Video Marketing’s Biggest News Stories of 2016

With 2016 being dubbed “The Year of Video,” it’s no surprise that advertisers and marketers have spent this year investing in the format. Major tech and social media companies including Google, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have been upping their game as they compete to win company’ advertising budgets. Let’s take a look at some of the most interesting stories that impacted our space this year.

Video Goes Vertical on Instagram

Following in the footsteps of Snapchat which introduced vertical video formats in 2015, Instagram expanded its video ad offering to include the vertical format. As we become an increasingly mobile-dominant society, we see more and more social media platforms adapt to this new age. Since we often hold our phones vertically, adding video ads which display in this direction provides a much better viewing experience. Read full story here.

Faulty Facebook Data

As marketers, we rely on the metrics and information provided by the platforms we use to measure the effectiveness of our ads. That’s why there was a massive uproar from advertisers and publishers when Facebook announced what it called “discrepancy” in the way the platform measured video viewership. When calculating average view times, Facebook excluded video views which lasted less than 3 seconds. This lead to overly inflated data which was beyond misleading. Following online backlash after announcing a handful of other “bugs,” Facebook is acting to restore its credibility by tapping external metrics companies such as comScore and Nielsen. Read full story here.

Google Announces HTML5 Deadlines

Google announced that as of April 2017, it will no longer allow advertisers to upload new Flash videos to DoubleClick or YouTube and, by July 2017, Flash video ads will no longer be able to run on these same channels. This news should come as no surprise since Google eliminated Flash banners in 2016 and other tech companies including Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook have made similar moves. For advertisers, this is actually good news as HTML5 offers way more advanced technology and can be displayed on many more devices, increasing views and audience reach. Read full story here.

YouTube Introduces 6-Second Ads

YouTube’s 6-second ads, dubbed Bumper ads, offer a bite-sized format designed to grab users’ attention. Given that we now have about an 8-second attention span, Bumper ads give advertisers a way to reach move views and improve brand awareness as they cannot be skipped. This new ad format isn’t meant to replace TrueView ads; it’s an add-on which can be combined with them to reinforce brand messages. Read full story here.

Our News For 2016: Video Ads Become Scalable

We are now way past the days when a company needs to hire an expensive video production team to create its video ads. We’ve worked tirelessly to create a product that meets the growing needs of brands and agencies. With TheMotion’s technology, video ads can now be produced in a scalable manner and updated with new images or messages on-demand. Our powerful platform enables companies to simply connect to its API (or upload a data file) and, within just a couple of hours, produce hundreds or thousands of branded video ads ready for release across any advertising platform. Check us out!

With 2017 just weeks away, we can’t wait to see what the new year will bring!