e-Commerce Vertical Video for Fashion Apparel Marketing & Advertising

The last few years have seen a dramatic shift in internet consumption, as mobile phones have overtaken desktops in the viewing of internet content. Mobile phones were at 65% of total digital usage in 2018 (up from 62% in Q1 2018) – with that number growing daily.

With this massive growth of smart phone consumers using social media apps, and the 4G network giving way to the coming 5G network, video is leading the way with social media marketing. Landscape configured, Youtube style videos are still, and will always be the stronghold of video/motion picture content creators. But, the marketing of fashion brands to consumers via vertically imposed videos, specially formatted for smart phone delivery is on the rise, and only getting stronger.

An analysis report from Ericsson predicts that by 2022, the average smartphone user will spend almost 25 GB of mobile data per day usually on video streaming.

Let's take a look at vertical video marketing, and its effect on the e-commerce industry. VSP Studios has over 25 years experience, and we are excited to share the information that we attained while producing content for our clients based in the fashion apparel industry.

THE ANALYTICS SHOW THAT FASHION APPAREL IS GOING TO LEAD THE WAY, AS VIDEO BECOMES THE NORM FOR ONLINE SHOPPING.

What is Vertical Video Marketing?

Videos have always been watched in a horizontal manner but with the advent of mobile phones, it is common for people to use their mobile phones vertically (portrait mode) more than horizontally (landscape mode).

Fashion is ideally suited for this format. A Model fits best as a vertical image standing, and showcasing apparel items for sale. Youtube recently updated their app to better serve vertical 9:16 formats. Facebook owned apps such as Instagram, and Whatsapp are showing how consumers are increasingly influenced by vertical video content. There is even a vertical film festival, that celebrates the work of short films that were shot in 9:16 portrait orientation.

With a mobile fist initiative in place, marketers have taken to social media apps such as Snapchat, Spotify, Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, and Facebook Newsfeed to distribute their creative content. The goal is to attract new customers, build brand identity, engage their audience, and convert sales. Vertical video has taken over as the new way to market your brand in the smart phone, e-commerce generation.

Why is vertical content important for your e-commerce business?

When it comes to e-commerce marketing, vertical-oriented videos play an important role for various reasons:

Growth of Mobile Usage

Most eCommerce companies are shifting towards a “mobile-first” approach in their marketing strategies. This is due to the fact that mobile phones have taken over desktop usage to a certain extent, therefore, e-commerce businesses start to look at providing their advertisements and marketing more for the mobile based user rather than desktop users.

In 2017 mobile traffic was around 50.3% which increased to around 52.5% in December 2018. This statistic clearly shows that mobile devices are slowly dominating the market. In the last few years most websites are made responsive so that they naturally adjust to mobile devices. Since vertical video has become the latest trend nowadays, more and more businesses are shifting their focus towards delivering vertical-oriented videos.

Bikini on Demand, a Miami based retailer who specializes in one hour delivery services to South Beach hotels, asked VSP Studios to produce vertical video content for their 2019 marketing campaign. Get your new bikini delivered to your hotel room in an hour. A Miami original! VSP Studios worked exclusively with Bikini on Demand to produce their product page videos, and social media marketing content.

Social audiences moving towards mobile

Social media marketing has also emerged as one of the most popular methods of marketing used by internet businesses to boost their traffic and sales. A recent survey has indicated that by the end of 2019, almost 2.7 billion people will be holding accounts on social media platforms. This is why it is important for a business to turn their focus on social media marketing.

Even the most popular social media platforms have started to embrace vertically-oriented content due to the fact that a large portion of the people use their phones vertically most of the time. Instagram has been the forerunner in embracing vertical video marketing as Instagram Stories are largely vertical-oriented videos. Facebook has also recently added this feature in a different name. The main reason that these popular social media platforms are pushing towards vertical video marketing is that it enables the user to utilize the full screen of the mobile phone without needing to tilt their device.

Instagram even went the extra mile by launching IGTV, which is similar to YouTube for videos, but mainly vertical videos. This clearly shows the love for vertical videos and the importance they play in digital marketing.

By no means are horizontal videos of lesser value than vertical videos, but since mobile users hold their phone vertically for 94% of their total usage time, it only makes sense to serve platform friendly content.

There is also a larger potential for impact, as the data shows vertical videos are more engaging, and have a better completion rate than traditional horizontal videos - https://www.vspstudios.net/vertical-video

Statistics Speak for Themselves

Compared to horizontal video, the vertical videos provide more engagement nearly 4 times that of the horizontal ones on Facebook and 2.5 times on Twitter
Vertical orientation helps people remember the videos more than horizontal videos. It seems people seem to recall videos around 3-9% in ad recall
Vertical videos have almost 90 percent more completion rate when compared with horizontal videos.
Users are reluctant to turn their phones sideways, less than 30% of users tilt their phones and people who do only watch around 14% of the video.
Snapchat reports that almost 7 billion videos are watched daily and most of the videos are vertically oriented
Vertical videos are 3x times more efficient than horizontal videos.

Syncs with user habits

The main reason behind the effectiveness of vertical videos is that it largely syncs with the general usage of the population. Since most people use their phones vertically, and according to a statistic, almost 70% of users are reluctant to rotate their phones. Even video ads created in vertical orientation have more than a 90% completion rate.

See the VSP Studios Youtube page for more video content.

Is Vertical Video the Future?

Smart phone usage is only going to grow stronger over time. With every smart phone user having access to a video camera in their hand, and the use of social media apps by these same users growing at a tremendous rate, we can only make one assessment. We are entering a vertical video revolution, and its just getting started. Positioning your brand to take advantage of this new emerging market place with vertical video advertising campaigns leading the way, is quickly becoming the new norm. VSP Studios doesn’t believe that the traditional landscape orientated videos will be a thing of the past. But, we do believe that the future of fashion apparel marketing will utilize this new vertical delivery on a grand scale.

“Vertical video ads provide a big, beautiful canvas to deliver your message on mobile and allow engagement with your customers in a way that fits their viewing preferences. We recommend adding both vertical and horizontal video assets to the same campaign for maximum brand impact.”

— Google

VSP Studios specializes in e-commerce vertical video production for fashion apparel brands, and retailers. Located in Miami, this boutique style studio produces imagery for top selling brands world wide. If you are looking for social media marketing content to sell your product line, or you need to update your product pages, and increase your conversions, VSP Studios delivers imagery that sells your merchandise.

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