This week in 60 seconds…
- Apple hit headlines this week with its promising release of new (and pretty expensive) handsets; an iPhone XS, an iPhone XR – oh, and a new smartwatch that can detect if you fall. Wowzers
- And speaking of falling, a recent Nielson study shows the amount of time people spend on Facebook has declined by 7% in the last year
- But, despite such negative statistics, the platform is still pushing forward in smart, positive ways; the latest being AI that can identify offensive memes using text extraction and machine learning
- Meanwhile, over on its sister platform, Instagram has released fun new Story features, and confirm they’re testing video tagging – finally!
- And whilst Stories are no doubt the king of portrait content, YouTube is capitalising on this success and introducing vertical video ads, giving brands “a more seamless mobile experience” for their viewers
A final thought…
With more than 70% of YouTube watch time happening on a mobile device, adding vertical video ads to its roster of capabilities is a smart move. Yes, it’s taken longer than expected; but with the added opportunity for brands to tailor ads based on a user’s personalised Home feed, it’s definitely worth the wait.
Data Byte
If mobile video consumption wasn’t a good enough reason for YouTube to adopt vertical video, perhaps engagement and completion rates were. Wibbitz found that vertical videos received four times more engagement than square on Facebook and 2.5 times more on Twitter. Not only that but MediaBrix found that vertical videos received a 90% higher completion rate compared with horizontal videos. What more convincing could YouTube need?