We sat down with Kurt Lohse, marketing director at PopTent, to pick his brain about current and upcoming trends in digital video. Lohse noted that one of the most significant changes in the digital advertising sphere is that people are actually choosing to watch video ads online.
He cited a 2012 Ad Age study that found online audiences chose to watch ads 4.6 billion times that year. That number almost doubled from the previous year, when audiences voluntarily watched ads 2.7 billion times. That’s a serious change for just one year.
As Lohse pointed out, companies no longer have the luxury of displaying ads that viewers have to suffer through. With the ability to skip ads after a few seconds, you have a limited window to engage viewers. “You’re going to have to get more creative with the types of videos that you create so that people will want to watch them in the first place,” Lohse told us.
Giving marketers a better tool set to optimize distribution means increased diversification of video and catering to different device types. According to Lohse, it’s mandatory at this point that B2B firms and other companies with difficult products have explainer videos. “Animated explainer videos do the best job at relaying complex and new ideas in a short form that’s entertaining,” he said.
Videos are going to get more creative, content will be more diverse, and the explainer continues to play an important role in advertising and marketing.
Watch the video below to hear more on what Kurt Lohse has to say:
Check out the rest of our Video Expert Series.
