In 2017 Kuwait-based telecom brand Zain released a video ad during Ramadan. It went viral for all the right reasons.
Featuring Emirati pop singer Hussain Al Jassmi, the three-minute commercial showed a range of nationalities pleading with a suicide bomber not to carry out his attack. The anti-terror ad not only delighted the audience with its larger message of what it means to be a Muslim but also highlighted the role of Islam in preventing extremist violence.
However, the ad also sparked some controversy for using images of 5-year-old Syrian boy Omran Daqneesh, whose photo was captured after he was injured in an airstrike.
While Middle Eastern marketers are using video marketing as a tool to achieve better branding, they are yet to experiment with using AI to scout the effect of their campaigns, among other things.
Video Marketing is the New Normal
Brands believe that videos are a better way to pass information and advertise their products. According to a recent survey, people spend approximately 90 minutes on their phones every day, which is equivalent to spending 23 days in a year.
Also Read: Four Ways to Improve Your Facebook Video Marketing
Videos are also known to be a reliable method of delivering the message efficiently without much hassle. Additionally, video graphics have an excellent recall value, compared to text, for consumers.
According to a B2B study, only 60 per cent of marketers involved in B2B business have used videos as a marketing technique, while only 10 per cent of them are using live streaming.
“There is something about video marketing that helps it stay apart from the other online marketing tactics. When done correctly, all you need is one video marketing campaign to build up highly targeted traffic for a long time,” says Carey Lowe in her book The Correct Way to Find Video Marketing Success.
Using Artificial Intelligence in Video Marketing
Video currently accounts for 74 per cent of all internet traffic; it is set to rise to 82 per cent by 2021, according to Cisco. With the help of AI, your video marketing strategy can scale greater heights. AI will help you provide tailor-made content to your customers.
Video developers can use AI data as a tool to understand customer interest and base their future videos on the same information. Insights from AI prevent the marketer from producing redundant videos. Over 52 per cent of marketers believe that video offers a higher ROI compared to another marketing strategy.
Data analytics and AI promise greater efficiency and superior result based on data collected. Some other benefits are:
Helps in rationalising production
Big data and high-tech tools to produce video content go hand in hand. The content sourced by AI is filtered to the extent that relevant information is kept and the required data is extracted for use. Tools like mysimpleshow have proven their mettle in making cutting edge videos.
Interconnecting videos based on the watch history
Many video platforms like YouTube increasingly motivate users to click on videos related to the content they usually watch. The suggested videos are a great way to build interest in viewers, and that information was successfully collated with the help of AI.
Higher reach
The reach of video marketing campaigns is far. People love watching videos not only for entertainment but also to gain knowledge. Search engines also enrich the consumer experience by throwing in additional videos to give them a holistic experience. Search engines are spending enormous resources on building complex algorithms to recommend similar videos to the viewer. Companies can take advantage of this. YouTube is the best site for videos, and about 5 million videos are watched every day and brands are vying to make their presence felt on this platform.
Helps in improving personalisation
Based on history, past search and social behaviour, viewers respond well to videos. With the help of AI, marketers employ this information to make personalised content. The AI intervention makes the video relevant to the needs of the customers.
Real-time update on videos
Only and only AI can make it possible for companies to get feedback on their video and product and that too real-time. As evident from the aforementioned Zain advertisement, people are highly sensitive to their religious beliefs. Marketers have to deliver relevant and culturally acceptable content to target the audience. An AI platform is exceptionally flexible even if one has to make small tweaks in videos based on updated data.
Also Read: How Real is Artificial Intelligence for Customer Experience
Socially-relevant content
On Facebook alone, 100 million hours of video are watched every day, so to provide engaging video content is all the more necessary. AI analytics can do well by analysing and evaluating data based on such social media platforms. When the video content on social media is live, AI can tap data which can be used for future content inputs. If the past videos were successful, it would give information on which viewers liked points. You can create pages in FB and add video messages and slowly increase the reach. AI will help marketers to develop powerfully social content that also is personalised.
Benefits of Video Marketing
Videos travel faster than simple messages
Social media is a powerful tool which lets people watch and share images and videos at a rapid speed. The chances of a video going viral increases manifold if you provide rich content. Marketers have come up with innovative ways to promote their products by incorporating fun and emotional storylines.
Humour is known to be a great way to ease stress and engage more customers. Popular comedian and voice actor Mike Henry says, “We’re operating in a world where one good video can lead to a massive social following.”
Also Read: AI is Helping Solve the Problem of Soaring Customer Acquisition Costs
Video mailers are new
Emailers initially had been a great way of promoting one’s product and service. However, with time, emailers were found to be ineffective. People might not want to open mailers but are willing to open a video to watch and understand. These days it is considered more comfortable to watch videos than to look at heavy texts. People usually unsubscribe from mailing lists because they are not comfortable reading elaborate mails. Videos are indeed an excellent way to persuade people to stay.
Increase in conversion and recall rates
Making and investing in videos should not become a pang of guilt because a study made by HubSpot has discovered that if you happen to include a video on your landing page, the conversion rate increases by 80 per cent!
Videos help in building trust – If you want people to attach a significant brand value to your product and company videos will help you do that. Product videos are increasingly becoming a great way to help customers in the decision making the process. Product demo videos mainly help people in their decision-making process.
Search engines also love videos – Videos spread like wildfire and attract many hits. Going viral or reaching out to millions of potential customers is the ultimate goal of every brand and marketer. Platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo provide brands with the requisite space they need to showcase their product on a large scale with minimal investment. YouTube is the most prominent and popular example of a website that uploads videos and gains traction. It is also the second-largest search engine used for videos and companies can take full advantage of putting their product demos there in addition to their website.
These statistics will help convince you of the benefits of video marketing:
- About 85 per cent of the companies now have s[specialist staff and resources to make in-house videos
- More than 56 per cent of the videos made by businesses are not more than 2 minutes long
- Top 5 per cent of the videos that get popular retain about 77 per cent of consumers to the last second of it
- A good 35 per cent of companies are using advanced tools to measure the performance of video marketing
- Latin America has the highest demand for video content for decision making
- About 83 per cent of people who watch videos prefer to watch it on YouTube
Also Read: Demand for Video Content Gives Rise to YouTube Popularity in Gen Z
AI has boosted the marketer’s efforts and in a way, made their job more on-target. About 61 per cent of marketers strongly believe that AI and ML is the next big thing, and they are certainly not fads. Generic marketing and impersonal target orientation is a thing of past. The new era needs quick information and content because decision making also has changed, and infusing AI into your video marketing strategy is the way ahead.
