For the last year “vertical” has been a pretty big buzzword in digital marketing. Periscope, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram and the list continues to grow of those who have been embracing the format. If you’re thinking about video you should be thinking about vertical as well.
Over the last few years Snapchat really has made vertical video a format that is accepted by more and more people. With over 100 million daily active users for SnapChat and now 150 million Instagram stories users, you can understand why this is something people are now accustom to seeing. Even Instagram sees the value with this format and has launched ads for stories.
But this acceptance didn’t happen overnight…
June 19th, 2009 the iPhone 3GS launched and allowed a larger audience to start recording video. Besides bus stop ads, trade shows, or maybe Time Square, most people weren’t used to seeing video outside of the 4x3 or 16x9 aspect ratio. Many people and really mainly parents and older generations started filming video with their new mobile device and didn’t bother rotating the device.
This drove a lot of people insane, especially video creators. It even sparked this funny PSA in 2012 called Vertical Video Syndrome which mocked long and narrow video, claiming that when phones are held sideways, “Your video will end up looking like crap.”
This along with many people complaining to others to rotate their phones helped but didn’t stop the vertical format.
Today, social media is a way that many brands distribute commercials and videos to their audience and those people don’t want to have to rotate their phone every time a video plays or a friend sends them something. Going from reading an article to seeing a video and then sharing the video should be a seamless process that shouldn’t be interrupted with rotating the device.
At LooseKeys we worked with Goose Island to develop some vertical ads for Snapchat. It was a lot of fun to dive into this format and we’ve since been exploring and creating more videos with this in mind.
We’re even started seeing games like Clash Royale, Flappy Bird & Super Mario Run get on the vertical bandwagon. Which means we may see Twitch soon take the format serious as well. All of this just shows how important vertical has become and that it shouldn’t be dismissed.
Now, don’t expect to see vertical ads on TV anytime soon, well unless you’re Facebook which is advertising the vertical format.
The question businesses need to ask themselves isn’t about the frame size but rather, where is this going to be watched? If it’s on mobile, vertical might be the best option. If it’s on television well, then horizontal is likely the way to go. There is a good chance we’ll see more businesses asking for videos to be recorded or animated with a vertical crop or option to be included. Post-Production studio’s like LooseKeys were already doing that with the 4x3 crop, why not for the 9x16?
Don’t snub the vertical format, it’s here to stay and its evolving the way we all tell stories.
