The Rapid Rise Of Video In The 21st Century

12 OCTOBER 2019

If the 21st century has become known for anything it is video. The very first video uploaded to YouTube was on April 23rd 2005. Today there are 300 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every MINUTE. YouTube has 1.9 billion active users every month – which is one third of all internet users. 62% pf them are men, and the greatest proportion of those is in the age group 18 – 49. Over one billion hours of YouTube videos are watched every single day.

Those are pretty amazing statistics, and there are a whole lot more of them if you go searching on the web. But here is another one: if you go looking for information products on the internet – especially in the internet marketing sector, also known as make money online – every product that is produced today has its’ instructions shown in a series of videos. These are “over the shoulder” videos which show what the producer of the material is clicking on his screen so that you can follow how to do the same.

Some of these videos are actually very poor because the provider of the material knows what he is doing and doesn’t realise that the viewer doesn’t know. Therefore, he can be clicking round the screen at high speed and you find that you have to stop the video and rewind it many times in order to spot exactly what it was he clicked on. This can be very frustrating and is something that should be borne in mind when making or commissioning any videos. Of course, professional web video production companies will be well aware of this sort of problem.

Nonetheless, while some people can read a PDF at least twice as fast as a video presenter can present it, it’s a fact that video is by far the preferred method of learning something for most people. In fact, many instructional programmes don’t come with a PDF at all – everything is on video.

It follows that if you are a business and you are marketing something, whether it is a product or you provide services, you need to use video today or you will miss a large part of your potential market. Faced with a PDF, many people simply won’t read it. The way forward is to use video. That fact is demonstrated by the increasing number of video production companies that are springing up in order to service the market.

You can use video in so many different ways. One use of video is aerial video. You no longer have to hire a helicopter at vast expense to make an aerial video as it can be done using a drone. UAV’s (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) as they are also known have come down considerably in price. You can buy one on the internet for less than £100. Professional quality drones for the purpose of making videos cost more than that, obviously, but video production companies are beginning to make more use of them.

However, there are rules and regulations. You can’t just fly any old drone wherever you like. Well, you can, but you will find yourself in court very quickly. You need to have a qualification and you need permission to fly from the CAA. You also have to have the correct insurance to fly a drone commercially for reward. A drone pilot also has to have the skills to make a video that will capture the imagination of the viewer.

Having said that, it is now possible to produce some stunning videos for commercial purposes that contain aerial shots or may even be composed entirely of aerial footage.

Video can also be used to demonstrate a product that you are trying to sell. Instead of just having photographs of the product in an advertisement, with video you can show someone actually using the product, how it works, what it does, and so on. If you are selling trainers, for instance, you could show the trainer in a 360° shot so that the viewer can see it all round, and you could also show someone using the trainer climbing a hill, running along, or whatever else you can think of.

Yes, today, video has arrived on the scene and it is here to stay.