“SOCIAL MEDIA IS converging with television.”
The advertising world has shifted to digital in recent years but it hasn’t killed the television star – and there are no plans to do so.
Today, video production companies across Ireland are returning to old-school episodic content – and jobseekers better take note that it’s out with the new and in with the old.
Industry professionals say this change is all down to one thing: Netflix.
The rise of the streaming service has led to an obsession with episodic content and Irish video producers are catching on, shifting their main marketing focus onto serial-style formats for video.
But how has this turnaround come about?
Ten years ago, video producers were able to create television adverts that had a shelf life of up to two years. But as consumers’ eyes turned towards their laptops, phones and tablets, brands began pushing for more and more online video content.
A penchant for ‘being the first’ with something then led to online trends coming and going in the blink of an eye.
A number of industry professionals spoke to TheJournal.ie about the ever-changing digital scene and one common trend arose about the here-and-now: video production companies are dropping digital “gimmicks” (think drones and 360 cameras) and returning to so-called television formats for platforms like Facebook.
“It’s constantly evolving because the area is changing all the time,” Tom Hopkins of One Productions told TheJournal.ie.
“A trend appears, blooms and disappears in possibly a couple of months, even weeks. There are some formats that stick around but there are some formats that, like everything, are a fad and they’re overdone.”
One Production is a Dublin-based video production agency, which offers services in video media production, video marketing, branding, print, design and digital media. The agency has a strong client base including Aer Lingus, Guinness, Primark and Boots.
“What you’re seeing is a rise in series and formats, where social media is converging with television… except it’s far shorter formats,” Hopkins said.
A major example of this episodic style of content is Centra’s Live Every Day campaign. Last year, Centra invested around €3 million into the TV, radio, digital and social media marketing campaign.
The video content for the campaign was created by One Production and featured a series of fitness challenge videos.
Short versions of the series were created for social media in a bid to drive traffic back to Centra’s website, to the longer form videos and additional material.
Game changers
David Hayes, director of search and social at In The Company Of Huskies, a full-service creative agency with production capabilities, explained how the rise in serial formats on social media really took off.
“The trend in social media – particularly when it comes to video – is very, very short form. It’s the craft of six-second storytelling: how we can get across the narrative of the story in a very short space of time,” Hayes told TheJournal.ie.
This is, again, because Netflix changed the game completely.
“The trend at the moment is how to challenge stories in an interesting way. We’re experimenting with this idea where everyone is raised on Netflix and they’re completely interested in watching this episodic content,” he said.
Brands are coming to In The Company Of Huskies and other production firms alike asking them to create “interesting episodic pieces of content” – similar to a television-style format but in short-form pieces.
When digital advertising first kicked off in Ireland, there was a large focus on the presentation of the videos. Production companies focused in on specific trends such as the use of 360-degree video or drones.
However, production companies have now come to realise that the presentation of online advertisements are changing too quickly, and it makes more sense to focus on a narrative.
“Video has become the language of the internet,” David Quinn from This Is Bloom, a creative agency which works with major brands such as JustEat, Lily O’Brien and City Jet, told TheJournal.ie.
360 was a nice thing but it didn’t have a particular use. Drones are great as a production shot, but they’ve also become quite ubiquitous in video.
“This lasting thing with video is one of the most basic things, and that’s good storytelling. It will always endure.”
Hopkins agrees: “Coming up with original content, which is original shows, is important. It won’t be long before we see the return of the soap opera [in advertisements]. What’s to stop a new Facebook show to come out from Daz?”
“That’s where we’re going next because we have a pile of promotional content that nobody wants to watch because brands are realising that people will only watch it to be informed or entertained,” he said.
Another example of the series format is a number of recipe tutorial videos made for the promotion of Guinness, produced by One Productions. Each recipe uses Guinness as an ingredient and each video has been released as a series on social media and YouTube.
Echoing the words of Hopkins, Quinn and Hayes, Dave Byrne, the creative director at Thinkhouse – Youth Marketing Company, said his company has spent the last year focusing on Facebook Live as a platform for creating digital adverts.
Thinkhouse is a youth marketing agency with offices in Ireland and the UK which creates advertisements aimed at 18 to 35 year olds.
“With this audience online, we have spent the last year developing and zoning in on Facebook Live as a platform,” Byrne told TheJournal.ie.
“We’ve done three huge Facebook Live shoots over the last year. I’m talking about massive studios, big TV setups whereby we have set designers and actors come in and literally treat it like it’s a live TV show,” he said.
Thinkhouse has worked with Orchard Thieves to create their Bold mOTel campaign for Electric Picnic, which was marketed heavily through a Facebook Live show and a series of short, snappy social media promotional videos.
In a statement about The Bold mOTel, Thinkhouse said: “The brand needed to make an impact. Our insights division, The Youth Lab, kicked things off with an actionable insight… ‘the average festival goer spends twice as much time hanging out at their tent than in the main area’. With The Bold mOTel, we created a destination worth leaving the campsite for.”
Investment into digital advertising
It’s not just trends within the digital advertising sphere that are evolving at a rapid pace in Ireland – investment has too.
The IAB Ireland Online Adspend Study for 2016 revealed a strong growth of 31% with ad revenues of €445 million, compared to €340 million in 2015.
Digital advertisement was ranked as the top area for marketing spend in Ireland in 2016 at 73%, according to the Alternatives/MII Sentiment Survey 2016.
With such a large investment growth into the industry and the increasing demand to head back to basics, someone with an eye for originality and creativity won’t be long on the hunt for work in Ireland.
That’s according to Quinn from This Is Bloom who believes any aspiring video producer needs to have the ability to tell a good story, have a solid grasp of production technique and be able to use a camera.
Good initiative combined with good storytelling is what will make someone stand out from the crowd in the current Irish market, according to the industry leaders we spoke to.
“The most important thing is initiative,” Hopkins reiterated.
Just don’t send us a CV, show us what you’ve done. I don’t read qualifications. Your work says everything.
He said that people who rely solely on a CV will be completely disregarded in the industry. Instead, he said the person who will come out on top is “somebody who can show initiative”.
“Get out there, make different kinds of things, collaborate with different people. Someone who has a feeling of activity, creativity, a finger on the pulse will win.”
And, maybe, watch some Netflix.
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