How And When Video Content Beats Written Content

The video begins with an unusually obese man filling an armchair in front of a small table. He holds a Playstation game controller between his chubby fingers and he is rude and abrasive. When his overly-tolerant “sister” tells him that he’s received a package he barely looks away from the screen. “I didn’t order anything,” he says, and continues crunching buttons. As soon as he hears that the package is from Sony though, he sends the table flying and rips open the box to pull out his new Playstation.

Even for an unboxing video, the clip is unusual but it portrays the thrill of opening a new purchase in a way that no written content could ever do.

That’s what video content does. It’s special. It tells a story in a way that no other format can do. It tells it through emotion and without effort, engaging the audience so that viewers join the experience of the characters on the screen.

That emotional engagement is a powerful difference between video content and marketing copy. Written text is important. Written well, it can also tell a story and it can convey information, persuade and sell. But a well-planned and well-made video, produced as part of an overall content marketing strategy, makes an emotional engagement.

Humana, a healthcare administrator, for example, produced a 15 seconds  #Rock Your Health video that showed a public school teacher running through a “tunnel of love” at the Humana Rock 'N' Roll half-marathon three days after completing her chemotherapy. No copy could have done a better job of showing the benefits of the care that the health company provides. Viewers don’t just read that the company makes people better; they feel the jubilation that comes from beating a serious disease.

Audiences And Platforms Prefer Video Content

And it’s not just the emotional engagement that makes video content so powerful. Video is also preferred by content platforms. In a Facebook-based Q&A in July 2015, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed what social media observers had already noticed: that the company sees video as the future — at least until its virtual reality goggles are ready. Social media marketers that place their videos directly on Facebook are rewarded with higher additional organic reach than they receive even for images. Facebook understands what content strategists have long known: video content is the form of content most likely to be viewed, enjoyed and shared.

In part, that’s because video content does what a good content strategy always does. It fits neatly into the lives of its audience. More than half of Facebook’s audience is now on mobile devices where they don’t just make quick posts, they also watch short videos as they sit on the subway or wait for their appointments. Video is the format that audiences prefer.

The YouTube video of Francis unboxing a Playstation 4 was unusual. It was scripted by a vlogger and used characters. It also generated over 8 million views through user-generated content. When companies produce their own videos and use characters to tell their stories as part of their content strategy, they too can build audiences and win engagement.

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