Answers to the biggest questions plaguing the state of content marketing

The biggest questions plaguing content marketing can be broadly described as follows:

1. Why are we creating content and not how much are we creating?
2. Who is going to watch it and not how many people?
3. Beyond vanity and media-bought metrics like reach and likes and engagement, how do we measure if a particular content has worked for us?

Here’s what should be really addressed when it comes to digital content.

Context

What is digital content / digital video? If you take it in the true spirit of things, a digital video is a piece of content created to be used only or primarily for online media. However, we need to dig a little deeper. A pure-play digital video has to seamlessly merge into the timeline on social platforms. It needs to have the appearance, tonality and treatment of massively consumed video properties. Cats, Dogs, Bottle flip and other challenges. I am not saying it has to be poorly produced. The opposite in fact. Today we have retina displays, high-end headphones and speakers which instantly throw the spotlight on badly produced video content. However, if a brand video looks and seems like it’s part of my timeline and doesn’t come across as a disruption/piece of advertising, the chances that I will consume it are infinitely more than otherwise.

Craft

Most brand videos come across as cleaned up commercials. Yes, they won’t have the product window or the ubiquitous branding but does that make it a true online video? To me, one of the best examples of online video is the stuff that Geico or Skittles create. Made for the web keeping in mind the user behaviour on specific platforms. Let’s talk about the craft of writing an online video. Pardon me for saying this but most (not all) digital agencies in India don’t have the creative chops to craft a really good video. That’s because the digital agency business in India is only 10 years old and digital creatives are not trained in video crafting. Mainline agencies, on the other hand, are masters of the 30-second video and they are instinctive brand thinkers. They are very good with creating a three minute or a six-minute video but most don’t know how to really take advantage of a five-second YouTube pre-roll or create a vertical video for IG Stories.

Authenticity and credibility

So who is creating cutting-edge video content for digital? This role is now being fulfilled by specialists. Smaller, nimbler players staffed by people who understand platforms and also know the craft. Yes, a lot of these guys are ex-agency people. I somehow feel that once you leave the environment of an ad agency, you shed agency / brand-centric thinking but retain the craft that you have learnt. Examples are Culture Machine, TVF and AIB. They have adopted a newsroom approach to video creation. They pick up micro-moments and create content on the fly in a matter of hours. This takes technology and investment in equipment for sure. But without the newsroom mindset, all the technology in the world will not help you. Increasingly, brands are approaching and willing to pay a premium to these guys to create great video content.

Interactivity

A true digital creative piece is interactive at heart. Clicking the play button and watching the story play out is just the beginning. Clicking the like or share button is the end of the journey. But what about the actual video itself? I would love to see more interactive videos. AR and VR are changing the game and once access to cardboard and other devices becomes easier, I am betting that a lot more brands will start looking at interactivity and discovery within the video as a great way of building brand experience and in-video engagement.

Financials

We all know this. Digital videos have far poorer budgets compared to commercials. Yes, the behind-the-camera talent and the actors are cheaper or not as well-known so it helps cut costs but does that mean the client will accept a second-hand product? No! I hear a lot of clients focusing more on volume production rather than the quality of production. A simple example; you will get a budget of Rs 20 lakh easy if you can produce between 6 and 10 films. But not if you produce only two. That’s not acceptable. So how do we deal with this?

Technology and logistics   

Production technology has not significantly improved. Neither have the logistics of production. A digital video on an average takes the same amount of crew to produce as does a commercial. So even if you save costs on the talent and some of the equipment, the production crew like assistants, light men, etc., still remain the same in numbers. Yes they might cost a little less but the numbers still remain the same. So what’s the solution?

Content Strategy

While everyone is creating content, no one seems to have a content strategy. Most digital content is nothing but cheaply made TVCs. This will increasingly be questioned. We will see the emergence of content strategy that is aligned to brand strategy and the marketing calendar. We will also see more native video content formats outside of the 16:9 format. More brands will focus on IGTV and emerging platforms like TikTok. This calls into question the ability of existing creative teams to create 'digital content' as opposed to 'digital films'. Will they learn and adapt or will these jobs go to 'content specialists'? As we have seen with social media, if the existing agency can't deliver because they don't understand how to, specialist content writers will start taking over.

I am sure a lot of people will disagree or partially agree with what I have written. Which is good because it’s time we started a discussion about this. Online video is here to stay and we need to catch up with technology and invest in it. Otherwise, we will end up undercutting costs and end up choking ourselves to death.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of www.buzzincontent.com and we do not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)