Why social video is king in APAC, and what these brands are doing about it

Photo credit: Dumb Ways To Die

When was the last time you went online to check something and were still online 20 mins later, laughing at the latest cat video or tearing up over the latest appeal for help? There’s a reason for this— humans are visual creatures who respond to storytelling, and videos are the natural medium for this.

Brands and marketers are making a conscious effort to include video while developing their marketing plans. Here are some statistics that tell the video story.

• Social media messages with video receive on average 1,200 percent more shares than messages with text and images combined.
• Asia-Pacific sees 8.4 billion videos being shared each day, putting it at the forefront of the social video revolution.
• People in Thailand, India and the Philippines dedicate nearly half their concentration to online video while watching TV.
• 82 percent of B2B content marketers have used video to tell their story.

So what are some opportunities that marketers can hope to make the most of? And what are brands already doing about it?

1. Video is king of the content marketing world 

As a digital marketer, you can’t ignore the strides that content marketing has been making and how it’s become a key piece of every marketing plan. In APAC, 88 percent of businesses include video in their content marketing strategy and 52.9 percent of marketing professionals worldwide named video as the type of content with the highest return on investment (ROI).

What are brands doing?

Metro Trains in Melbourne Australia hit the nail on the head with their Dumb Ways To Die campaign, a public service campaign promoting rail safety. The video features 21 characters killing themselves in silly ways with the last three characters being killed by trains because of unsafe behaviour. It received 2.5 million views within 48 hours after being uploaded to Youtube.

What videos should you make? That depends on what you’re trying to achieve. IKEA Australia is a great example of a brand using social video to tell their story. Their videos range from product origin to customer testimonials and how-to videos.

Studies have shown that the average consumer spends twice as much time watching video content online than they do reading text—and with captivating campaigns like this, we can see why. As for TV, it seems it has had its day, according to Eliot Connor, Director Singapore, AdParlor Asia Pacific who notes that, “Thailand, India, and the Philippines dedicating nearly half their concentration to online video whilst watching TV.”

2. Mobile growth is leading to more video consumption

As smartphone usage is exploding in APAC, so is the demand for the social. Last year, social media accounts grew by a staggering 132 percent in the region, with 32 percent more users signing in from a mobile device.

More and more users experience the internet on mobile first, and as a result, a higher number of videos get consumed on mobile as well. In fact, APAC sees more video consumed on smartphones and tablets than any other part of the world. Ooyala published some research to support these stats.

What are brands doing?

Brands are latching on to this trend. Last year, Ad Nut set out to redefine Yahoo Hong Kong as a mobile platform. They created short, compelling videos based on real news events (like the Hong Kong cash spill) to emphasize Yahoo as the best platform on which to share these sorts of stories. They pushed the videos out through popular social platforms and added a rewards element for Yahoo Mobile users, resulting in a viral mobile campaign.

3. Real-time marketing meets video with live video

4. Interactive video