The expression “show, don’t tell” has long been the cornerstone of many communication philosophies. After all, who hasn’t absorbed information more easily when it’s been demonstrated visually instead of being drily explained in words?
This is hardly big news to businesses who, for decades, have been using everything from TV ads to in-store videos to drive home the benefits of their products and services and who have become past masters in ensuring that every element of their brand identity shines through the communication.
Today, two elements are making this form of communication even more powerful than ever before. The first is the huge rate of technological advancement that allows video content to be streamed to all kinds of devices as long as they’re connected to the internet and even to be embedded in social media posts. The second is the rise of big data.
Big data, as if you’ve been able to avoid the phrase in recent months, is the plethora of information generated by consumers interacting with a brand online through all online channels, even down to the comments left on review sites like Tripadvisor.
This can provide genuine and robust insights into customers’ behaviour, preferences and even the triggers that tip them over to purchasing. For many businesses this has transformed their approach to marketing as it has not only helped them to meet the needs of existing customers, detailed analysis also allows the profiling of potential new customers leading to business expansion.
With regards to video marketing this means that videos can be made and targeted at specific customer groups who will find them particularly relevant – and resonant – and that’s why it’s being confidently hailed as being the future of content marketing.
It’s big data that lies behind these predictions as it represents the coming together of statistical knowledge and consumer insight to create a very powerful combination.
In terms of what video content can be used to display, this can even include comparatively complex facts and statistics but in a very digestible, and even entertaining, way. For example the online poker site 888 Poker has started to offer a personalised video which shows a player’s greatest successes and achievements in facts, figures and ratings. The video can then be shared on social media with friends and other poker players.
Product demonstrations are another natural use for video content, as are customer testimonials which give real “word of mouth” credibility to a brand. It also helps to humanise and personalise communication – something that is surely the aim of every business and brand.
So these are exciting times for marketers with ever-more communication opportunities emerging thanks to the use of big data. As to where it will ultimately lead, we can expect more and more precisely-targeted communications. What will this mean in practice? With technology moving on at such a pace, we’ll just have to wait and see.
