Video Strategy New York: World Forum Disrupt | Nicole Zizila
Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make but about the stories you tell.- Seth Godin
From the beginning of time, stories have been the way humans have shared information. Our degree of knowledge and understanding is built upon our ability to retain and recall. And thanks to the Internet, and especially the explosion of smartphone use, video has become the storytelling medium of choice for the modern era. It is fast becoming the most powerful communication tool on earth. And when brands harness the power of video to define their audience and tell the meaningful stories that resonate, that’s how they can win and deliver results. The Video Strategy New York: World Forum Disrupt conference on October 18, 2019 in Brooklyn, New York was an opportunity to see and hear how brands were forging new ways with video to grow their audiences and their businesses.
Video accounts for nearly 80% of all online traffic, and is the most effective way to spread a message and build a following in the virtual world. The natural tendency for people is to seek like-minded others to form groups defined by the same shared stories. In the online world, video makes that more possible than ever. The clear and more relevant the story, the stronger the bond of the group. Some of the most powerful brand movements of today (think Apple, Soul Cycle, Red Bull) are just that; an entire architecture built upon the strength of the brand’s narrative.
Analysis 1: A Question of Trust
The average consumer has become distrustful of traditional marketing messages and the corporate spin applied to nearly everything they see and hear. The traditional power structure, and the communication network that supports it, has lost its strength and reputation. In a wider world where a single misstep can be shared by millions in an instant and ‘fake news’ flows seemingly without end, how can a brand avoid getting lost in it all? The answer is authenticity. “Do what you say, and say what you do”. An irrefutable level of transparency, being true to oneself, one’s stakeholders and one’s audience is the only acceptable response.
One of video’s greatest strengths is the ability to communicate emotion. By injecting more genuine human emotion into content, brands can engage audiences on a deeper, more meaningful level. By increasing the impact and memorability of what you’re creating, you’re establishing deeper connections between the audience and your brand. An excellent example of this is how VICE Media has been able to flourish at a time when traditional news organizations are floundering. Originally conceived as an alternative youth/skater magazine, it has evolved into a bona fide news outlet that gives its reporters the unfettered freedom to get more involved with the news story than traditional agencies ever have in the past. Objectors accuse VICE Media of being compromisingly partisan. To that, Vice founder Shane Smith responded: “There is an element of dishonesty in a news reporter being shot at and not shouting, “Holy Shit!””
In his presentation, “The Art of Science or the Science of Art : A New Model for Video Strategy”, Ian Edgar, Vice President of Creative Strategy & Video Programming at Conde Nast talked about how creative output can commune with the audience and how success can be found. He used an X/Y axis chart to visualize his methodology, measuring ‘how worthwhile’ and ‘how shareable’ a piece of content is can determine how successful it can be for your brand. At its essence, it’s all about garnering audience attention. Edgar stated,
This is an attention game. We’re trying to get attention, we’re trying to keep attention. We’re trying to get people back, and keep their attention every single time.
Analysis 2: Differentiation vs. Defensive Decision-making
Make decisive moves. Win fame. Earn brand loyalty. Sure, all brands say they want all of these things, but very few brands are brave enough to take the less-traveled path to make them happen. Reaching for all of the above means taking risks, something most companies have programmed into their DNA to be virulently opposed to. Being safe and conventional will only yield safe, conventional results. There’s an apt saying, “(In large corporations) it’s nearly always better to be conventionally wrong than it is to be unconventionally right.” Defensive decision-making is the enemy of differentiation. But more times than not, it’s the path brands take when they’re unwilling to take real chances for fear of failure. By failing to see failure as an opportunity to learn (heh heh, see what I did there?), brands, by default, treat failure as something to fear and avoid at all costs.
Truer today more than ever, in our content-saturated world, differentiation and ultimately success, can be found down the unconventional path. Brands need to give their content creation teams the breadth and space to make calculated risks with the materials they produce. The key difference is mindset. A ‘growth mindset’ is open to improvement, making things better and being open to trying the new and different. A ‘closed mindset’ accepts things as they are and are too afraid of failure to experiment with something new. A popular tech sector phrase, ‘fail fast’, applies here; Things may not have gone exactly according to plan but use the event to learn and grow for next time. The online environment is an endless landscape to continually reiterate. It’s more valuable to have a misfire and set a baseline for improvement than cruise along in unremarkable mediocrity. With the breadth, variety and sheer volume of content available to audiences, now more than ever, mediocrity is ignored.
During the panel session, “The Future of Video: Strategizing for Digital Success”, Jeff Greenhouse, VP Subscriber Growth at AMC emphasized the importance of variety, range and experimentation when it comes to the video creation and consumption. He stated,
YouTube was the democratization of content. Then came the streaming services…and now we see more international content coming in, subtitled content, content from other countries. The thing about it is, as we’re watching these new things people are still watching everything; big budget movies, indie films, syndicated TV, reality TV…It’s all getting so much more fragmented and the viewer gets to decide more than ever before.
Analysis 3: Content Rules Them All
In 2018, Netflix spent $8 billion, HBO spent $2 billion and Facebook spent $1 billion on acquiring new content. Of course, one would expect mega media companies to drop this kind of coin as content is their actual product and the key to success and survival. But how does it relate to brands? No matter what business you’re in, you have to change the way you think about and produce video content. Effective content is an essential addition to a brand’s value proposition, another channel your audience is expecting you to use. They want you to share content that they value. And value can have a number of different meanings depending on what segment of your audience, their attitudes and behaviors.
In his presentation, “Creating Content: To Gen Z & Beyond”, Dan Bradley, Sr. Director, Partner Concepts + Development at VICE Media focused on the importance of resonating or risk fading away with your audience. He spoke specifically of Gen Z, the largest generation yet according to 2017 U.S. Census estimates, and how their influence just keeps on growing.
You have to make something that this audience is going to look to and cling to. You have to be capturing their attention, you have to talking about things that matter to them. Make stuff they want to see.
An exceptional example of a brand that has been successful in creating content their audience wants to see is Red Bull. It has its own TV channel. It updates fresh pieces of content to its website and YouTube channel several times a day. It sponsors extreme sports stars from every discipline including chess (!!). Red Bull’s brand purpose is crystal clear and every facet of what they push out is a manifestation of it: helping people perform at their optimum, physically and mentally. The eye-catching, sometimes death-defying videos they share help drive the brand forward. For example, when Felix Baumgartner made his supersonic jump from space in 2017, Red Bull made it possible to livestream the event to over 8 million people worldwide. That’s a more people than watched the first game of the World Series that year. Let that sink in for a minute…
Conclusion
Video. Film. Content. Storytelling. Whatever you want to call it, anything you create and make public for the world that doesn’t build or reinforce your brand damages it. And if you aren’t following through on a clear and genuine brand purpose it can be near impossible to find that perfect sweet-spot tell the types of stories that will build your brand. In order to maximize the desired effect on your audience, you must maximize the impact of your content. Clearly define your brand purpose. Improve the subject matter. Be bold, take chances. Build trust with your audience. That’s how brands will do more than survive. Do it right and they’ll thrive in the new digital landscape.
Footnote: The amazing folks at Video Strategy World Forum Disrupt were kind enough to share video recording of the entire day’s schedule and post it on their site for the attendees. (It went live on Friday, November 21st, hence the wait-time on the conference write-up.) There’s a treasure trove of information here, and if you’d like to share it on Kannu for the rest of the students, here it is: https://www.worldforumdisrupt.com/video-world-forum-new-york-2019/on-demand-2/
