VideoHow Vine Has Changed the Video Landscape in Just 12 Months

How Vine Has Changed the Video Landscape in Just 12 Months

Thousands of brands have joined Vine. Many prospered, but many misfired, failing to seize upon its full potential. We examine what Vine's growth means to digital marketers, plus offer three predictions on what we can expect this year from Vine.

A Year on Vine

Vine recently celebrated its first birthday. The day before, the Vine team said on the Vine Blog:

When we launched Vine on January 24, 2013, we didn’t know what to expect. To say that we’ve been blown away is an understatement. The creative community that has embraced Vine’s short, looping videos has shown that you can tell a whole story, make people laugh and even leave people speechless – in six seconds or less.

To celebrate its first year, the Vine team shared some of the most memorable videos – those that received a lot of activity (through likes, comments and revines) and those that caught fire around the world. Marketers can visit yearonvine.vine.co to watch all of these videos, or a small sample of three Vines is embedded below.

Clearly, Vine has already changed the video landscape in just 12 short months. Let’s examine what this means to digital marketers.

Vine By the Numbers

Vine.co gets more than 4.5 million unique visitors, over 6.8 million visits, and north of 21.1 million page views a month, according to Compete PRO. But this understates Vine’s actual reach because after instantly posting videos on Vine.co, most users then share their Vines to Twitter and Facebook.

Vine is also one of the top 40 free apps on both the iTunes App Store and Google Play. And the Viral Video Chart powered by Unruly has created charts of the Top 20 Vine Videos and Top 100 Vine Videos over the last 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, 365 days, and all time.

The Unruly blog also posts the “6 Branded Vines You Should Watch Right Now” each week, so digital marketers can keep up some the latest short-form content being offered by brands. The most recent post is the Super Bowl Special, which showcased these three Vines:

All this enables digital marketers to keep up with the twists and turns in the video landscape. But, what does the future hold?

3 Predictions for Vine’s 2nd Year

Video sharing on mobile is rocketing. In fact, according to a recent study from Cisco, two-thirds of the world’s mobile data traffic is expected to come from video by 2017. And mobile video will increase 16-fold between 2012 and 2017. But how will Vine make the most of this?

Whether it’s a monetization strategy in the form of native in-feed ads or expanded content discovery, there’s no doubt Vine will have something up its sleeve to surprise its 40+ million active user base in the months to come. Here are just three predictions of what digital marketers can expect to see before Vine celebrates its second birthday.

1. Vine will become instrumental for brands looking to capitalize on real-time video marketing opportunities at tent-pole events.

2014 is the year of sporting events. From the Super Bowl to the Winter Olympics and then the World Cup in Brazil, the opportunity for advertisers to follow the fans and engage in a global conversation is ripe. Unruly research has found time and time again that the brands who win at massive tent pole events are those who tease the crowds in the run-up to the big event. And what better way to tease them than using a platform designed for real-time marketing.

But it’s not just about the lead-up to the sporting event. It’s also about being responsive when the action is happening.

Brands should already be preparing how they would respond to events on and off the field.

  • Naked fan streaks on the Estádio do Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro? Have a cheeky response.
  • Underdog wins Olympic gold? Get ready to celebrate their success.
  • A Super PAC runs a last-minute attack ad just before the mid-term elections? Use a funny Vine to remind votes they can’t believe everything they see on TV.

By pre-empting scenarios, brands can be sure they’re quick of the mark in the storytelling battle. First to the party normally does best in these situations.

For example, last year Oreo capitalized on the floodlights going down at Super Bowl 2013 by sending out an ad that became the talk of the game. A quick bit of thinking drove huge engagement in a time when brands are paying some $4 million for 30 seconds of consumer attention.

2. New success metrics will be key to commercial growth.

Search Engine Watch expects to see more granular metrics being added to the platform in 2014. At the moment, the app focuses purely on “shares,” which is a measure that is essential when assessing the virality of content. But digital marketers can expect to see views being added as a benchmark for success in 2014. This makes sense as more brands invest in supplementing their Vine launches with paid media, which will in turn drive more shares.

3. In 2014 brands will become even more visual.

If a picture says a thousand words, then a video says a million. OK, it’s a saying we’ve all heard a million of times, but for one very good reason – because it’s true.

As attention spans shrink, the requirement for highly engaging content dramatically increases. Enter Vine, which is engaging, short in length, and truly mobile – is this the perfect recipe for marketers? Well, Search Engine Watch certainly thinks it is.

It always takes time for brands to catch onto trends, video or other. But they’ve had a year to sit back and soak up the action. Thousands have now joined, many have prospered, but many have misfired, getting caught up in the swell of the trend but not seizing upon its full potential.

Smaller brands, including Oreo, Trident, and Urban Outfitters, have been quick off the mark, now it’s time for the bigger guys to catch up.

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