To really appreciate how this apparently awkward video orientation has now become almost the standard for online videos, you just need to consider how a great deal of the internet’s footage is captured in the first place. If you are at a concert or a sports event, or you have just spotted something noteworthy happening in the street outside your window, how do you film it? If you’re like most people out there, you whip out your phone, turn out the camera, and point it at whatever is going on. But hold on a minute. How are you holding your phone? In the vast majority of cases, you’ll be holding it vertically.
Thus, the majority of smartphone-captured footage exists in this vertical orientation. Furthermore, while it only applies to footage captured by amateurs on their phones, there is simply so many successful videos on the web captured in this way that vertical orientation is becoming something of a new normal. WMV Productions, an online video marketing service, note that many professional-looking and viral-worthy videos are shot in the vertical orientation that it is now becoming wise for your marketing videos to be similarly oriented.
The Orientation Revolution
Indeed, vertical video is becoming so common now that brands are beginning to pick up on vertical videos, and many marketing videos are now deliberately orientated this way. There are many reasons for this, which we will get onto below, but it’s first worth noting how much of a revolution this has been in terms of how we consume moving images. From the earliest televisions and cinema theatres, horizontal has been king. In fact, as little as ten years ago, posting a vertical video in any professional or marketing context would have been a sure way to be labelled as an amateur.
Why You Should Embrace Vertical
So, given we are now at the point where vertical video is a sensible choice for a marketing video, what areits benefits? The fact that the majority of smartphone-shot online videos use vertical explain why it has become common.But what can it actually offer? Here follows some of the top reasons why you should embrace vertical today:
It’s Better for Smartphone Viewers
Indeed, as well as shooting vertically oriented videos, smartphones can display vertical videos more effectively because that is the shape of their screens. Video marketing needs to target smartphone users. Indeed, most social media-hosted marketing videos are likely to be primarily viewed on a smartphone – and vertical suits this better.
Social Media Platforms Are Embracing It
…if they have not done so already. When new trends and norms become standard on the biggest social media platforms, they soon become norms everywhere. Vertically orientedvideo has certainly been embraced by social media companies keen to cater to a smartphone-owning usership. Just think of Facebook or Instagram stories or the orientation of videos on Twitter and you will see that vertical is everywhere. For successful social media marketing, therefore, you should embrace it too.
Big Brands Are Embracing It
Perhaps reacting to vertical video becoming standard on social media, big professional brands are even now embracing vertically oriented videos. This is a relatively recent phenomenon, and it has taken some pioneers to take the plunge.Nonetheless, it does now seem like we are entering into an era of major advertisers using this orientation.
At the end of the day, the smartphone has been responsible for quite a few revolutions in our day to day lives. Is it really any wonder the same technology has overhauled things in this department too?