Silent Video

“Silence is a source of great strength”

-Lao Tzu

Imagine that you’re in a quiet work environment. You get on your phone to look something up. As the page finishes loading, a loud blast of sounds starts coming through and you fumble to get your volume button pressed down to zero. We’ve all had this happen to us. It’s disruptive and it affects people negatively. Turns out that 66% of people hate it when ads automatically play with sound on according to an article by Teads. In response, advertisers are trying to mitigate this by producing ads that begin to play automatically without sound. Since outstreamed videos are going to become a thing of the future, advertisers should focus on silent plays with captions. According to Facebook, captioned video ads increased views by 12%. Ads should be able to convey an emotional message without the use of sound. This can be done with the use of motion graphics and text within the campaign. This new trend will be a way for advertisers to use their creative license to make videos impactful despite not having any sound.  We’re certain your team has the creative abilities to do this but here are some quick tips to get you started on ways to make your silent spots stand out and perform well.

1.     Use bold visuals and/or animations. This will help catch the viewers eye and keep them engaged. It’s also very visually striking to see good fonts and animations that blend well together within your brand’s signature look.

2.     Use Call to Action buttons. Make sure to insert in a way that it is natural flowing. You can even run tests before it launches to see where it receives the most clicks. CTA buttons are imperative to getting conversions. Using a download button seems to yield the best lead results (HubSpot).

3.     Subtitles. If your brand feels it won’t be able to get its point across 100% without sounds then subtitles can offer a lot of relief. Facebook now offers a feature where you can automatically add captions to videos.

4.     Write unconventional scripts. This is always a fun way to entice viewers to keep watching your campaigns. They’ll want to know what is about to happen next. I know I always appreciate a good creative ad that keeps me on my toes or just completely blows me away with how unconventional it is! A prime example would be the recent OutHorse Your Email Campaign for Visit Iceland.

5.     Share your offers/discounts early in the ad. Since attention spans are shorter and shorter each year, you want to get the most important message out first. Research suggests that you have about 10 seconds to hook, line, and sink em’!  

6.     Be short and concise. Again, for those in the back who didn’t hear. Attention spans continue to lessen so it’s important to make your campaigns shorter than 60 seconds. The ad must also grab the attention of the audience immediately in order to keep them engaged in watching.

7.     Don’t ditch the audio. Sometimes people do still listen to ads with sound on. Be able to convey your message without it but really drive the point home with the audio on. Make that emotional connection deeper with your audience.

In the words of the infamous Will Rogers, “Never miss a good chance to shut up!” This is definitely one of those times! A time for advertisers to harness the opportunity to creatively grow through the rise in popularity of silent ads is here. Let your campaigns say a lot through saying nothing at all! Happy creating!

Outstream Video Advertising

A new popular topic of discussion in the advertising world is out streamed video ads. This is expected to be a new trend in the following years as opposed to in stream video ads. So, what’s the difference? Well, let’s start with what an in-stream video ad is. These ads are inserted into a video that is already being played. In stream ads require a static video player and they can be viewed as pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll. A.K.A. Before, middle, or after what the viewer is already watching.  These tend to be somewhat of an annoyance and are usually unrelated to the content being played. We’ve all been through the, “your video will play after this ad” situation on YouTube before. Now, let’s talk about what an outstream ad is. This type of video ad does not need a static video player. It exists solely in of itself. It is the video and the player all in one. It’s also called in-read due to the nature of how it’s triggered to play on websites (Giant Media). A viewer will reach the “trigger” point on a site and the video will begin to play. For example, at the end of a paragraph, the video will be inserted onto the page and begin to play when the reader reaches this point. The reader can then either watch the ad or keep scrolling to get back to what they were already looking at. These types of ads are maximized to be more relevant to the content that the viewer is looking at on a webpage. This ensures a higher success rate of views than instream because with in stream ads, they play on videos that tend to not have much in common with their product. Also, these video ads do not require video players and show up in non-video environments outside of YouTube (NuSpark Media). Another positive for these outstreamed ads is that the advertiser only pays for viewable cost-per-thousand impressions. Agencies only pay if 50% of the ad is viewed for 2 seconds or more of continuous video play according to Google Ads Help. 

            Alright, let’s recap what we’ve learned: 

Instream Video Ads: 

·      Require video player to be present 

·      Play before, during or after video content 

·      Usually, the user has to wait for ad to be viewed to see or continue to see what they were already there to watch…. Actually, when given the option, “37% of people say they will skip the ad as soon as possible and 20% say they will skip it in 5 seconds or less,” according to a study done by Hubspot.

·      Difficult to target the market audience they are looking for…. Unrelated to what the viewer is already watching.

Outstream Video Ads: 

·      Don’t require a pre-existing video. Can be inserted into basically any web page. 

·      Easier to target the right audience because the advertiser will know which sites their ads will go on. An ad for an unhealthy snack won’t be inserted into a webpage that has to do with fitness. You get the idea. 

·      Video will be triggered to begin when the reader reaches a certain point on the site

·      Will stop playing when scrolled past so the viewers have more freedom of choice. 

·      Advertisers only pay if the ad is actually viewed!

It seems obvious why outstreamed advertising is superior to instream at this point. You can target the correct audience more efficiently. You only pay if the advertisement actually viewed. Outstreamed ads don’t annoy the viewer nearly as much as instream and it gives the audience more freedom of choice. We expect to see less instream ads in the coming years and more outstream ads in the digital space.