Social video nirvana

We review the latest channel guidelines and audience trends to help you reach a higher creative plane.

Finding your way through the maze of video formats can be painful

For creators and commissioners, the challenge remains the same – how do you create video for social channels that both stands out and meets the needs of today’s audiences? What we’ve seen in our work – and that of others – is that using the channel guidelines as a creative springboard rather than just as a technical manual can be really powerful.

One example of this is the creative use of captions

There have been some interesting studies recently about Gen Z’s preference for subtitles (and as any fans of Stranger Things will attest to their creative use too). More broadly an increasing percentage of people are consuming content, whether on mobile or TV, with subtitles as a default from a mix of reasons from multi-screening to just poor audio. However, captions are more often than not treated as just a tech deliverable – something that you add on at the end.

For us this is a missed opportunity to have some fun and to help your content stand out on social.

All of the channels recommend the use of captions to both drive engagement and to improve accessibility. Here are some recent examples of creative uses of captions to demonstrate how they can form a more meaningful part of your creative to drive attention and engagement.

IBM – Inventing Tomorrow

NY Times – Sneakers

Want to know more?

Get in touch if you’d like access to the full study or to see more best practice examples.

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