Written By: Alec H
he success of Vine and Instagram Video has proved one thing – we are increasingly entering an age of mobile video, a development also marked by the fact that the latest high-end smartphones, such as the new BlackBerry Z10 smartphone, now boast HD video capture among their myriad other capabilities. Such developments may even mark the next great evolution of the mobile, which has gone through calls, texts, photography, and web browsing, and now arrives at video. With Vine having already attracted over 15 million downloads and Instagram Video tapping into a substantial pre-existing user base, it's clear that the push towards mobile video is being fuelled by consumers – with brands and advertisers, fearful of being left behind, also flocking to the fledgling new platforms.
Interestingly, both Vine and Instagram Video have both recently been used for movie trailers, and an examination of these trailers is instructive on the limits and intentions of the respective services. First up is Marvel's attempt to promote The Wolverine on Vine, which, rather than following the traditional format of a trailer, simply offers a six second burst of frantic action followed by the film's title. Of course, with Vine videos being limited to six seconds, it's hard to see how else you could promote a film on Vine, a continuous six second clip would tell potential viewers nothing about the film. In short, then Vine forces companies and advertisers to be creative, to come up with a new way to showcase their product and to create something that is suited to the spirit of Vine, a medium predicated on making an impact on the viewer in a tiny time frame.
With Instagram Video offering a comparatively luxurious 15 seconds, the trailer that was posted there, for the independent Steve Jobs biopic, Jobs, pretty much resembled a normal trailer, with a moderate amount of plot exposition and character development hinted at. Whereas Vine's format constraints represent a more or less explicit challenge to advertisers, Instagram's longer time limit and multitude of filters allow companies to operate in their comfort zone, with 15 seconds already recognized as a typical advertising length and some fearing that companies will simply repurpose existing content for Instagram Video. This would be a shame, as if companies truly consider the proclivities of the medium, then they can create unique promotional content that is far more than a cut-down TV ad. Burberry's behind-the-scenes video of its catwalk show is a good example of how to use Instagram Video – being slick and well produced, but retaining enough creativity to break out of the prison of uniformity that TV advertising so often finds itself in.
Those frothing at the mouth at the prospect of a social media showdown between Twitter-owned Vine and Facebook-backed Instagram may well be disappointed though, with each likely to attract its own dedicated user base and advertisers likely to end up simply using both, albeit in different ways. Overall, the chances are that Vine's tight restrictions will result in a smaller, but more creative and risk-taking, group of advocates, while Instagram Video's comparative freedom will lead to greater mainstream market penetration. Branded content on Vine will therefore be more innovative and take greater risks in an attempt to appeal to similarly minded users, and it is here where advertisers will be able to move furthest away from the traditional notion of an advert and truly showcase their creativity.
On the other hand, branded content on Instagram Video is likely to have a greater focus on linearity and thus will possibly take fewer risks for fear of alienating consumers, and therefore have more of a mass market feel. In terms of consumer engagement then, Instagram will allow a greater mass of users to be targeted and achieve greater statistical penetration. However, those companies that succeed on Vine with more creative content may garner greater brand loyalty due to the customer perceiving that the brand or company is like them in some way due to the fact that it has used Vine in a similar way to the way that they use Vine. To achieve penetration and loyalty then, advertisers and companies will have to produce content that is tailored to the strengths of each.
About the Author: Alec writes about tech, smartphones, computer games and all manner of time wasting devices.