Companies as friends
Therefore, merging that system of “companies as friends” with Instagram video could be a brilliant move for Facebook. That’s why I believe Facebook increased the length of its Instagram videos to 15 seconds – to give advertisers more time to get their point across. Burberry has already demonstrated those possibilities in its Instagram video, and there have already been plenty of responses from the company’s fans.
Although creating viral Instagram video ads won’t immediately generate ad revenue for Facebook, the eventual convergence of the brands on Instagram and Facebook will. Companies that enjoy success with their Instagram videos will be more likely to buy News Feed ads to keep growing their fan base, to guarantee that future videos will be seen by a larger audience.
In addition, Instagram video ads will work across all platforms and devices, solving Facebook’s previous problem of being unable to monetize display ads on mobile platforms. Smaller businesses could also participate by merging their Facebook pages with Instagram accounts.
A win-win-win situation
Over the past year, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s purchase of Instagram has been constantly mocked by financial media as a pointless splurge. I believe that the addition of Instagram video could be the watershed event that proves these critics wrong.
Users get a new way to share fresh content. Advertisers get a new medium to use to create viral media. Most importantly, Facebook gets to collect more data from both the former and the latter, to better mold its future growth initiatives.
Instagram video also allows Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) to stay on even footing against Twitter and Vine. Facebook recently added hashtags to tap into the public’s obsession with trending topics. Twitter expanded its media presence by capitalizing on the “second screen” movement, encouraging users to tweet their opinions and pictures during TV shows and live events.
Instagram and Vine, when combined with trending hashtags, could become a major tool in this battle for social networking dominance.
The Foolish bottom line
In conclusion, Vine and Instagram’s micro-videos are a step forward and backward at the same time. In terms of technology, they are more akin to the animated GIFs of the past than the HD videos of the present. However, in terms of social sharing across multiple platforms, they are cutting edge.
Just as Twitter’s 140-character restriction forced people to state their point in as few words as possible, I believe that Vine and Instagram will open the floodgates to creative short videos, from users and advertisers, that will push the limit of what they can say in a small 6 to 15 second time frame. The results will be fascinating, and could redefine how companies approach Internet advertising in the future.
The article Let the Bite-Sized Video Wars Begin! originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Leo Sun.
Leo Sun owns shares of Facebook. The Motley Fool recommends Facebook and Google. The Motley Fool owns shares of Facebook and Google. Leo is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network — entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.
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