Based on my gut rather than any scientific analysis, I would say that prognostications around mobile adoption and use have been wrong about as many times as they have been right.
Sure, the forecasts for smartphone purchases hit the mark, but other so-called looks into the future have been wildly off. One example is the prediction that mobile payments would make physical wallets obsolete before the ball comes down in Times Square ushering out 2014. Ummm, that won’t happen over the next few weeks or even years.
Another miss is in the area of mobile video. Several industry observers forecast how-hum acceptance of mobile video for reasons that have included the cost of large data plans and the fact that many of us in America spend hours driving every day, an activity that gets in the way of hitting “play” and consuming short and long-form content.
But the opposite is true.
Viewers watching video via their tablets and smartphones account for 30% of all digital video views, an increase of 200% compared to this time last year, and an increase of 400% on 2012, according to Ooyala. And the mobile share of our video consumption is predicted to jump to 50% by 2015.
SMBs and larger brands have varying reasons to develop mobile video ads. Some want to introduce a new product. Others use the mobile video ads for awareness.
According to a study by YuMe and IPG Media Lab as reported by eMarketer http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Where-Digital-Video-Ads-Have-Consumers-Attention-Smartphones/1011322, purchase intent benefitted from high video attention on mobile devices. Among U.S. Internet users who viewed pre-roll video ads on a smartphone, 64% of those who were highly attentive planned to purchase the product advertised. In comparison, just 23% of smartphone viewers who paid little attention intended to buy.
In 2015, SMBs may further turn to Facebook to get mobile video before customers and prospects.
Dan Levy, Facebook’s Director of Small Business, told Inside Facebook http://www.insidefacebook.com/2014/10/23/facebook-smb-head-dan-levy-addresses-organic-reach-personalized-help-and-video/that the task isn’t as daunting as it may first appear.
“We’re seeing stuff that was produced in TV coming to Facebook,” he said. “We’re seeing stuff that was on YouTube coming to Facebook. We’re also seeing stuff that frankly just gets shot on smartphones, where someone just says, ‘You know, I’m just going to make this instead of a picture post.’ We think it’s great and we think there’s going to be a lot more.
“The creative canvas that people use on Facebook is going to continue to evolve — from text, to picture, to video — and that’s going to continue to grow and be more accessible to people as the technology for video gets simpler. We always talk about making sure that small business owners get the most effective return on their time and their money.”
More info for SMBs can be found at the www.facebook.com/business page.
While you have one eye on your mobile device next year, I recommend that you have the other on mobile video trends.
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This post was brought to you by IBM for Midsize Business and opinions are my own. To read more on this topic, visit IBM's Midsize Insider. Dedicated to providing businesses with expertise, solutions and tools that are specific to small and midsized companies, the Midsize Business program provides businesses with the materials and knowledge they need to become engines of a smarter planet.
