The presence and consumption of video content online is growing at an exponential rate. Public relations practitioners are rapidly facing the reality that they must master video creation; or miss out on seemingly limitless opportunity.
IT and Networking giant Cisco have produced a white paper, entitled Cisco Visual Networking Index, which outlines the pervasion of video into everyday internet consumption. According to Cisco, by 2014 video (TV, video on demand, internet, and P2P) will account for 91% of global consumer traffic; internet video alone will account for 46%.
If these figures aren't enough to convince you to immediately immerse yourself in video content generation, then consider this: the global internet video community has already surpassed one billion users. In terms of population, this makes the community the equivalent of the third largest country in the world. Surely no PR practitioner, or brand, can afford to miss out on an opportunity like that.
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| Population of China, India, and the Global Online Video Community |
The growth in online video is undoubtedly due to transformations in the way that media is consumed; smart phones and tablets, plus the introduction of Apple TV and Google TV, have increased consumer call for video content. These platforms offer the opportunity for internet video to infiltrate homes across the world, and should be capitalised on by PR practitioners.
What can Video do for Public Relations?
As can be seen, video has the potential to transport content around the world; providing PR practitioners with a vast and diverse audience, something which is not possible through traditional media channels.
Broadcast consultancy markettiers4dc describe video on online and digital media as;
“... living breathing interconnecting networks of channels that can be taken advantage of to take your message to your audience, or drive your audience to you.”
In addition to its ability to span the globe, video can also reach audiences who are reluctant to engage with traditional media outlets, such as newspapers, and promote engagement.
One example of a brand using an online video is La Senza's Christmas lingerie showcase, created by Karmarama and Kaper. The aim of the campaign was to promote the La Senza lingerie range to a male audience in the run up to Christmas. As well as the video (below), which aimed to help men who can't tell a cup size B from a DD, a story was run highlighting the fact that £22 million worth of lingerie is returned straight after Christmas every year due to being the wrong size or style. This demonstrates how digital and traditional media can be combined successfully to support a campaign.
As well as being hosted on the La Senza website, the video was featured on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and a standalone micro-site; demonstrating the mobility of video content. The video was viewed on YouTube 2.7 million times – becoming the ninety-fourth most viewed video on the site in the run up to Christmas 2010. Following the campaign, La Senza's market share increased to 6.7%.
More and more people are turning to online videos nowadays, despite the fact that traditional TV is still in dominance. The picture you showed above is quite interesting - consider internet video community as the third largest country. Since the community is so huge and (potential) audiences are great, all organizations should take advantage of internet videos for the sake of publicising. Most importantly, find the right publics for each PR compaign. La Senza's PR strategies were quite wise - aim to men (men tend to buy lingeries for their another half before Christmas).
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