Video for social, then and now.
Our business model is heavily shaped around ‘social video content’. A phrase that, not too long ago, was something of a euphemism and described lesser quality videos within a stream of marketing activity.
That was, at least, for those who were actively cutting their nose off to spite their face (or the marketing equivalent). You see, it was a simple juxtaposition and all depended on which way you looked at it:
Yes, not every campaign needs a high-end TV commercial and it is a good idea to produce content specifically for social.
No, just because it’s for social, doesn’t mean it’s an excuse to skimp out, do it on the cheap and/or re-use the TV ad.
I (Kieran here) remember the days where clients would ask for video, then follow it up with “social video I mean, I don’t have big budgets”. The assumption that because it was for social that’s the area to save money was wide spread. Spending 6 years specialising in social strategy before focussing purely on video production allowed me to gain ample experience on the evolution of how video has impacted brands’ marketing activity, along with seeing first-hand the results of investing in it properly (not just referring to financial investment here). So, as we find ourselves with a little time on our hands, I wanted to take a trip down memory lane and highlight some of the key changes that I’ve noticed over the last decade from my perspective in roles as a Social Media Manager, Head of Social, Social Strategy / Ops Director and now as Creative Director of Dead Pixel Films.
2012
vs
2020
Will it work on Facebook?
One of the earlier common traits was before social media was classed as a viable channel for many brands. Circa 2013/14, I was as Social Media Manager at JWT (part of the WPP Group), one of the world’s largest advertising agencies. This was at a time when the ‘traditional’ ad agencies were hiring SMMs to stay current, but we were very much left to our own devices. Apart from myself two SEO focussed roles, the other 20+ bodies in the Manchester office were either Account Managers/Directors, Planners or Creatives (the old school art director and copywriter partnership).
Don’t get me wrong, the agency understood the importance of video, its main revenue stream was campaigns for TV - I think the main struggle was that no one knew how to make money from it. Even in an industry-leading agency, any content for social was deemed as ‘not as important’. The creatives were ‘better spent’ working on a concept for a TV commercial (TVC) and so on (which was probably correct from a commercial sense at that time).
Brand Managers and Marketing Directors were playing it safe. Sticking to areas they knew had delivered a return in the past; TVCs, Point of Sale, Out of Home etc. Because no one (including me) really understood what value social content could add, it was a hard sell. This led to one big questions that we’d hear over and over…
Will it work on Facebook?
Rather than putting resource into creating fresh content that was going to engage the right people in the right way, people would take existing assets and put it on Facebook. That could be a 30s ad, or a screenshot (yes, a screenshot!) from an ad and cropped accordingly.
This became a common feat. throughout the year and was my first account of video for social.
Two examples of TV commercial end frames used as Facebook posts from old clients of mine.
Listening to the little guys.
A year or so later and things hadn’t changed a great deal. Video and social were still too very different worlds.
At this point, mobile usage wasn’t what it is now, and social was still heavily consumed via desktop. Some of the ‘big’ players (Nike, Unilever etc) had started to change the game a tad, but only really by doing re-cuts of the TV campaigns for social and then delving more into CGI, animation and 3D techniques. To be honest, seeing a Nike Vapour football boot morph into itself from dust did catch your eye, but that’s a different kettle of fish.
Back to filmed content and it was the smaller brands that started to lead the way. Enter stop-motion and the rise of short form video content.
Due to the lack of affordable resources, and the innovation of smartphones, there was a huge surge in SMEs creating their own content with what they had to hand. With a touch of natural daylight, an iPhone camera and Photoshop or iMovie, you could create some pretty cool stuff. Whether it’s the wiggle of a bottle and the contents spilling out, dancing fruit or coffee beans falling in line, stop-motion video was an easy and cheap way to create content.
Here’s one we made earlier.
There are many forms of stop-motion, but this gives you an idea of what I’m talking about.
Well if the data says it’s true…
Things then started to get really interesting. According to Social Media Today in 2016 (updated in 2018), video was having quite the impact:
A study found video to be 600% more effective than print and direct mail combined.
500 million hours of video are watched on YouTube each day.
76% of marketing professionals plan to use video to increase brand awareness.
The big one: Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to 10% via text.
I’m sure plenty of you reading this will have been onboard by that point, and didn’t need an infographic (remember when they were popular?!) to convince you. But you’d be surprised at how some of the larger players still hadn’t invested.
A lot of my experience is in the Food and Retail sectors, working with FMCG brands (Fast Moving Consumer Goods). And when the marketing budget is set by someone at group level, things take a while. You can’t just go shifting money around because of some cool content that appeared on their Twitter timeline or Facebook feed (we didn’t really use Instagram in the way we do now, and Tik Tok wasn’t a thing). But now the data was starting to stack up and the impact of creating video (optimised specifically for certain channels/audiences) was obvious, video for social warranted a seat at the table and things began to shift.
Pushing the limits.
Even the brands we all know and love, Nike included, started to take note. Of course, there will be many different experiences here, and there were the odd creatives producing amazing content for social, but for the most part, it was the short-form assets which were delivering results on all of our reports behind-the-scenes and increasing that coveted awareness (not that Nike needed it).
For a period of around 8 - 12 months, things got really interesting. The self-employed small brand owners were having to up their game and try new things. Creative agencies were getting paid by brands to come up with ideas. Then, anyone and everyone with a DSLR started to shoot video - and lot’s of it.
It was very competitive and a fun time to be in the industry. This is where I started to fall in love in with making videos all over again.
I didn’t have the credentials, nor kit, to offer myself out as a videographer - but it didn’t matter anymore.
The boom in social video pushed everyone to compete harder and allowed me to get hands on and create as much content as I could. Technically, I didn’t know a lot the cameras, that’s where Cal comes in (my business partner and Dead Pixel Films’ D.O.P). But I knew what worked and was doubling up as an Art Director and strategist without even realising it.
Pay to play.
Depending on where you were at this point, people were hit with either a big problem, or an even bigger opportunity.
Social algorithms hit us hard. Known as ‘Edge Rank’ before it developed to what it is today, Facebook’s algorithm started to squeeze your reach, meaning less people seeing your content. This was to twist your arm into spending a media budget on getting that exposure back. And it worked.
Facebook’s earnings presentation for Q4 2017 showed a large surge in ad revenue and saw an increase of almost 7 billion dollars between Q4 2015 and Q4 2017. I remember having to explain to many clients why their organic stats were dipping at an unexplainable rate. February 2017 stood out for me, it’s also the month I started to lose my hair - coincidence? I hope so.
But what this now meant was that unless you had the budget to push your video content further, it wasn’t getting seen. And whilst i’m sure there were plenty small businesses getting creative and still gaining some traction, there were thousands that were struggling. This opened up doors for creative agencies and videographers to really shine through. The DIY content started to fall by the wayside and there was a very rapid requirement for agencies to step it up. Many of my clients at the time didn’t have the budgets to compete as much as they’d like to with paid ads. Keeping media budgets for new product launches and festive periods with large spending behaviours, household brand names started to task agencies with creating content that told a story during the period in between.
It was increasingly obvious that without a budget behind it, a good narrative or engaging/educational content would still perform reasonably well organically. So that’s where the focussed shifted to. But with everyone following suit, and quality expectations rising, the production value needing to evolve. That’s when many agencies started to admit that video wasn’t part of their ‘fully integrated’ skill set and looked to bring in external suppliers again.
People like Cal, who had been a freelance camera operator up until now, started to see work shift away from corporate videos and TV (that stayed with the bigger production folk), and began shooting and lighting more content on behalf of marketing agencies. At the time, I was in my Ops Director role and brought Cal in on a number of shoots for the agency I was at. To some extent, this formula led us to where we are today and has played a large part in shaping our current offering as a business.
The middle ground.
If you’ve made it this far, I’m both humbled and impressed - we’re almost done.
Now more than ever there is a high demand for social video content, but it takes many forms. You have local Manchester brands like Myprotein posting their Forever Fit campaign videos, shot beautifully, graded with a very cinematic feel and looking like it belongs on TV, through to fashion start-ups posting influencer content shot in a bedroom. But it’s all relative and they all work - now the ship has settled we can make informed decisions on the content we need and what investment to put into it.
Where I find myself these days is in that middle ground. Whilst we’ve shot and produced a couple, we don’t put ourselves out as a production company that specialises in TV. Nor are we a couple of film makers learning the ropes with some DSLRs and getting creative. We’re in that middle ground.
Boasting a lot of experience in the strategy and direction of social video, along with 8 years of freelance camera work prior to Dead Pixel Films, myself and Cal now provide something quite unique.
I direct and Cal shoots. We have an office in Manchester, access to studio space and own ‘Netflix approved’ camera equipment that we use for every shoot, big or small. We fit that requirement to produce high-end, visually-stunning video content, with a solid understand of social and how it’s going to be used.
We don’t offer marketing strategy or paid social advertising, we simply focus on honing our craft and building a business that produces damn fine social video content, without the need for an astronomical budget. This usually means maximising the value by producing over 20+ assets from one shoot, as oppose to one long video, but we’re always finding new ways to get creative.
There’s a selection of social content below and if you want to chat further about video content production, get in touch - we have a Labrador and coffee machine in the office (what more could you want?!).