Expensive video production can often be the money-sapping cornerstone of a brand’s advertising strategy. So when it comes to saving on cost, time and manpower, the natural step is to use any number of video social media platforms to run a campaign, or even project a simple company message. The Practice team often advise clients who occupy a visual industry to maintain an active Vlog as part of their social media activity.

After all, YouTube is the second biggest search engine on the planet, accounting for 4 billion hours of video watched per month. Prediction has it that by 2014, online video could account for 50 per cent of all Internet traffic. It makes sense to latch on to its exposure-potential, and in fact some of the best video content that we at The Practice have watched on YouTube, has been from brands looking to communicate with their audience, entertain, and humanize their corporate identities. Take Red Bull for example, who lead the way in creating content with strong brand association. Showcasing Felix Baumgartner’s space dive, for instance, adhered to their brand tagline (“Red Bull gives you wings”) and thoroughly enthralled its audience in an unobtrusive manner.

When done correctly, video attached to a social media channel can be the most powerful communicative tool. Word-based social media platforms such as Twitter, have caught onto the connection between video and leads, having introduced Vine sharing earlier last month. This is an important step, because the traditional problem of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, is that they’re traditionally associated with verbal and pictorial content; in other words, content that is ephemeral. If brands can make use of video through other social media platforms, they can preserve and archive important content such as product launch demonstrations for instance, or a monumental advertising campaign. And of course, a video channel allows brands to duplicate content by reproducing it through a new medium. Blog posts, whitepapers, and even photo galleries can all adopt a multimedia format and in turn, this will help strengthen the exposure of expert online content.

Video is potentially the greatest asset for successful product PR. Particularly when it comes to the technology sector, companies such as Acer are exemplary at producing accessible product demonstrations, guides and tutorials- these are primary sources through which consumers can see their gadgets in action, and learn how to use these themselves. And as we move towards mobile as an advertising powerhouse alongside the launch of 4G, the demand for on-the-go product videos will dramatically increase, and simultaneously be used to influence our purchasing decisions. Imagine next walking into a department store looking to purchase a new blender, for example, with no idea if it’s user-friendly. Online product tutorials created for the mobile interface will allow us to decide there and then if a purchase is right for us. With over 54.6 million people worldwide viewing video on their mobile devices, the climate is ripe for on the spot video advertising, tutorials, and more, to influence consumer behaviour when on the move.

Marketers are well aware that video advertising is where the future lies. And even if they shun in-house videos in favour of paid content, there are cost-effective ways of establishing a position in the video market. With video advertising spots now available to purchase from the likes of Google Adwords, YouTube TrueView, LinkedIn Ads, and more, a brand is never going to be far removed from the sphere of online video.

Do you feel you’re influenced more by a brand’s videos rather than its pictorial or verbal content? And which companies do you think stand out when it comes to video as an advertising medium? Perhaps we should have heeded our own advice by creating a video blog post in place of this one! Anyhow, we’d love to hear your opinions, so please tweet to us and follow @PracticeDigital, and comment via our Facebook page.