tracker, within your website enables businesses to retarget customers. If you watch a short form video about a brand, it’s then possible to re-target those customers with a shorter 10-second bumper.
