Why use video in 2022?

Put simply, Video marketing is a highly effective way of getting your brand and your content in front of a huge global audience.

With over 120 million daily active users on YouTube alone, online video offers the potential to reach billions of people – with the rate of consumption increasing exponentially. In fact, it is predicted that in 2022 the average person will spend 100 minutes per day watching online videos. This should come as no surprise, as the medium has always been highly engaging, however as technology advances video is now easier to view and share than ever before.

The stats speak for themselves:

• By 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic – 15 times higher than it was in 2017 (Cisco).
• As of 2020, 83.3% of internet users in the US accessed digital video content (Statista), with 78% of people watching online videos every week and 55% viewing online videos every day.
• 72% of customers said they would rather learn about a product or service by way of video. In fact, 84% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video (Optinmonster). Additionally, 79% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy or download a piece of software by watching a video.
• Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to 10% when reading it in the text (Insivia).
• 86% of businesses use video as a marketing tool — up from 63% over the last three years (Wyzowl).

In addition to the sheer volume of video being consumed are fast-paced changes in it’s application. Here I take a look at 7 key Automotive Video Marketing Trends to look out for in 2022:

1.  Personalised Video

Personalised video is a very effective way to differentiate your brand, and involves using data to market videos towards individuals or specific groups of customers. There are various different levels of video personalisation, including the use of names, photos and locations of targeted customers. A great example of a company using personalised video content comes from Spotify with their 2021 iteration of ‘Spotify Wrapped’. This hugely popular campaign has been running since 2017, giving users a personalised video look-back at their top streamed songs, podcasts and artists for the year and updated recently with the inclusion of artist ‘thank you’ videos.

In our own automotive industry it is looking increasingly likely that personalised video will be exploited by automotive businesses, personalising their consumer experience to drive more business and sales.

2. Live Video

Back in 2020 when the pandemic halted all in-person events, live video emerged as an essential way for brands to continue to connect and engage with consumers. Today the concept and outlook of ‘live-streaming’ has completely changed, and is now being used by everyone from car manufacturers streaming new model reveals, to automotive influencers streaming brand giveaways using YouTube Live.

Even as life gets (slowly) back to normal, the demand for live video content is only growing, and the good news for marketers is that the engagement rate is 6x higher when the video content is live.

3. Short form video

The rise of short form video in recent years has been huge, with the video sharing app ‘TikTok’ spearheading this exploding trend. Boasting over 2 billion app downloads and over 100 million monthly active users, the app offers short, 15 second to 3 minute videos, which have proven particularly appealing to those under 40.

The popularity of automotive content on the app is constantly growing, with 60 billion views of auto-related content in the first half of 2021 alone. Not surprisingly, automotive brands across the industry are racing to be a part of the short form video trend and get in on what is currently one of the most-used platforms in the world today.

While TikTok is far ahead of its competitors, YouTube and Instagram have launched their own take on the short form content format called Shorts and Reels, respectively. These two platforms have been further driving the short form trend and we expect 2022 will likely see the content format grow to even higher levels. Get involved now!

4. VR/AR Videos

Virtual and Augmented reality are technologies that have been around for a while. However, throughout the last few years it is evident that VR and AR are finding their way into mainstream media as the technologies experience a higher demand from consumers and become more accessible to a wider audience.

Manufacturers have already identified it as an immersive new way to market vehicles. Soon car buyers will become accustomed to experiencing most of their purchase journey virtually, only seeing their new car in the metal at the final delivery stage. Some manufacturers like Infinity and BMW have already taken this leap, by building custom AR experiences for customers, creating a virtual reality showroom and virtual test driving simulations.

Whilst this video marketing format may currently be the reserve of the industry giants with large budgets selling big-ticket items, moving forward into 2022 this may well change. I expect that as technology, affordability and accessibility continue to improve that more and more consumers are going to be looking for VR and AR as part of their brand interactions.

An example of its potential use on the horizon could be in the automotive aftermarket area, with virtual simulations of aftermarket parts such as wheels and bodykits and even augmented reality experiences of the inner workings of electric vehicles, the possibilities are endless and it will be very interesting to see where this technology goes in 2022 and beyond. VR and AR technologies have massive potential and are definitely something to keep an eye on.

5. Silent Videos

Automotive consumers are watching videos on their mobile devices in lots of different locations and scenarios, which often means watching them silently. A study by eMarketer has revealed that more than 75% of all videos are played on mobile devices and that 63% of those people are watching with the sound turned off. An even higher number (85%) of videos on Facebook are also watched with the sound turned off.

This immediately puts videos that rely on sound at a significant disadvantage and is the reason marketers today are creating videos specifically to be watched silently. Optimisation for silent viewing can easily be achieved however, with the addition of captions – which are actually watched for 12% longer than videos without captions. Videos that are optimised for silent viewing are important for automotive video marketing and will continue to be in the future as mobile video viewing continues to increase.

6. User Generated content

User generated content showcases a brand or product, and is created by someone who doesn’t officially represent the business. The content produced can vary in formats, but when it comes to video, it could be a review, a brand experience or other collaborations.

The opportunity for marketers is due to the fact that 85% of consumers trust user-generated content more than branded content – the reason that lots of automotive businesses partner up with specific customers who then effectively act as brand ambassadors. These customers go on to produce video content, in which the brand is discussed from a personal angle. This content is much more relatable and trustworthy for consumers, and over time, this trust results in more purchases and more brand loyalty.

Automotive businesses can easily adopt this approach by offering incentives to customers and contacting influencers to share their positive experiences with the business. As we continue to experience the rise of video content and more specifically video marketing, this consistently effective and trustworthy component of modern content output is definitely something to consider for automotive businesses in 2022.

7. Promotional Marketing Videos

Keeping up with automotive video marketing trends is crucial for your business if you want to stay strong against your businesses main competition. While this is important, businesses should still use classic video marketing techniques to drive new business, whether it is covering the general inner workings of your business, highlighting the benefits of a new product you have released or showcasing a new office or premises.

Looking to boost your video marketing in 2022?

Here at WDA, we help businesses across the automotive industry to make emotional connections with their audience through a variety of different video content formats. It’s this understanding of the automotive industry and its consumers that allows us to constantly deliver engaging and eye-catching automotive videos. 

One of the mistakes that a lot of automotive brands make is putting all of their efforts and investments into video production, only to neglect video marketing. Specialist video production agencies can often make decent content, but then fail to get it in front of the right people. At WDA, we don’t just create incredible video content, we get it in front of your desired audience! Discover our videography and video marketing services:

https://wda-automotive.com/content-creation/video/

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