Videos and marketing – the long and the short of it!

PrettyLittleThing, the fashion retailer for women is having their YouTube channel given a complete makeover the production agency, Wall of Productions, in a bid to appear more meaningful and connected. What used to be a ‘mishmash’ of styling and product-focused fashion videos, now has more lifestyle content. This is a part of a major change in strategy. They have a dating show, “Love Lessons”, that is hosted by influencer Nella Rose which is a huge hit on social media, with clips getting millions (9.9 million in total) of views on TikTok.

“The Pink Courtroom” is a Judge Judy kind of show hosted by Rose and fellow PrettyLittleThing ambassador Indiyah Polack that has aired four episodes since May, each around 15 minutes, which have gotten collectively more than 1.4 million views on YouTube.

One reason for the success of this change in strategy is the inclusion of Black influencers as the faces of these shows. With Black voices in the picture now, the brand is able to connect with a bigger audience and resonate with more people. But the main reason is the increase in content.

Short form videos were all the rage initially. But long-form content is emerging as an option brands seem to prefer. Long form content allows audiences to get to know and understand brands.

PrettyLittleThing decided that it has to make a change in strategy once it realized that the style and fashion videos it had been producing weren’t getting the type of engagement they wanted. Now, with all the different kinds of longer content forms and the increase in content itself, there will be more traction. The hope is that the short videos will pique interest and the long ones will draw them in.

Bose subscribes to the same logic and is creating a lot of long-form videos, like the “5×5,” which promotes the Bose Aviation range of products. Some of them focus on artists like 21 Savage, letting viewers in on their creative process and showing how the sound quality of Bose products helps with that. These videos are anything from five to 25 minutes long.

It certainly looks as though brands are starting to realize that just putting their logo and colors on a short 15-second clip just wasn’t enough.

And rightly so! They need to tell a story; stretch things out; dive deeper – in order to catch the attention of their audiences. And long form videos lend themselves to just that. You can do so much more with a longer video. It is far more compelling. You can really tell a great wonderful story!

People love videos, we know that. And the longer the video and the more gripping it is, the longer you can keep your audience engaged with your content. Videos drastically increase the amount of time a customer spends with your brand.

And when the content in the videos is compelling, users are more likely to be deeply engaged and thereafter, convert. Regardless of whether it is long or short!

Marketers have the freedom to experiment with different kinds of video content to see what best works for their brands – and then take it from there. Marketers must create videos that build and generate value for the brands that they represent. They need not be clips that promote products or services. There is so much more that they can do with the freedom and flexibility that this particular format gives.

Short form videos can spark off a customer’s interest. And then like a ripple effect, brands and creators have the opportunity to keep their interest engaged in a video in a different format. Longer videos can allow the audiences of a brand to get to know them better. They help audiences understand why they should commit and care and give them an opportunity to listen – really listen to what they say.

To conclude, a short video can be what gets the customer’s attention – gets his motor running and blood pumping. But to really draw them in, you need the flexibility that only a long form video can do.

Like someone said - “Short form content is crucial to grab the attention, and long-form content makes someone truly believe.”