What Determines Your Video Effective in 2022

From “how-to” videos to live streaming, whatever the format is, video marketing is constantly evolving towards one common goal - improving the efficiency of consumers’ decision-making. While creating video nowadays might not require more than just a smartphone and internet connection, it’s essential to be aware of what makes your video stand out in 2022.

Blogging is out, and vlogging is in.

And with good reasons. While some people, including myself, still enjoy writing, many statistics have shown that videos will continue to get more popular in 2022.

By now, you’ve probably been fed up with many articles about predictions or trends of video marketing in 2022. But I’m thinking about a different aspect of video marketing strategy here – the evolution pattern of video and the driving forces behind it.

Who’s driving what?

When I took my marketing classes during college, the funnel of buyer’s decision-making was a classic – awareness, interest, consideration, intent, evaluation, purchase, loyalty, and advocacy. But Gen-Z consumers have defined their decision-making funnel: Seeing is Decision Making.

The short attention span of Gen-Z consumers forces brands to make super effective content and format. In a recent survey, 81% of people say just one branded video has convinced them to make the purchase.

How crazy was that? Last year, I experienced Singles Day's online flash shopping event on Alibaba, China's largest eCommerce platform.

Unlike Amazon, Alibaba has integrated a video streaming platform into its selling process. Influencers can interact with their fans, demonstrate how makeup and skincare products work, try on outfits and answer questions posed to them via live chat. But is that all a live streaming platform can do?

Naïve. Alibaba allows the influencer to "drop" a limited amount of cash vouchers randomly during the 24 hours of live streaming to keep viewers hooked. Also, there are the fan rankings. The more hours of the live stream you watch, the higher your fan rankings and the better the deals.

Most goods were sold out in seconds during the live streaming, leaving the audience no time to go through a classic decision-making funnel. Within 24 hours, some streamers have sold billions of dollars in goods just from their Singles' Day broadcasts.

With Gen-Z and millennials embracing video more than ever for product discovery, short-form video or live streaming becomes more of a low-hanging fruit each year.

Seeing is decision-making, so what?

All marketing communications are essentially about improving decision-making efficiency. At the brand level, big brands spend years accumulating reputation and eventually becoming trustworthy, significantly improving decision-making efficiency. But what does "seeing is decision-making" mean to video creators? Think again if you feel a compelling marketing video means millions of dollars in production.

People are complex. Treat every video as a chance to learn more about your audience. All video levels, from 2D animated explainers to product demos, can win the audience’s hearts by paying attention to what works, what doesn’t, and what’s trending. Here are some tips that we can start putting into play now to improve your content efficiency in 2022.

1. Rule of Thumb: Simplicity

In psychology, cognitive fluency is a term to describe the human tendency to prefer things that are not only familiar but also easy to understand.

A good example will be your mobile phone plan. Did you know telecom companies make different plans so confusing that consumers give up comparing monthly minutes or text limits and go for the unlimited plans? From AT&T to T-Mobile, their unlimited plans bring the most revenue because they are the easiest to understand, not because they make the most financial sense.

Today's sales videos are super straightforward just like your unlimited data plan. For most FMCG products, people can easily make decisions in real-time without doing any additional research in other places.

Bonus tip: How to test your video’s simplicity? Show your video to a relative or friend and see if it can be "understood at one glance."

2. Trust & Influencers

Many studies have confirmed that people rely on reviews to decide what to buy based on them. Influencers matter because they are trusted guides in specific fields. The more people trust them, the more efficient their decision-making process will be.

This may sound counter-intuitive. YouTubers who have a smaller ratio of sponsored content tend to be more trusted and appear more authentic. So after you pick up the influencer, personal stories are most effective because those including genuine use or mention of a brand are more trusted than straight product reviews. Compelling personal stories also tend to get more shares and comments and win a higher level of customer loyalty. Whatever your niche, your goal is to engage with THAT influencer to create the authentic content their audience expects while associating your brand with that content.

3. AR/VR Experience

Neither augmented reality nor virtual reality is new in marketing. Before metaverse became popular, AR/VR video has been integrated into marketing by both B2B and B2C brands and is just at the tip of the iceberg.

In 2021, from virtual gallery tools to “try before you buy,” many companies have explored AR/VR technology to give life to their video during the pandemic. Studies found that VR photos performed 300% better than regular photos in CTR and 14% better than normal photos in viewability.

As video platforms evolve, the expectations for AR/VR will keep increasing in 2022. While they may never totally replace the in-person experience, they bring new opportunities to impress your audience and stand out from the competition.

4. Interactivity

In 2022, consumers' demand for engaging with the brands will be higher than ever. Brands produce interactive video at an astonishing rate - 36% of all video content. And consumers are responding to such videos with increased engagement rates as viewers watch them 44% longer than traditional videos.

One of the long-hanging fruit is creating chapters or modules of your video so the viewers can jump to the most exciting part. Remember, if a whole video lasts 10 minutes, some viewers may need the first 3 minutes to make a decision.

Another trend worth noting is “bullet comments,” which originates from ACG (Anime, Comic, and Games) video-sharing websites but has become a mainstream internet phenomenon among Gen-Z consumers in East Asia.

Bullet comments floating across the screen upgrade the viewing experience by allowing viewers to become editors of the content simultaneously. They break the geographical, time, and space constraints between audiences, meeting Gen-Z's social interaction needs.

Though neither Facebook nor YouTube has enabled bullet comments, Twitch and YouTube live streaming have, to some extent, incorporated the feature.  Bullet comment culture is just one of the new and exciting mediums for younger buyers. While it remains to see whether it will have a more significant impact on western social platforms, marketers should never forget a great video isn’t interactive for its sake. Still, it leverages interactivity to enhance the user experience.

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For the last 50 or 60 years, market research has believed that people make decisions based on rational, conscious thought processes. But Gen-Z consumers are telling us a different story. Decision-making can happen at the subconscious level – “seeing is decision making,” which poses new opportunities and challenges to content creators.

The world of marketing is moving fast.

Video marketing is just beginning to scratch the surface of what Gen-Z consumers want. New questions about their preferences and thought processes pop up every day. In my humble opinion, a good and authentic story is always the core. Then by telling it in a simple, trustworthy, immersive, and interactive way, you can make yours stand out more quickly!