India has a huge digital community of about 640 million internet users and 550 million smartphone users. And it’s growing every day. On average, a smartphone user spends about 4.8 hours on a device daily, of which almost one hour is spent consuming videos.

Video is, undoubtedly, the wave of the future, and we are seeing its growing effectiveness. Our social media platforms are daily spammed with ‘viral’ videos, and there’s a reason why we are getting so hooked to them. Videos are pretty much taking over every other online medium today with their innovative and engaging ways of communication. As per a 2017 report, did you know that internet videos alone made up 69 per cent of all global consumer traffic? Or that more than 50 per cent of people view videos online every day? Not just that. Social video content gets an unbelievable 1,200 per cent more shares than text and image content combined?

Technology is reshaping the way consumers engage with content. Each day, we stream our favourite shows, watch explainer videos or educational content to learn something new, or follow events, Q&As, interviews on live video. And with the pandemic looming over us for the last 2 years, most of us have brought in video communication as a part of our daily work and life. Unsurprisingly, video content’s current popularity is due in part to millennial and Gen Z consumers. As these age groups are more connected to the internet than any other, they prefer to be entertained or learn new things through videos. The Pew Research Study conducted in April of 2021 found YouTube to be the most used platform, with 95% of Gen Z-ers using this site. Instagram and TikTok also topped the list and are used regularly by most young people under 24. Generation Z now makes up 40% of all consumers, and they do not engage well with traditional advertising channels like television commercials. Instead, this group primarily consumes information via social channels.

Let’s try to understand why video content is performing so well? So, with video one thing is obvious – you can say more and share more in a short span of a few seconds than you can with a picture and supporting copy. Video also gives you the flexibility to explain things more precisely than you can with images and text so that the viewer is quicker to receive and interpret the information. So, how do you exactly use it to engage with your audience better?

Video content provides brands with the opportunity for effective storytelling. Building communication and structuring a story around it helps build an emotional connection that can impact your customers positively. Storytelling can help fuse your messaging with entertaining and informative content. And that’s something which is gaining high popularity among consumers.

Videos can also be a great way to add a personal touch to your marketing content. It is common knowledge that the recall quotient associated with a video ad is often higher and resonates with people of all ages. Lastly, videos are more easily digestible, too. Not everyone is comfortable reading and comprehending long posts. If given a choice between committing several minutes to focus on written content and simply sitting back and watching a short clip, we all know what the obvious a vast majority of consumers will choose.

With the digital space being cluttered with content and multiple brands constantly vying for consumer attention, the struggle to stand out is real. Although consumerism is at an all-time high even in a market flooded with options, the role of communicators, then, is to find a way to rise above the chatter and engage with their target market. As consumers today are usually pressed for time, they appear to have developed a greater preference for easily accessible video content that they can ‘consume’ in a hurry.