Consumers Demand Video (Craig Douglass On Consumers)

Craig Douglass

Consumers unite! Wait. They are united. At least when it comes to video as part of the consumer experience. In fact, they demand the information conveyed through embedded visual technologies when making preference or purchase decisions.

Media and marketers call it video content. Let’s unpack its meaning, features and benefits.

It was 1964 when Marshall McLuhan, the communications theorist, declared, “The medium is the message.” He meant that how the message is delivered to its audience influences how it is perceived, understood and acted on. And we know from scientific studies that the vast majority of information transmitted to the brain is visual, processed faster and retained quicker and longer than printed matter. The visual medium, beginning with television and, for our purposes, television advertising, now has evolved into video content accessed on laptops, tablets, smartphones and other out-of-home media, like electronic billboards or public venue video boards.

Video has its own value proposition — the reasons a consumer should buy a product (or service) based on information proving the product will add more value or better solve a problem than a competitive product. The value of video is expressed through the experience created by its content, allowing the consumer to share in the product’s attributes through audio and visual description, demonstration and customer satisfaction.

Accenture, the global management and consulting firm, explains the benefits of video content in three easy-to-understand points:

• Because roughly 90 percent of laptop users watch some form of video online, the user experience can be compelling. But also because tablet and smartphone video use is exploding, the video content, if appropriate to the device on which it is viewed, can put information in the hands of the consumer wherever he or she is, particularly when comparison shopping.

• Consumers multitask now more than ever. Consequently, Internet video content is viewed in addition to broadcast and cable programming, providing additional opportunities to check facts or explore ideas raised by television shows or ads.

• Building trust in products and services can be enhanced through the presentation of a brand’s relevant attributes via video. And because traditional broadcasters are now promoting Internet video components “for more information,” trust in broadcasters and the messages their medium is promoting is growing, resulting in increased sales for advertised brands.

You, of course, know how pervasive video now is. Just log on to your Facebook page and note all the videos posted along with messages in the news feed. In fact, the videos automatically play themselves rather than waiting for you to click on them to start. You also know better through the use of video what the social-media sender is trying to tell you or wants you to understand, since the message is much more experiential than a one-dimensional written text. The same is true with the advertising component of marketing. The old “infomercial” is now on your phone! So if brands are not incorporating video into their promotion strategy, engaging in content marketing, they’re losing relevancy — and sales.

And then there is YouTube and “Generation C.” Millennials, those born between 1980 and the mid-2000s, are considered Generation C. They are described as being interested in creation, curation, connection and community. And posting videos to YouTube keeps them connected, via personal and commercial content, along with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine and more. All of which usually link to the YouTube platform.

But millennials are not the only consumers of YouTube. More and more, research reveals, Internet users 50 and older are going to YouTube for nostalgic viewing of concerts, single music performances, speeches and old television coverage of news events.

This got us thinking: Creating video content is simple using the video app on your smartphone. But if more professional video is desired, GoPro and its HERO series of video cameras, priced from $199 to $499 (at Wal-Mart), are an easy-to-use technology to create personalized video content. Just as we predicted last year that Apple would get into the car business, we are predicting YouTube, which is owned by Google, will purchase GoPro and incorporate the product into its video family, thus leveraging the creation, curation, connection and community of its worldwide brand. We’ll see.

Craig Douglass is an advertising agency owner and marketing and research consultant. He is president of Craig Douglass Communications Inc. of Little Rock Email him at Craig@CraigDouglass.com.