Instagram’s latest update extends the duration of videos from 15 seconds to a whole 60 seconds, what does this mean for brands who are sharing content on the photo-sharing app? B&T is trying to unravel this whole video update with help from three different perspectives within the media industry- video production, social media influencers and brands using user generated content.
Video Production (Shootsta)
30 second elevator pitch: Shootsta equip companies with the video gear and training, so internal staff can film their own content. Shootsta then does the heavy lifting with post-production and returns a completed video within 24 hours.
Mike Pritchett, the CEO of Shootsa shares his thoughts on Instagram video:
“It was only for four or five years ago that people would say to me ‘we just need a short ten minute video produced’. It was really frustrating to teach brand managers and marketing managers that 30- 60 seconds is enough to get your point across.
“But now brands are understanding that viewers don’t want to sit around and watch a two to three minute video anymore. If you can get something compelling, funny, engaging or interesting across in 15 seconds, 30 seconds or 60 seconds then you have your market.
“Plus when it’s that easy to scroll to the next video, you’ve gotta be engaging. Brands have got to be able to create content that is relevant and current rather than just shooting an advert and being like ‘hey watch it’.
“You can’t take that interruptive approach and just throw it on an Instagram feed and expect people to engage with your brand. It needs to be new, it needs to be updated constantly, it needs to be high frequency episodic content.”
Social Media Influencers (Nuffnang)
30 second elevator pitch: Nuffnang is a global blogging and advertising community which pairs bloggers (who increasingly work across all social media platforms) with brands to create individualised campaigns for a targeted online audience.
Felicity Grey, the managing director of Nuffnang Australia shares her thoughts on Instagram video:
“If you’re working in content platforms like Instagram, blogs, Facebook etc. you need to think about quality content. It’s really important that the content you’re putting out there isn’t just stuff for the sake of it but you’ve really thought through audience and how you’re going to align with that audience through the content.
“We love video, we’re launching in-house video production. We’re adding video as the next step, everyone is wanting it and it’s doing really well.
“We’ll either create shareable content bite-size in house and we can use the talent in those videos, we can get them to amplify it and they can also be a part of the creative process.
“I’m talking to a lot of brands about rather than just giving us an idea, why don’t we get the bloggers in before the marketers even come up with the idea and they can help them come up with it. Bloggers know how to create shareable content so why not get them involved and brands are really responding to that.”
User Generated Content Marketing (ShareRoot)
30 second elevator pitch: ShareRoot is Silicon Valley-based content marketing platform. ShareRoot aggregates user generated content from Instagram and Twitter in order for brands to access and securely request legal licensing and access to the rights to those images.
“We all have mobile phones that take awesome quality pictures and videos and that’s where everything is going. Probably what’s going to happen is all of the content used in advertising and marketing is going to be content that is not created by someone sitting in an agency- because there is so much more UGC and it’s more effective.
“Instagram would not extend the video limit time unless they knew its users wanted that. That’s something everyone in this industry needs to think about. It’s not like the CEO of Instagram woke up one day and was like “hey let’s extend the video limit because I feel like it”. That’s not the case at all, it’s all based on small sample size testing.
“The benefit for Instagram is huge, the more time we as users and consumers spend within any of the social media platforms the better it is for the platform. The video being longer keeps us on Instagram longer, it keeps us on the News Feed longer.
“Brands need to navigate these changes. With the help of companies like ShareRoot, brands will be able to navigate how to use User Generated Video. It’s a little more complicated then imagery. For example, if there is another product in the video in a lot of situations you’re prohibited from using that video because the other brand hasn’t consented.”
