The economy might be as unpredictable as ever, but businesses still value the power of video as part of their marketing technology stack.
In 2023, people watched more videos than ever before, with plays jumping by 15% and total watch time soaring by 44%. Videos are more than a popular medium. They’re an effective and proven content marketing channel for businesses to cultivate leads.
The bottom line: video is a crucial tactic in your marketing strategy. And though the starting line varies for every organization, findings from our 2024 State of Video Report can help point you in the right direction. The report compiled Wistia user data from over 90 million videos on our platform as well as a customer survey of 2,000 professionals. It looks at key video marketing insights from performance, to creation, and the evolving use of generative artificial intelligence (AI).
Let’s dive into the findings.
Video is a top marketing medium
In 2020, most of us were stuck inside, sitting on our couch and consuming a great deal of content. The boom in video consumption was inevitable… and predictable. But what marketers didn’t anticipate was that the spike in video usage during the pandemic would never level out to pre-pandemic numbers (our data left no room for doubt). Organizations and audiences continue to crave video content, and this year, businesses are responding by investing more in it.
Our report found that nearly 78% of businesses are eager to make more videos in 2024 and 57% are planning to pour more resources into their video efforts this year. And what types of videos are companies investing in? Just under half (38%) of organizations are focused on leveraging video to generate leads and boost sales. Other creators use video to educate viewers on their products and encourage product adoption (31%), as well as increase brand awareness and PR (17%). A small 8% want to engage folks and get more followers on social media.
Instructional videos are a hit
Organizations are seeing value in product videos, educational content, and webinars. But when it comes to video length, shorter isn’t always better. On average, instructional videos maintain a higher level of engagement, even as they get longer. This has become more common, especially among Gen Z users, thanks to the rise in platforms like TikTok and the popularity of how-to videos.
Despite this, product videos took the lead as the most common type of video content, accounting for 43% of all videos created. Educational and instructional videos closely followed at 38%, while live events and social media content each made up 35% of the video landscape. I expect social media video content to ramp up over the next few years, especially as platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn expand time limits for videos beyond two minutes. This allows creators to publish longer videos while keeping engagement rates high.
There’s also an opportunity for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to expand video creation. Our findings show that viewers don’t place much emphasis on production quality (i.e. fancy gear and a professional camera crew). Instead, viewers watching low-budget videos find value in the usefulness of the content vs. the production value. Small video production budgets are no longer an excuse to ignore a video strategy.
Using AI in videos and its impact on accessibility
As AI explodes across industries, it’s also infiltrating video production. Though only 18% of businesses are weaving AI tools into their video production workflows, a whopping 66% can’t wait to use AI tools for their 2024 video projects. Of those already using AI within video production workflows, 59% use AI to auto-generate captions or transcripts, improving the overall experience.
While AI does hold a lot of promise for video creators, use cases are emerging (i.e. hyper-realistic AI-generated avatars) that challenge the boundaries of ethical AI in video. Businesses need to have guidelines in place for the ethical use of AI – especially regarding employees’ likenesses – and will need to continuously navigate the ethical considerations.
Still, when used correctly, AI can do a world of good. As we step into a more AI-dominant world, the tools that will take off will be the ones that are integrated within the tools and platforms we’re already using.
Organizations often underestimate the impact of incorporating something into an existing interface. We’ve seen this with AI in making videos more accessible: 59% more videos saw a higher accessibility score in 2023 than in 2022, mostly due to AI tools incorporated into video platforms, like auto-generated captions and transcripts. Our report found a huge (254%) jump in businesses offering closed captions in 2023 over the previous year. This is an important step towards ensuring inclusivity and accessibility in digital content creation.
Final Thoughts
There are still challenges and hurdles when it comes to video production, the main ones being time and bandwidth (61%), and team size, resources, and technical capability (44%). But the tides are turning – viewers don’t place much emphasis on the quality of video, but rather the usefulness. And this also doesn’t outweigh the fact that video is a key resource for marketers everywhere.
While there’s no rule book for organizations when it comes to creating videos for the first time, prioritizing home-style, instructional videos is a good place to start. Researching which platform your videos will perform best on as well as their format will also help launch a successful video strategy.
The landscape of video is dynamic, and what works today may not work tomorrow. To stay ahead of the eight-ball, keep up to date on audience preferences and video trends. You may find your company leading the way in video creation in your industry.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chris Savage, co-founder and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Wistia
Chris Savage is a co-founder and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Wistia. Chris graduated from Brown University with a BA in Arts-Semiotics and was a winner of the Weston Fine Arts award for excellence in filmmaking. Today, he loves spending time with his family, going too deep on comedy podcasts, working out with his Future trainer Scott, and obsessing over F1. He also hosts Talking Too Loud and is constantly working to make Wistia the best it can be with Brendan.