The Age of The Video Entertainer.
It’s in the name. Social Media was originally designed to be social. We heart and comment, engage and share, but we also scroll, watch, and listen. Which begs the question: Is social media still social…or is it mostly media?
Following the immense growth of video content over the past few years, users are now doing less sharing and more watching when logging on to their social platforms, with 78.6% of active TikTok users saying they use the platform as a source of entertainment. This shift in priorities just confirms short-form video is here to stay, and influencers that also wear the hat of video entertainers are on the rise.
Video content has proven its worth. It’s Facebook’s top-performing ad format, it drives more engagement than static content, and in the age of the 45-second attention span it offers quick, digestible information with ease – making it the most effective advertising method for brands and influencer collaborations.
With that track record of ROI, it’s no surprise that 90% of marketers using short-form video will maintain – or increase – this content format investment in 2023. Video content, however, takes time, and the quick production cadence required to continue feeding the ever-hungry beast that is social media can be hard for in-house brand teams to sustain. The sheer velocity at which creators are able to turn out content is set to make video entertainers an even hotter commodity this year.
TikTok considers itself an entertainment app, and as Instagram continues to leverage Reels and creator subscriptions, it seems the line between social and media will only continue to thin.
In an odd paradox, however, the creators fueling the industry’s video feeds are also more approachable than the perception associated with the term ‘influencer’. These video entertainers tell embarrassing stories and jokes, normalize everyday life, highlight trauma, show off their creative flair, and showcase once-in-a-lifetime experiences – all on the same channel. They are real, that is: They are their own brand, and they have formed their own like-minded community.
Find a brand-aligned video creator, and you’ve got a gold mine in the shape of a niche social audience, formed by the perfect combination of the creator's efforts and an ever-more-effective algorithm as it generates content recommendations. Businesses leveraging video entertainers to showcase products and places get to enjoy the benefits of more impactful recommendations.
So when you sit down and find yourself in an endless scroll of highly specific content curated just for you, ask yourself: Is it really all that different than your Netflix recommendations? A ton of tiny videos are slowly but surely taking the place of long-form content and successfully telling stories in just 10-30 seconds. No matter how long the adventure, multiple videos are now capturing the attention of millions of users.
Take a 14-day voyage through the Arctic, for example. Seabourn Cruise Lines teamed up with adventure content creators Renee (@reneeroaming) and Matthew (@MatthewHahnel) Hahnel to highlight the line’s newest expedition ship, Seabourn Venture. The collaboration highlighted every moment of the expedition in bite-sized Reels, TikToks and photos, resulting in 9 million impressions – including over 6 million video views. The most successful Reel? A couple dancing on the elevator to and from their submarine rides, formal dinners, and expedition-led hikes. The genuine compilation garnered 5.3 million views, proving the strength of video content often lies in the entertainer’s ability to connect with the brand and do what they do best – entertain.
BYE BYE BARTER.
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TRAVEL COMES BACK AROUND.
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