The short-form content boom has exploded over the last few years, with all of the major social media providers investing heavily in brief video clips. Creators are now encouraged to post this type of content, with the algorithms often favouring it over longer videos.
This craze is going nowhere, and experts expect it to get even bigger in the next few years. Entertainment providers that have thus far eschewed short-form are starting to integrate it, and businesses that don’t normally use video content are also seeing its benefits.
Promotions Often Optimised for Short-Form Engagement
A telling sign that short-form content has taken the world by storm is the fact that promotions from some of the world’s biggest businesses have started tapping into it. Betfair Prize Pinball is a great example of this, as it offers players a mini-game that they can partake in each day for a chance to win prizes. It only takes a minute or so but engages players in that time and encourages them to come back and play again the next day.
There are certain brands that have actively encouraged their customers to create short-form videos to help with a promotion campaign. For example, Nike ran the Magic Boots challenge, where users were tasked with showing their skills in Nike boots to drive buzz around a product launch. McDonald’s has also done this, with the Grimace Shake rollout that involved a campaign to push user-generated content.
How Big Is Short-Form Content?
Short-form is now the most popular form of video content on the internet, with over 90 per cent of Gen Z and Millennials watching across various social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. According to Marketing LTB, Shorts draw more views and likes, and videos under 90 seconds retain 50 per cent of viewers on average.
Vertical video is now the default format for mobile engagement, and now a lot of users encounter brands for the first time when scrolling through video feeds. There are billions of users worldwide, with short-form enjoying success in every market, regardless of cultural or geographical differences. It’s no surprise that there’s a lot of investment being done to milk this trend for all it’s worth.
Which Companies are Investing Heavily in Short-Form Content?
Many of the world’s biggest brands have now embraced the short-form trend and have started putting a greater emphasis on this type of content. Brands like Red Bull and Amazon frequently post short videos to stay in touch with today’s mobile culture.
Entertainment platforms like Netflix are even said to be moving towards short-form video offerings. A recent trend in Asia has been the splicing up of series and films into short videos that people can watch in manageable chunks, and Netflix may be set to jump on this soon as well.
Short-form is only going to get bigger over the next few years, and businesses are right to prioritise it. It may end up being the most popular form of video content as long as the mobile market exists.
