A 2016 Review (only 24 days late!)
One Year, 50 Clients, 674 videos, we won't even count the graphics!
2016 was a fantastic year at V2 Content and we wanted to share a month-by-month year in review to highlight some of the amazing projects we had the good fortune of working on with our incredible clients.
January: We debuted the first of a series of “Unforgettable Firsts” videos for First National Bank with this one day VIP surprise trip to the Opera. We also warmed up for baseball season with Husker baseball TV spots and provided some comic relief marketing for Five Nines Technology.
February: Did you know the company that provides the communication headsets for the NFL is headquartered in Lincoln? GSC is expanding their product to colleges and we helped tell their story. We also helped with several branding videos for Infogressive, another Lincoln company who is a national leader- in cybersecurity.
March: We started the month by helping our beloved Husker football team sell season tickets. For the fourth straight year we produced the JDRF Lincoln Fund-a-Cure video for their annual gala. And we wrapped up the month by launching a series of Snapchat videos for The Buckle.
April: At the Husker Spring game, we allowed fans the unforgettable first experience of being the Voice of the Huskers for some of the biggest plays in Husker history.
May: With football and basketball seasons on the horizon, we polished our sports production reel.
June: A couple of non-profit projects kicked off the month, followed by a 30-second spot for our good friends at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo.
July: More work for The Buckle with an explainer video for their Buckle Select program. We helped introduce an important savings plan from First National Bank and also produced a fundraising campaign video for a great local non-profit.
August: Besides creating over 200 animated graphics for Memorial Stadium (whew!), we created a branding video for the University of Nebraska Water For Food Institute and started a year long concussion awareness campaign for the Brain Injury Alliance of Nebraska.
September: About as busy a month as we had. Husker football features for every home game, our 7th year of producing content for Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital’s annual GOAL Awards, and basketball spots for both the Husker men and women.
October: Basketball month. Another 145 animated graphics for Pinnacle Bank Arena, VCU Hoops, Penn Quaker hoops, and throw in a start-up tour stop in Lincoln and highlighting UNL’s institutes.
November: We kicked off the month with our final race video of the year for Pink Gorilla Events, a long and very fun shoot day. This election worker tribute for Election Systems and Software was shared across the country hundreds of times (and viewed thousands more) and we got to show some incredible behind-the-scenes winemaking from Mac’s Creek.
December: The official start of our Now You Know Nebraska series for the Nebraska 150th Anniversary organization. This will run throughout 2017 encompassing over 180 videos!
Happy New Year to everyone and we look forward to working with our incredible clients (and some new ones as well) in 2017!
Facebook Videos- View counts don’t add up
While the advantages of using native Facebook video far outweigh the disadvantages, comparing view counts between Facebook and Youtube is like comparing apples to (very small) oranges.
While the advantages of using native Facebook video far outweigh the disadvantages, comparing view counts between Facebook and Youtube is like comparing apples to (very small) oranges.
I was amazed last week scrolling through my Facebook feed of the view count on some of the very substandard videos I was seeing. Short clips from marketers with literally no thought towards audience or purpose were racking up impressions in the thousands.
So I decided to look into this a little more closely. What exactly counts as a Facebook video view?
First of all, there is no arguing that Facebook video is an incredible force right now in distributing video content. With a number now exceeding 8 billion views a day, combined with the fact that 65% of Facebook videos are now natively uploaded- if you are a marketer and not utilizing this medium- you are not doing your job.
The biggest advantage of posting Facebook videos natively is autoplay. As a consumer is scrolling through their feed, the initial images of your video have the ability to grab their attention.
I would have assumed in order for an impression or view to count, the user would need to select the video- which enables the audio.
But in reality, a Facebook view is logged after just three seconds of viewing, even if unselected and just scrolled past on a timeline. If a viewer is parked on a post above or below your video for just a moment, it is counted as having an impression or view.
In essence, you need to divide your Facebook views by 5, 8, maybe even 10 to get an accurate comparison to Youtube views.
So what does this all mean for us as content creators and you as marketers?
1) There really is no reason to not use both mediums, but Facebook native uploading is the way to go on their platform.
2) A view on Youtube counts for a lot more than an impression on Facebook.
3) Most importantly from content creation, it is very important to consider the medium in the final edit of the video.
In fact, I would now argue that every production requires a different edit for each platform. On Facebook- the first five seconds has to be visually dynamic and appealing without consideration of the audio. It is a much different edit than a traditional production, but the best visual content has to lead the video.
Youtube is similar, but I would say the window is closer to 10 seconds to pull in the viewer, plus the audio actually has a role on that platform when convincing viewers to keep watching.
We have now moved to a world where the two minute branding video we produce for your website should be re-edited for Facebook, slightly re-edited for Youtube, have a 15 second version created for Instagram, and edited into a dozen 10 second snippets for Snapchat.
Social media diversification for our clients is our top focus in 2016. It’s finding the perfect balance between content, audience and platform to produce the biggest ROI for our clients and their consumers.