A majority of video production and marketing professionals (78 per cent) are seeing brands invest more in online and digital video ads compared to traditional TV spots, according to the 2018 Pulse of Video Industry survey published by StudioNow, a content production solution for marketers.

It appears that this shift to digital video ads has introduced a number of different challenges, including decreased budgets from brands, a surge in the amount of content that needs to be produced and questions about the best ways to leverage emerging technologies.

StudioNow’s 2018 Pulse of Video Industry survey illustrates how the overall video content industry is evolving, represented by the following data:

• Marketing professionals are in agreement; budgets for producing video content are shrinking. 45 per cent of survey respondents have seen brands’ budgets for producing marketing and advertising video content decreasing in 2018, but the demand for video content remains on the rise.
• Let’s be clear; most professionals believe there needs to be more transparency between agencies and brands. 54 per cent of survey respondents believe there needs to be more transparency in the bidding process for creative work. Only 16 per cent believe the process is transparent enough.

While the business of the industry is changing, so too is the way that the work is done. With the influx of new content channels and tech trends, marketing and advertising professionals are struggling to adjust while learning how to navigate the rapidly evolving landscape. The survey results revealed their opinions on these tactical issues, such as:

• Augmented reality has more marketing power than virtual reality. 40 per cent of respondents believe that AR in marketing content is here to stay, while only 35 per cent said the same about VR.
• Live video is still a maze for marketers. Only nine per cent of survey participants believe that marketers have figured out how to best leverage live video content on social media.
• Instagram and Snapchat stories are a challenge to many professionals. Nearly half (49 per cent) of marketers believe that stories on Snapchat and Instagram present a challenge when featuring marketing content on social media.
• No matter how good the technology is, video professionals aren’t replacing their high-tech equipment with smartphones any time soon. More than 70 per cent of survey respondents believe that smartphones do not pose a risk to traditional video production processes.
• The majority of marketers believe that videos between 10 and 60 seconds receive the most audience engagement. While less than 20 per cent of respondents believe that videos less than 10 seconds and longer than one minute receive the most engagement, the rest are split between videos 10-30 seconds long (45 per cent), and between 30 seconds to a minute (37 per cent).

“Through our survey, we aimed to gather insights on key trends and topics within the content production ecosystem, which is made up of brands, agencies and production companies. What we found is that the content arms race continues to escalate and is being fuelled by the proliferation of digital platforms and screens coupled with more sophisticated targeting techniques and technologies,” said David Mason, StudioNow chairman, co-founder, and CEO. “This new digital landscape has exposed the limitations of the older, traditional production model that was built for TV commercials and broadcast TV. At StudioNow, we’re leveraging technology to provide more transparency, efficiency, scale and flexibility in the content production process, which delivers better economics and outcomes for all involved parties.”

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