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Marketers have been getting it wrong on long-form video

Marketers have been getting it wrong on long-form video

Media Leaders

Trying to generate short-term impressions and data to create followers is not the right approach for long-form content. These videos deserve a much longer and more impactful lifespan.

Brands have an ever-present opportunity to create content that audiences will engage with, even become immersed in, but often find that there’s nowhere to put it.

A few years ago, a legal firm in Denmark experimented with creating their own version of the hit TV series Suits. The company identified their very own ‘Harvey’- the ruthless legal eagle married to his work – ‘Donna’ – the devoted PA who was secretly in love with her trying boss – ‘Rachel’ – famously portrayed by the now Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle – and other key characters.

They created four episodes, following their real-life protagonists through their own everyday lives and problems, and presented the whole series beautifully, with opening captions and end credits, great music and all the other trappings of a glossy TV series.

This was just an experiment, but it proved that it was possible for brands to create their own ‘Netflix-style’ binge-worthy content, and that customers would want to watch it. In short, it commanded customer attention and as we all know, ‘attention’ is a diminishing resource in an increasingly cluttered marketing and advertising ecosystem. It matters more than ever, and it’s even harder to achieve.

YouTube as platform of last resort

So why aren’t brands creating more of this type of content?

Well, it’s expensive. High quality, longer-form video content needs investment from planning to production to post-production, and then there’s distribution, which is arguably the biggest challenge. While brands could ultimately solve the problem of ring-fencing budget to create branded content, there’s little point in doing so if there’s nowhere to put it.

Instead, what we see is brands creating long-form video content and then slicing it into snippets – 30 seconds here, 15 seconds there, and then distributing this edited content to deliver performance metrics. When asked why they didn’t just share the full, say, 15-minute documentary, they simply responded they had nowhere to post it.

Most platforms don’t allow for video over 60 or 90 seconds, which leaves YouTube as the only option which is often full of distractions, or the brand’s own website. But let’s face it, not many of us visit a brand’s website to watch a 15- or 30-minute documentary.

What we’re talking about here is paid content, and as things stand, it’s an element of distribution that’s missing from the overall marketing mix. Platforms like ours, at Biites, are beginning to address this gap, but there is a need for the wider advertising industry to adopt and normalise a new distribution model.

It comes back to strategy – are we trying to achieve immediate sales or build longer-term partnerships with consumers? Do you want to be in a customer’s short-term memory, so they click to buy, or do you want to be in a longer-term memory where they return again and again? There’s space for both, but the current ecosystem makes it more challenging.

A four-level funnel approach

While marketers are familiar with the three main funnel stages, awareness (top), consideration (middle), and conversion (bottom), there is arguably a fourth ‘upper top funnel’ (engagement) for long-form branded video content.

As an additional level at the very top of the funnel above awareness, it’s the very first step in the consumer journey where evergreen stories should live. This level encourages engagement – it’s the place where you ‘suddenly’ find yourself spending time with a brand and its content – without even necessarily knowing the brand beforehand.

This step is an engaging storytelling discipline that leads consumers into the awareness stage.

Typically, marketers have been using the top awareness level to generate short-term impressions and data to create followers, but this isn’t the right home for long-form video which has a much longer and more impactful lifespan.

It’s important for marketers to consider how long-form video content can be built into marketing strategies. They should consider this four-level funnel as part of their approach – and budget to secure attention via long-form video content.

We need better platforms to display content in an engaging way, make it easy for consumers to find it, and make it valuable to brands to adopt this approach by demonstrating the value of the data and insight it captures.

The average duration per view of a branded video on Biites is more than five-and-a-half minutes – and there aren’t many brands that wouldn’t be interested in that high level of attention and engagement.

Helle Jabiri Falck

Essentially long-form video content addresses the issue of why a consumer should support, buy from, and ultimately advocate for a brand. Think Patagonia campaigns that have nothing to do with shifting products but focus on documentary-style storytelling to raise awareness of an issue or a cause. It’s content that touches people emotionally, tells a story and builds preference through conversation at the dinner table and between friends.

This kind of video content is also increasingly required to connect with younger consumers who are motivated by brands that share their values and beliefs, rather than price-point or convenience.

The power of long-form branded video content is that, if it’s done well, it can convert an entire target group into a genuine audience – and ultimately create customers which actively seek out the brand.

Helle Jabiri Falck is chief commercial officer, chief operating officer and founder at Biites.

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