Have you heard about the dangerous syndrome called VVS? Back in June of 2012, a funny PSA video went viral. Vertical Video Syndrome (VVS) was a fictitious disease that claimed that those afflicted could only shoot videos vertically, as opposed to the more “viewer-friendly” horizontal format.
Video consumption through mobile devices has risen by 100% every year. You might still be hanging on to the belief that the classic 16:9 horizontal ratio works well, but statistics prove that vertical videos are a more effective way to engage with today’s audiences.
Since we hold our phones vertically 94% of the time, why would we even bother to flip it around to watch videos horizontally? Aren’t most of us lazy? So, doesn’t it make sense that we should make our content easier for customers to consume?
To engage your customers today, you’ve got to be creative in your approach. Try not to think outside the box – instead, start thinking within the 9:16 box. By utilizing the vertical format, you’ll soon realize how to create content which maximizes the full potential of the mobile screen and increases your brand’s online presence.
By 2022, 82% of internet traffic will be consumed by online video. If your mobile content is not presented in the right format, it will not effectively reach your target market.
Vertical vs Horizontal
- Vertical has a 90% completion rate compared to horizontal.
- Vertical is watched all the way through nine times more than horizontal
- Vertical sees a 33% percent lift in brand awareness and a 12% lift in consideration over their horizontal counterparts.
Social Media channels are Vertical.
Social media giants like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, support vertical videos. Even YouTube, which stuck to its horizontal format until recently, realized that more than half of its views come from mobile devices, so they quickly adapted their app too, as they put it: “Dynamically adapt to whatever size you choose to watch it.”
Tik Tok, which uses vertical exclusively, is fast becoming the home of this format. The use of Tik Tok shot up in 2018, and more advertisers are jumping on board looking to reach a younger audience. An independent test by Annenberg Media found that vertical video reached 25,000 more people on Facebook, beating both square and horizontal formats.
300 feet of content every day.
We scroll through 300 feet of content every single day. We live in an online world of massive information, and these days, we’re exposed to more information than ever. From social media posts to news and entertainment promotions, people are continuously fed attention-seeking content, and it has become easy to brush aside information deemed irrelevant.
So, how can brands effectively grab people’s attention with online content, be it our social circle, business network, or customers? Do you have what it takes to create “Thumb-Stopping Vertical Content?” If your content is terrible, the thumb will scroll, swipe or delete it immediately. If your content is good, the only action you want it to do is to give a thumbs up to get the “Likes.”
To help brands and agencies get their vertical storytelling right, I’ve put together some tips that will set you on your way to creating more thumb-stopping content.
Linear horizontal stories tend to go from left to right. Using your fingers to scroll up and down is a natural way for vertical stories to do the same. Reveal your story piece by piece, either from the top or bottom, to create suspense or surprise. Ultize the full height of the vertical space.
Some recent work I did for CIMB Singapore shows a man holding a % sign jumping up from a trampoline to the top of the screen. He doesn’t come down as we reveal that he is hanging on to higher interest percentage charges.
Create multiple stories
Optimize your horizontal shoot by creating mobile-first vertical content. Design a second storyboard. Not from left to right but from top to bottom. Plan to shoot the subject at the centre. For Kit Kat, we adapted the same scene from the television commercial. During the “video conferencing segment,” we shot extra footage of the talents looking up and down. So when we finally created 8-second stories, we created new content for the talent looking down at the product shots. Clients were very impressed that we included 5-6 shots in each Vertical video. Something that would be impossible to do in a horizontal format.
Frame your story
Crop your content to maximize the full mobile 9:16 screen size for a more immersive experience. Landscape visuals work best on a big movie screen where you sit back and relax; however, on a vertical format is up close and personal; it’s essential to frame your shots that’ll hold your viewer’s attention and keep them engaged at arm’s length.
Try and tell stories from a different perspective.
This CIMB content used the red area to physically squeeze the long queue all the way to the left of the mobile’s screen frame, giving way to more personalized service from a dedicated relationship manager.
Visualize your story
We live in a visual world. Content with visuals gets 94% more total views. Visual content is now 40X more likely to be shared on social networks. Create stories without the benefit of sound. Your audience must listen to your story with their eyes. Don’t just add subtitles. Mix beautiful typography with impactful visuals.
For this Kit Kat example, we visualized a simple problem to tell a relevant story.Who doesn’t have buffering issues on their mobile? We see a typical loading icon consisting of bars forming a circle. After waiting a while, we revealed that it was made of Kit Kat bars instead. Have a Break. Have a Kit Kat.
Split-Screen your story
Experiment by dividing up the vertical screen to tell your story by splitting your screen into halves, thirds, or quarters. Hijack static formats, and templates give the illusion of objects flying off the screen, creating a 3D effect. You can even include multi-product shots at the same time.
Create a relationship between multiple different screens so characters can interact with each other seamlessly. For Kit Kat’s example, we created two separate scenarios at first, but the two worlds collided when the woman at the top stretched her arms to steal Kit Kat from a girl at the bottom screen.
To wrap up, I encourage you to look back at your existing content and repurpose it to suit the mobile behaviour of your customers using the five creative principles I have outlined. It’s the wave of the future, and that future is now.
