Video Marketing Trends 2019. Tips and Predictions from Industry Experts

Video will replace day-to-day email for all kinds of communications: marketing, sales and customer service.

Video has been a one-to-many channel for 90 years. Now it’s one-to-one. Pitching an editor for a PR effort? Make a video. Reaching out to an influencer to collaborate? Make a video. Any time the stakes are high, in marketing or anywhere, video will replace text and email in 2019.

The biggest trend is the continued massive growth in video marketing in 2019, it will become more and more important. But here are 3 specific trends I see happening.

1) Short form video on Facebook – It’s very difficult to get people on Facebook to engage with long video. YouTube is a much better channel for long form video content. So on Facebook I can see more and more companies creating teaser videos to promote longer form content on other channels.

2) Virtual Reality – It will become cheaper and there will be more tools available that will help you create virtual reality videos. For example, if you’re doing a big house makeover walking through the ‘renovated’ house before it’s done would be a great experience.

3) Videos in email – Over email boxes are over loaded and getting a short personal video in email can be so powerful. It is such an under used tactic at this stage but I think 2019 is the year for this to increase.

Video testimonials. Yes! Testimonials in video format. Video testimonials are the new trend in video marketing for 2019 and it makes perfect sense. These days people usually lack the time and certainly don’t have the interest to read written testimonials. They probably won’t even believe most of the written stuff displayed on some company website’s testimonial page. But if instead of text they could actually see and hear what customers are saying about a business, that would be a whole different scenario. An incomparably more credible scenario and, thus, much more effective for the growth, promotion, and notoriety of your brand.

Video marketing will become even more prevalent in 2019 thanks to greater technology and user expectations. A whole generation of teenagers and youths have grown up on YouTube videos, Snapchat clips, viral GIFs and Instagram. People, in general, don’t want to read as much and images aren’t nearly as dynamic.

People don’t want to read as much.

Facebook Watch has grown rapidly and will only continue to get bigger. Facebook-owned IGTV will also expand even more to take on YouTube for long-form video supremacy. Top YouTube Creators will enjoy continued success but lower-tier YouTubers will struggle to earn significant revenue from videos alone.

Unfortunately for advertisers, organic reach will be stagnant on most platforms and actually decline significantly on Instagram. Paid advertising for videos will also be more expensive as more large corporations jump on the social media marketing bandwagon, especially Instagram. Take advantage of the organic reach and low prices while you can!

In 2019 you will see more video than ever before. I recently helped with a number of studies done by BuzzSumo where all signs pointed to an upward trend of short (30-90 second) videos dominating social media.

Why? Because it’s extremely hard to hold people’s attention for longer periods of time. While videos that are between 3-4 minutes long have the highest engagement percentage, the abandonment rate begins to escalate 20-30 seconds in if you haven’t hooked the viewer’s interest.

This is both good and bad news for content teams. Good news because they don’t have as much “production” to do since shorter videos tend to be easier to complete. But the bad news is that it’s much more difficult to cram all the information you want to convey (in a powerful, compelling way) in a shorter amount of time.

I firmly believe that creative marketers will find this challenge makes them better storytellers in general.

The 2 trends I can see are:

1. According to a Nielsen study, YouTube reaches more adults (on mobile devices only) each week during prime time than any cable network.

WHAT IT MEANS: More businesses will start switching from using TV ads to using YouTube ads to reach their target audience.

2. According to Cisco by 2021, 80% of all online content would consist of video (according to Cisco).

WHAT IT MEANS: The adoption of video as a marketing medium will continue to rise rapidly in 2019 and beyond. However, the winners in this race won’t necessarily be the biggest brands or creators who have the most expensive gadgets and studios.

Instead, it would be the misfits, the rebels and the original thinkers who can come up with great stories and excellent emotional triggers to keep their audience engaged, informed and entertained all at the same time – even when it’s a video related to a business.

I believe live videos will continue to grow and will be at the heart of many online communities. Whether it’s Facebook Lives, teaching live courses or something new – this opens up a deeper connection to the viewer and something that large corporations will struggle to do authentically. Facebook Lives and Facebook Messenger combined will challenge email marketing as the number one lead generating channel by some savvy digital marketers.

Video has obviously been at the forefront of marketing trends for the past few years, and 2019 is no different. In fact, as hard as it is to believe, we actually expect to see MORE video created this year, particularly live video broadcasts. As businesses begin to understand more and more how effective video can be to establishing Know, Like and Trust, watch platforms like Facebook Live and YouTube Live see increased usage. And as a result, other platforms, like LinkedIn, will add Live Video functionality to continue to stay relevant.

Which means if you aren’t yet integrating a live video aspect into your overall marketing plan, now’s the time! Create a strategy for live video and then use that recorded video to fuel the rest of your social media and content marketing efforts. Use snippets of those videos to build all-new videos using tools like Wave, or transcribe the videos and turn them into blog posts, and so on.

Video SEO will be a competitive edge.

I think 2019 is going to see a very large increase in vlogging (video blogging) from organizations of all sizes. Those same organizations are already used to blogging, and the easiest step for them is to turn that writing into a script and start filming.

I think the closer you can get to an in-person interaction, the better you will be able to build relationships with your audience. Video allows your audience to see your face and creates a closer bond so I think it is important but I don’t think that video will become more important than other forms of content like blogging in the future.

I believe platforms trying to get more video adoption like Facebook and LinkedIn will give more priority to video in the short term, giving you the ability to reach more people but only while it is to these companies benefit.

Let’s think about their interests for a minute…

Facebook’s user growth has slowed in recent years, putting more pressure on them to increase revenue in different ways. Capturing more of their users time on their platform and generating additional opportunities to serve you advertisements can be one way to increase their growth, which is why I believe they’ve made a harder push into video content.

Remember when Facebook Live launched and you would get notifications any time a page you followed or friend of yours went live? Facebook wanted to push adoption of this new type of video content so they created more opportunity for early adopters. Well, this doesn’t happen by default anymore because Facebook either reached the adoption they were looking for or it wasn’t as successful as they wanted it to be.

I think video will continue to be a great channel to grow and connect with your audience but be careful not to get sucked into short term opportunities if you aren’t willing to commit for the long haul!

Video is going to dominate content marketing in 2019. Producing enough targeted video marketing content will be a challenge for marketers. I believe that more short video content will be produced in-house rather than outsourced to video production companies to save both time and money.

Analysing the effect of video marketing campaigns will become critical for social media managers as more videos are created.

Marketers will increasingly use video posts to promote blog content.

With more companies than ever before realizing the value of video to build trust, educate, generate leads and foster loyalty, video will continue to play an even larger role in the buyer’s journey in 2019.

In fact, according to HubSpot, more than 80 percent of people purchased a product or service after watching a video.

Whether it’s an explainer video, an interview, a customer testimonial, or an ad, companies from all industries will be using video in every stage of the buyer’s journey in 2019.

The big trend I believe we will see in video marketing is really just growth. As people move away from traditional TV viewing habits and move online then brands are more than ever targeting their ads at online video platforms like Youtube.com. On the surface, this is a no brainer as Youtube ads are cheaper and reach more people. Factor in the advanced targeting options and ways of tracking performance and video marketing on digital platforms is just a safer and more sensible option.

I feel we will see smaller businesses move into video as well. I have always felt that content marketing helps your audience to build a relationship with you and your brand. This is true with written content but even more so for audio and video content like podcasts and marketing videos. Given that near enough everyone has a video camera in their pocket now the barrier to creating small, informative marketing videos are lower than ever before. As with all content marketing, there will be more good than bad, but those that put the effort in and create videos that are truly helpful for their target audience will reap the rewards.

In 2019, we will likely see more of the shift that is happening towards vertical video. It’s how we hold our phones after all so I think we’ll see a lot more vertical video as well as platforms giving us vertical formats to play with and prioritizing vertical video.

We’ll also see the continued trend of “Netflixed” video content or content that is serial in nature. We love to binge watch entire series, so smart brands that think like a producer of a Netflix limited series will see audiences gobble up their content.

And lastly, we will likely see a continued divide in where short form and long form content works best. YouTube will continue to be the King of long-form video content and Facebook will continue to be the place where we share short, engaging video that can capture attention on the fast moving newsfeed. So… empower your entire team to be able to capture and create short, social video and use tools like Wave to edit and publish them quickly.

Video marketing is going to continue to be a dominant force in online marketing in 2019. One form of video marketing that we can expect to see become even more popular is the use of video ads in Instagram stories. Ads in stories allow you to jump right to the top of users Instagram feeds. Your ads will appear in between the stories of users friends. And because users are already focused on the content, these full-screen ads will be quite effective at grabbing- and retaining – their attention.

In order to create Instagram story ads that successfully convert, content creators will need to put their focus on creating quick, eye-catching videos with sharp design and convincing CTAs. When properly executed, you’ll find that targeted story ads will play a huge part in converting and engaging users on the platform.

More Stories formats everywhere! Death of the newsfeed.

The biggest trend in 2019 has to be vertical video. As more and more consumers watch video on their phone and become more reluctant to twist it around to the horizontal format we need to adapt.

Take a look at your analytics and social statistics. If your audience predominantly visit from mobile you need to adapt at least some of your videos for that format.

The second trend for 2019 will be even more stories. Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp and Snapchat. When you create video elements for these platforms video editing and movement are hugely important to keep your audience’s attention. If you can get creative here you’ll get better results.

I predict that Stories will go even further than they are now. Probably, they will become a part of the feed and you’ll be able to have notifications, and even more engagement with them will be possible. The next video marketing trend I can notice is that more brands will discover the power of creating and repurposing videos among the social channels.

In 2019 we will see a big disruption between very well documented videos, even if they will be long form videos. More brands will invest more money in documented branded video that are having a powerful story to tell and to inspire their community.

And the second one we will see more ephemeral content that will disappear in 24 hours. These are the kind of videos that will keep the user engage with the brand (that’s why Instagram launched lately features that are connecting more easy with the followers: polls, emoji reactions, count downs and others) and be a part of the brand story.

In 2019 we will also see video as a hook to a bigger piece of content. Lately I saw more and more content creators that are moving from only creating content to launching new podcasts and doing a repurpose between video and audio. So maybe you will see the long form interview on YouTube but you will likely subscribe on Apple Podcast to listen it whenever you want.

The rise of short form content. 30-second videos will dominate, boomerangs, tiktoks, etc… will fill the news feeds and people will absolutely love it. We’ll see business owners and entrepreneurs CRUSH new sales with short videos rather than longer sales videos.

Top 2 Video Marketing Trends of 2019 would be:

1. THE RISE OF VERTICAL VIDEO

For a long time, consumers were stuck in two worlds. While over 94% of the time viewers hold their phone vertically (according to a MOVR report), they have had to hold it horizontally to watch videos. Plus, let’s not forget that 78.4% of digital video viewers use smartphones.

Now that IGTV and YouTube do allow vertical videos, small and large brand alike will include them in their advertising strategies of 2019, and see brand awareness and user engagement rise further.

2. SHORT + RAW VIDEOS VIA INSTAGRAM STORIES

Instagram was already an excellent platform for travel vloggers, public figures and entrepreneurs. But the introduction of Instagram Stories, IGTV, and Live Videos took it to a new level. Especially Stories (which was copied from SnapChat for sure) saw everyone who may not have great photos leverage Instagram for pictures adopt to Instagram.

As of August 2018, Instagram Stories already have had 400 million daily active users (and surely lots of them must be using video as well).

This rise of video creation on Instagram is bound to increase in 2019.

One video trend I think is overlooked is the use of video in Instagram posts (the ones that show up in the grid).
There’s a lot of buzz about stories and IGTV, but a few top influencers have started incorporating videos that easily loop in their regular posts.
This is a great way to not only stand out but keep your followers engaged on a piece of content.

1. Shift from horizontal to vertical format
2. Ads shifting from TV to youtube
3. Employee stories and inhouse content studios

In 2019 we will see more short-lived video (stories) on Instagram & Facebook helping brands get more loyal followers who will connect with their products/services in a more meaningful and intimate way.

In 2019, we will see the rise of one-minute videos that are shot on mobile devices and which are not perfectly edited. One-minute videos force creators to be concise and to the point. It is very important to get your message across within the first few seconds of the videos. Failing to do so, will result in people scrolling away and not viewing your video, especially on social media where people have a very short attention span.

Additionally, the one-minute videos do not need to be perfectly edited. A genuine, personable video will resonate much better with the audience. People will often assume that perfectly edited videos are advertisements and they scroll away from your video. To keep the engagement high, make short videos which are genuine and personable. Consider launching a video series of one-minute videos.

I think we’ll see more videos go in-depth – they’ll still be 30 seconds, but instead fo the flashy and quick ads that used to capture our attention, we will be captivated by stories and clicking to learn more (especially on social!).

5 years ago, good content based videos around 3-4 minutes were performing very well. More recently, it’s become very very short, as short as 10 seconds on some channels. I believe the longer form content is coming back slowly due to the ‘The Second Screen Phenomenon’. We’re all guilty of it – scrolling through Facebook or Watching YouTube while the TV is on. Brands are finding ways to capitalise on this idea, with video being at the forefront. Researchers are suggesting that the second screen could become just as, or even more influential in online habits this year.

With the cost of creating video reducing (you can use an iPhone for example) and the ease in which it will be consumed on mobile, makes it a great opportunity for sales and marketing to create insightful and educational content. But let’s not forget that any content that is boring, spammy, self indulgent is boring, spammy and self indulgent whatever platform it’s on written word or video.

Now that almost everyone carries a camera in the pocket, short form and live video will continue to conquer social content landscape. So one of the major trends for 2019 will be accessible and affordable video production. With the help of new era video editing tools, creating videos will become an easy one-man task. So use smart online tools like Wave.video and cut your video production costs, not the number of videos you create!

More B2C brands will use videos in 2019. I read video will be a mandate and not an option for marketers, and I agree.

Here are the reasons videos will be more widespread in marketing than ever before:
1. Consumers trust people they can see. You can see people in a video.
2. In a video, you can show how to use a product and get people excited about using a product.
3. Social media marketers have more access to videos than ever before. For example, Instagram has Instagram Live and Instagram Stories both of which use video. Facebook and other social media sites use recorded and live videos as well.
4. Tools exist which allow marketers to make their videos longer despite the time limitations on social media sites like Instagram.
5. Making videos is relatively inexpensive. There are tools that enable marketers to make videos for free.

Unique, Interactive Video Experiences That Create Community

The KEY difference between video on Facebook compared to video on all other platforms, including YouTube, is the potential for creating unique, interactive engagement experiences for your community.

Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and his team are on a mission to prioritize content that sparks meaningful social interaction. To this end, Facebook Watch Parties will be one of the primary features marketers incorporate into their 2019 social media strategy. Facebook will continue to improve the Watch Party product, adding more and more features to improve engagement and distribution, as well as offering key insights.

In addition, the main feeds on both Facebook and Instagram will take on a new look and feel, emphasizing video and the Stories format even more and most likely with a horizontal swipe and tap navigation. YouTube just launched a new horizontal swiping gesture that lets users easily move forward and backward through videos. Facebook will continue to prioritize video content and strive to compete with YouTube.

What’s becoming clearer is the same video re-posted on different platforms is becoming less and less effective. The same video that works on YouTube isn’t going to work on Facebook, and we can’t take that Facebook video, put it in a frame and upload it to IGTV, or LinkedIn.

Users are consuming video differently on the different platforms, and as marketers we need to get use to repurposing smarter, by editing our videos in a way that works for the platform it is being posted on, rather than doing a lazy re-upload job. Looking at things like the aspect ratio, style, pacing and objective, and maybe realising we can’t be everywhere – but where we are posting regularly, we’re putting our all in.

In 2018 we saw the increase in importance of vertical video and I predict this will continue in 2019.

Brands need to take this into consideration when planning their video stories. For a truly immersive experience re-purposing square or landscape content to a vertical format will not help you increase engagement with your content.

Live video is still used infrequently by most organisations for marketing campaigns, despite new platforms on desktop and mobile being available including Instagram Live and Premier formats on YouTube and Facebook being introduced in 2018, but there have been some notable exceptions for campaigns.

I predict that in 2019 we will start to see apps, tools and integrations available incorporating AI into live video especially for real time transcription and an increase in the use of live streaming by enterprises for employee communications, team working and for customer support.

2018 we saw the use of video grow substantially across all platforms, including being able to upload native video to LinkedIn, which is one platform that is currently experiencing a bit of a renaissance and I predict it will continue to innovate throughout 2019. This is definitely one platform that business owners need to pay attention to.

As we head into 2019, Facebook will continue to heavily invest in video across all Facebook-owned platforms and Marketers are really going to have to up their video game. To capture and retain the attention of viewers, people will need to be very strategic with the video content they create. Videos will need to be:
1. Extremely relevant to a particular target audience.
2. Created to suit the platform that it is being shared on – one size does not fit all.
3. And my recommendation when creating the majority of your video content is to keep it short, under 1 minute if possible.

Video for Every Stage of the Funnel
It’s easy enough to say that video is absolutely necessary for every business. But why exactly do businesses need it? Many marketers believe that video serves one and only purpose – getting your brand in front of customers. I expect this long-lived myth to be busted in 2019, because video is a powerful marketing tool that has many uses cases beyond the obvious.

This year, we’ll see brands incorporating video into every stage of the buyer’s journey, from awareness, to consideration, conversion and beyond. Businesses will use video to promote their special offers and events, give sneak peeks at upcoming collections, educate customers about their products and communicate with the audience in a more engaging way than ever before.

As marketers better understand all the different platforms people consume video on, we’re seeing a lot more platform-native content being created. This means that instead of repurposing the same video for Facebook, Youtube, a website and Instagram, marketers are starting to create either variations of videos or entirely new content for each platform. By tailoring your videos based on customer behavior and the site layout of each platform, you can better engage your audience.

For 2019, I think we’re going to see a lot more intelligent repurposing. Video content will be absolutely key in 2019, but I think we have to be a lot more intelligent with how we use it, as part of our overall marketing. Video isn’t replacing everything. I still think blog posts work really, really well, but putting video within that content really helps. And something that I’ve been experimenting with a lot is creating content video first and then, from that, you can then repurpose into loads of different pieces of content including blog posts, podcasts, infographics and more.

For example, live video is a great way to start to create your content. But I think we’re going to have to be more intelligent with how we use it. Whether we create the blog first, or create live video, then the blog. Then, within that, we can then create more video from that content using the likes of Wave.video. A lot of people are watching video silently, so I think we have to grab those users, who are watching silently, using captions, using services to transcribe the video, the captions for the videos, adding show notes, things like that.

We’re also seeing much more of a need to be authentic in our videos. The word, “authentic”, is being used a lot. But I think, in 2019, there’s going to be more of a call to show our faces, and to be authentic, and share the bad as well as the good, the ups as well as the downs, or the downs as well as the ups, as well, to enhance our personal branding. I think we’re going to see more of a growth in live video, particularly with other platforms other than Facebook, such as Twitch and YouTube. I do think we’re going to see more of the likes of Premiere – Facebook Premiere, or YouTube Premiere, which is the ability to stream prerecorded content live.

That brings me onto the other thing which is going to be more interactivity. I think we’re going to have more polls and quizzes. We’re going to have the ability to bring in people who are watching that content and to chat with them, and bring their thoughts into the conversation, into the videos. Finally, I do hope that LinkedIn is going to add LinkedIn Live. Video on LinkedIn is working really, really well for many of us, so I wouldn’t be surprised if 2019 is the launch of LinkedIn Live, maybe, in collaboration with Vimeo. Let’s see!

I see many brands trying to chase virality, memes and a lot of video views, but for me the best results in 2019 will come to those who actually focus on the quality rather than the quantity. I see the trend being smart brands caring more about their target audience and putting more effort into building that relationship rather than hoping that they go viral with some meme.

The brands who actually understand the needs of their audience and create valuable, entertaining or educational video content that answers questions real people have will win. They may not have any big overnight hits but they will create a bigger impact to their bottom line.

Rise of Live Video and How It Builds Brand for Individuals

Video is a content weapon that holds the short-attention span of users moreso than any other form of content in 2019. But look to live video marketing in the forms of Instagram Live, Facebook Live, YouTube, and other platforms to make their splash and become a new trend.

Live video humanizes the person recording. It is more raw than recorded and editing video, and gives a window into what people are actually like. This will help marketers build their company brand tone, but also the style of their personal brand. We’ve already seen this in new-niche news and vlogging platforms, and now look to companies embracing this tactic in the next year.

It’s all about authenticity, more than ever before.

1. Quick short video “snacks” – 15 seconds and under. Informative, amusing, but not salesy.
2. Optimized for mobile devices and placement (newsfeed and stories) (Wave.video makes this easy to do).
3. In an era of fake news and information manipulation, people are looking for transparent and meaningful engagement – so a return to a more personalized, less polished and realistic connection.

It’s all about authenticity, more than ever before.

4. Don’t ignore YouTube. Great for long form. Be careful with advertising, people don’t like interruption. Mid roll over pre roll is my preference.
5. More “social” ads from Brands. Campaigns will continue to embrace causes or contain a bigger message than just sales (think recent Gillette). Most people want to see Brands having a social consciousness and demonstrating that they care about the environment, the social environment over just selling.
6. Maybe 3D video will appear. We have augmented reality and 3D photos..it’s the next step!

What I’ve noticed from my experiences sharing videos on social and other platforms is that native videos outperform hyperlinked videos significantly. What does that mean for you? If you’re sharing YouTube videos on LinkedIn, for example, I’d recommend downloading the YouTube video and uploading it natively to LinkedIn and other channels. That should boost your views and engagement. Vice versa, you can always upload your social videos to LinkedIn to give them a longer shelf life.

Video continues to dominate the Social Media landscape and 2019 will be no exception. The form that it is takes however is continuing to evolve with some very interesting variations.

(1) PERSONALISATION

Personalisation is the new kid on the block with marketers seeing the value in making specific videos for individuals or certain segments of the market.

Rather than “BLASTING OUT” a very generic video to all your followers at once, we are now seeing an increase in very targeted campaigns designed for specific people or groups.

Sure it takes a little extra time but these are is “HIGHLY TARGETED” so the return on your time (and money) investment is likely to be much higher from these campaigns.

Many now believe this is a better strategy than the generalized videos designed to reach as many people as possible all at once.

(2) GIFS

GIFs really are an art form now and they continue to grow in sophistication every year.

These “SHORT & SWEET” videos can say so much in such a short period of time and the format is really resonating.

They are fantastic for engagement as they “GET THE PARTY STARTED” so to speak and allow you to develop deeper conversations in the threads or via DMs.

I thoroughly recommend experimenting with GIFs in your Social Media strategy and perhaps even try making some of your own.

They really will help you “STAND OUT” in 2019.

There are a lot of trends coming to video marketing: 360-degree videos, virtual reality, augmented reality, etc. However, I believe authentic videos will be the trend in 2019. Videos that might not be the best in terms of technology or quality but that are original, raw and authentic.

Continued personalization of messages, supported by smaller audience segmentation and expansion of disruptive messaging. Something unexpected in what you share combined with HOW you share it needs to capture the attention of the viewer.

I think that videos will be much more personalized and they will appear on multiple platforms and not just on YouTube. For example, Facebook is doing a huge push towards getting creators to submit more videos into their video platforms. All platforms will encourage their users to start creating more videos rather than text bass content. Videos are more engaging than text and they are becoming more popular as overall people’s attention span decreases. Reading text is lengthy and time-consuming, whereas videos are fun to watch and easily digestible. If you have your own blog, my recommendation is to start creating lots of video content and optimizing those videos for Google search traffic.

Captioning, Leaders being driven to becoming thought leaders through video, personalised 1-1 videos & growth of webinar and podcast video content.

Brand collaborations with LinkedIn video influencers

As brands realize that consumers are getting back to their roots of being visual animals – and social networks embrace this – the biggest trend will be the continued increase in budget spend and perceived importance of video marketing within the marketing mix. Inside that, I believe that there are a few specific trends for 2019 that will differentiate it from previous years.

1. Increased Emphasis on Leveraging YouTube Influencers

We all know that influencer marketing is booming, and while most of the attention seems to be on Instagram, I believe we will see a new renaissance of brands working with a new generation of influencers that have large audiences on YouTube. While Instagram has an active audience, YouTube has a larger one with videos that last forever and a built-in search engine that does its best to help users discover your content. It also doesn’t have the one minute constraint that videos on Instagram profiles have. Yes, Instagram released IGTV to steal this YouTube audience, but they have a long way to go. Thus, as influencer marketing and video marketing spend both increase in 2019, influencer marketing on YouTube should see a big increase.

2. Increased Emphasis on Curating User-Generated Social Video

In the past video equalled YouTube. Not anymore. Even Facebook is pushing advertisers to repurpose static images into moving videos. Consumers engage with video, so if brands want better engagement with their organic social, they simply need more video, especially in the Stories format. As brands have been challenged to make photographic images that can compete with content creators on visual social networks such as Instagram, the challenge to create engaging in Stories is an even greater one. Thus I see more brands leveraging user-generating content not just for photos but also for videos and Stories.

The above two points tap into what I see is the next revolution of social media marketing where brands don’t look at social media as a place to sell to consumers but to collaborate with content creators and its fans and users to cut through the noise and incite word-of-mouth.

Some people still think B2B means “boring to boring” but luckily the increased use of video is changing that perception. Whether it’s B2B marketers posting native video directly to LinkedIn or creating online shows like the LinkedIn B2B Dinner for Five series by Jason Miller, more B2B brands are trending towards video as part of their marketing mix.

Another video trend in B2B is the integration of influencers through video in B2B content. Examples range from embedded video on interactive microsites to embedded influencer video within Virtual Reality experiences created to promote events and build community.

Now that marketers and businesses have truly started to understand the power of video in marketing (not just when it comes to social media, but in email marketing and content marketing in general), I think we’ll see a lot of experimenting with new forms of content this year.

For one thing, we’ll see a lot more interactive videos this year, particularly 360-degree videos. I also believe that with many marketing videos in 2019 there will be a much bigger focus on storytelling. This is a trend that I’ve noticed more and more when it comes to video ads, as well as to social media videos – a good story captures people’s attention and imagination and most importantly, it gets them to take action.

During the last years, the volume of video items boomed. On websites, on Facebook, on LinkedIn, on Instagram, on YouTube, on Twitter, etc. Videos are everywhere.

For obvious reasons, this tendency shall continue in 2019.

So, what will make the difference this year?

It certainly will be the quality.

This is how the brands will be able to stand out from the crowd.

The quantity of videos will be so massive in the future that it will be more and more difficult to catch the attention of your internet users, for obvious reasons.

As such, qualitative videos will be able to make the difference: videos which are able to capture the mood, videos with great special effects, videos with a better lighting technology, a better sound engineering, a better story-telling, a better scenario, a better product-market fit – and better actors.

Films, TV series and TV spots already showed the way. And there is still an abyssal gap between what we see in cinema and what we see in the digital space. This is obvious.

Filmmaking specialists will definitely influence video marketing specialists, more and more.

In the future, they could also be involved in the whole process.

One of the key decisive factors will be the budget: it is much more expensive to create a great video than a great article.

Why is entertainment marketing the way forward for video? There are three reasons, and we’ll discuss those below.

Video Is Already King

The first reason is that video is already king, and has been for some time. As highlighted here, 64% of consumers are more likely to buy a product after watching a video. 90% of users report that seeing a video highlighting a product in action helps them make a buying decision. 96% of IT and tech leaders watch videos for business purposes.

We Expect Characters in Advertisements

We’ve already come to expect memorable, humorous, and recognizable characters not only in TV spots or lead-in commercials at the theater, but for YouTube explainer videos and within social media.

Marketing Is Getting More Customer-Centric

Marketing is already far more customer-centric than ever before. Today, all digital marketing begins with a target audience and persona, whether you’re relying on email, social media, or video to help spread your message.

Ultimately, entertainment marketing is here to stay. That’s supported not just by user trends, but by current and emerging technology. For instance, consider the fact that 5G mobile networks will finally be a reality in 2019, with a projected 250 million subscribers expected in the first year of availability alone. Combine 5G speeds with mobile capabilities and you get unparalleled opportunities for video advertising to consumers on the go.

Speaking of “on the go”, there’s also the fact that OOH (out of home) advertising provides placement for video that cannot be skipped. Whether consumers are on the bus or the train, the front seat of their own vehicle, or walking the sidewalk, OOH digital video advertising provides an ideal way to engage, entertain, and connect with Generations Y and Z, both of which spend less time consuming digital media than Millennials, Gen X, or even Baby Boomers.

AR/VR is going to only give us a more dimensional experience. Its not enough to have a “cool” augmented reality experience, it needs to have context so that the marketing aspect of it will actually produced the results you want.

In the end, the entertainment marketing trend is here to stay, and will be a powerful tool for years to come.

Vivid gradients, glitch and neon colors, grotesque images.

In App Video Marketing has exploded! It is one of the best ways to reach your niche market for you product or service while receiving a huge ROI!

Live streaming is becoming main-stream, as is micro-content, so if you’re wanting to maximize engagement with your brand, be sure to include this in your marketing mix.

Trending video algorithms will apply.

1. Relationship between growth and search will increase
2. Better integration of video into email
3. New aspect ratios will emerge since more people are watching vertical
4. Shoppable videos
5. Brands will create content based on personas not generic concepts

Wider adoption of live video including the use of 360 degree immersive video and drone footage.