Few months back, Vani Gupta Dandia and I recorded the first episode of her podcast series, power packed ten minutes about videos, virality and branding.
Full episode here..
Hope is not a strategy and viral is not a ‘happy accident’.
Join in April 26, 2018 for the story behind 300 million views :)
Bloody awesome Webinar @aashishc you are too good. Thank you so much for the inspiration.
— Saurav Patnaik (@websatan) April 26, 2018
Great webinar on #video #content sir @aashishc !
Framing the 7 points on my wall ;)— Vedant Maheshwari (@vedantm_) April 26, 2018
you must check it out……… he is unstoppable.
— Saurav Patnaik (@websatan) April 26, 2018
Great presentation today Aashish.. loved the content and knowledge.. thank you for sharing..
— Anant Nath Sharma (@mindlessworries) April 26, 2018
The video bug goes back 11 years :) Short films on HIV/AIDS.. made in India..screened in Toronto 2007 (from the archives)
An amazing year comes to an end, complete with videos going viral, news-feeds getting chaotic and organic reach nosediving. If content marketing is your game, 2018 would be the year videos take centerstage. It’s going to be exciting and super competitive. These are the trends and focus areas for 2018, something I’m pasting on my wall. Happy New Year :)
If you’ve been procrastinating about getting on the video bandwagon, it’s time to get started. With low cost smartphones and cheaper data, video is exploding on tiny screens everywhere. You got to experiment with different video formats. Live video is turning out to be huge, we got 65,000 comments on an experiment just last week.
Regional content is fast becoming a big deal in India, an experiment this year hit 20 million views. Even LinkedIn is going gaga on videos, with incredible engagement. It’s time to deep dive and find the format which works for you: short form, long form, web-series, 360 video, live video, interactive video or the enchanting AR/VR.
With so much competition and chaotic news-feeds, Facebook has made it harder to reach your audience, unless you pay. Your content needs to work harder. If you want to reach millions on low budgets, either have kick-ass share-worthy content or cough up the moolah!
Remember.. views can be bought.. engagement is earned.
Focus on creating content for low attention spans, tiny mobile screens, think conversations not campaigns, obsess about storytelling not high production value and most important: Distribution! We’ll beat platforms at their game, when we make our message so powerful that every messenger becomes an evangelist, spreading our content like wildfire.
Our generation is trained to ignore Ads. The radars in our heads are so evolved, we can spot BS miles away. Ad blockers are on the rise, TV numbers are down and when was the last time you shared an Ad? Ads will need to evolve, be more authentic and BS free. Engagement is more important than views.
We need to reach their hearts, not bombard their eye-balls.
We’re living in a time where staying relevant is more important than recall. To create kick-ass content, we need multi-skilled storytellers in our teams. Filmmakers who double up as designers, designers who know copywriting and writers who know communication and branding. We need to groom multi-talented rockstars!
Happy Content Marketing in 2018 :)
If you’d like to read more about my experiments in viral marketing or be the first to know when the books comes out.. signup for the Mailing list, connect on LinkedIn or Tweet me up. Oh and here’s the latest viral video :)
One question many people ask me is how to make a video viral? You don’t make a video viral, audience makes it viral, all you can do is focus on making it share-worthy (we don’t want views, we want shares), focus more on storytelling than production value (it’s a tiny screen you’re making for), keep it fast moving (attention span is super low), think how it can start conversations (stop thinking campaigns all the time), make for mobile experience (keep it clutter free), have an extensive distribution plan (hope is not a strategy) and for **** sake .. don’t make an Ad, keep it authentic, and remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.