Video marketing – Not just another fancy fad

Video marketing is really the future of content marketing and fortunately, it is not exclusive to bigger brands with huge budgets. Small to medium companies, both formal and informal, can actually leverage creative video campaigns on a shoe string budget and still get the same results as their counterparts.

The secret of success of any video campaign is very simple as it determined only by how creative and engaging the script is.

Take for instance Nollywood movies which have taken the world by storm. Most of them are shot in very rustic locations, villages for instance, using basic equipment yet this has not stopped Nollywood from becoming the second largest film industry in the world.

Its stature has grown to such an extent that even Hollywood A-list actors like  Vivica A. Fox and Hakeem Kae-Kazim have starred in films produced by Nigerians and filmed in that country as well. One such film is Black Gold, that was directed Jeta Amata and filmed in the Niger Delta.

There really is genius in simplicity and brands must note this.

I was also introduced to a series of videos that have gone viral in West Africa by my workmate from our Lagos office. Whilst she thought she was just sharing comical videos little did she know that she was actually giving me case studies to support my thoughts on video marketing.

This video series, which is part of Guaranty Trust Bank’s content marketing campaign, stars Officer Titus, a corrupt traffic police officer who is always on the receiving end every time he tries to solicit a bribe from a motorist.

The videos are about 4 minutes long and are shot using basic camera equipment but they are certainly guaranteed to “split your ribs” with laughter! This is the element that accelerates their sharing rate across social media platforms. The average views per each clip is 30,000 and increasing daily.

Clearly, the bank has taken advantage of the fact that many people are actively searching for entertainment videos on platforms such as YouTube each day.

According to one report, the video hosting platform enjoys a jaw dropping 3 billion views per day. It is the world’s second biggest search engine after Google and also attracts over a billion unique visitors per month, second only to Facebook. Therefore, the potential reach of videos on YouTube is astronomical and this augurs well for brand building purposes.

Videos are highly shareable by nature and this is the causal factor of virality. I don’t know how many times i have distributed the Officer Titus videos to my connections via WhatsApp or by email.

Like my colleague, i was simply distributing entertainment but the fact that the videos also start by introducing GT Bank and its services for about 10 seconds i was also inadvertently  creating awareness for the bank itself.

This makes video the cheapest way of creating ongoing and self-propelling brand awareness which ultimately translates into increased lead generation and most importantly, sales.

Did GT Bank bomb an ATM in order to create the Officer Titus videos? Definitely not! My contention is that if individuals can hire a videographer for their wedding and get a quality product, brands can do the same throw in a cast from the numerous drama groups for good effect and create videos that will make their brand visibility sizzle.

The potential of video marketing campaigns to enhance brand awareness, drive traffic to a company website, generate leads and sales is to huge to ignore. Have you factored video marketing in your marketing mix?

Why do you think video marketing is rising in importance?