How Video Storytelling will Drive Advertising in 2020
As advertising and marketing continue to converge, we’ll see the transformation of all advertising channels in 2020. Throughout 2019, we saw the industry impacted by increased popularity of connected TV and Over-The-Top app viewing, new privacy regulations and a rise in voice search. In the next year, the advertising industry as a whole will continue to face many new challenges, but also see the door opened for a wealth of opportunities.
The biggest opportunity next year lies in the evolving ad unit that holds the greatest promise for conversational storytelling: video. Because of its ability to deliver stories with the timeless dimensions of sight and sound, video may be poised for the biggest transformation yet — the reunification of story with conversation. However, the key here will be rooted in how marketers choose to have this conversation with their audiences. Instead of talking to customers, advertisers will talk with their customers in 2020 and take on the new model — 1:1 conversation.
By doing this, advertisers will be able to start understanding the customer voice more and utilize it as the epicenter of video ad journey creation. But if marketers choose to ignore this trend, they stand to face one of the biggest challenges in the next year: ad blocking.
Ad blocking will only continue to grow in popularity in 2020, so advertisers must ask themselves why this is happening and ensure their advertisements draw customers in, instead of pushing them away. Because most marketers aren’t employing the 1:1 conversation model, audiences feel they’re not being understood — thus driving them to block the ads that aren’t resonating with them.
Unlike many of the forms of storytelling that came before it, digital video is a fundamental platform for storytelling as a conversation. Marketers should be building not just great video stories, but great interactive experiences within video advertising units themselves in 2020. Companies should create customer journeys which move a prospective buyer through a series of storytelling videos, interactive questions and engaging experiences, which solidify relevancy to the viewer while also inviting a sense of play.
And we’re just getting started. Advertising, after all, is the science and art of persuasion — and persuasion is all about understanding, predicting and improving the science of human behavior. By introducing artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in their platforms, advertisers can more effectively connect with their audiences. AI will bring us closer to an era when advertising is less annoying and more pleasing, useful, relevant and entertaining.
If you’re ready to level up your advertising in the year ahead utilizing the strategies above, reach out to us today!
