Mobile video is the trendiest news story in social land. Short-form video is all the range on social platforms. Opinions are many and varied about Twitter’s Vine and Facebook’s Instagram. It seems same-old, same-old still pictures are so 2012. Short moving pictures are hip.
But why is mobile video suddenly so important? It probably represents a significant tipping point in technological capability, specifically because short-form mobile video is hugely shareable on social. Taking and sharing short mobile video is now as easy as pictures on your phone. This implies video format and duration differentiation, depending on access medium. Long-form video via desktop (YouTube and regular videos posted to Facebook and the open internet) is the norm, while short-form video now dominates social mobile (with Vine and Instagram).
Mobile video: Six-second history
Video existed on mobile social media before the launch of the mobile app Vine in January this year, but short-form, easily-shareable mobile video did not. Here’s the story so far.
- June 2012 Vine created
- October 2012 Vine sold to Twitter
- January 2013 Vine launches on App Store
- 2 June 2013 Vine launches on Android
- 7 June 2013 More Vines on Twitter than Instagram pics
- 20 June 2013 Instagram launches mobile video
- 21 – 28 June 2013 An avalanche of opinion written about the future of Vine and Instagram
How mobile video apps stack up
| Mobile video app | Vine | |
| Owner | ||
| App launched | January 2013 | October 2010 |
| Size | 13 million | 130 million |
| Video clip duration | 6 seconds | 15 seconds |
| Looping video | Yes | No |
| Editable | No | Last frame |
| Stabilisation | No | Yes |
| Filters | No | Yes |
| Shooting | Stop-motion | Continuous |
| Pictures | No | Yes |
| Trendiness | ★★★★★ | ★★★★ |
Mobile video and marketing
Video on the web is an important, established marketing medium. In social, video’s marketing clout has steadily increased. Today there’s even a science developing around how to ensure that your video has all the right attributes to go viral.
Now marketers are quick to jump on the mobile video trend. (Even Barack Obama’s White House is in on the act, launching on Instagram during his Africa visit.)
The current brand effect of mobile video is probably a rub-off on a brand’s hipness. Brands that get it have mobile video up and running while social also-rans probably haven’t given it any thought. Consumers who are on these platforms care though, as they are videoing like mad. (Is the still selfie being replaced by video selfies?)
Marketers, probably partly driven by Facebook’s adoption of the device, can now also properly drive social campaigns including mobile video, with the use of cross-platform brand-related hash tags #TheEnd
Louis Eksteen (@LouisEksteen) is managing director of hybrid digital agency, Twisted Toast. Follow on Twitter @TwistToast.
