Joseph Wade, the BAFTA-winning filmmaker and director of the creative agency Don't Panic will be one of several leading international speakers at the 7th Digital Innovators' Summit from 24-25 March in Berlin, Germany.
Video will be in focus in several sessions of the two-day Summit, which also includes a tour of startups in Berlin on the 23rd (booked separately, with only a handful spaces left). Register here for the Summit and/or Meet the Founder tour.
Wade will speak on the subject of “making videos go viral” and creating multimedia content that people really want to share – even if it’s branded. We caught up with him in London.
How has video evolved in recent years and what have been the major developments that have shaped the industry?
The two biggest changes during my time in video have been the advent of YouTube and the reduction in the cost of equipment. Those two things together made it easier for everyone to make video but also gave them a place to share it. In a way, that has democratized what gets made. Another thing that has happened is that a number of large advertising agencies have failed to understand – and probably still don't understand – how to operate in that environment. There is often a knee-jerk reaction from clients saying ‘I want one of those’. But of course it’s more complex than that.
The advent of social media channels in general has been the key game-changer for video. Twitter has had a big impact in particular because it’s such a big driver of traffic to video content in other places. Businesses like Buzzfeed and Gawker are great at summing videos up in 140 characters, which encourages people to click on them and share them further.
What role is video playing in branded content today?
There’s some really good branded video content around now but the challenge is to represent a brand while not putting off the people who are watching in their spare time. That’s a very difficult line to tread. I think branded content tends to lend itself better to longer-form content than the shorter content that tends to go viral. As a result, there are some things branded content needs to do that viral content doesn’t. It needs greater investment and it needs to be repeatable, whereas the viral stuff can be more of a one-off.
There remains a job to be done to make sure brands understand what is the right video for them – that there’s a difference between the US and UK, for example, and that you shouldn’t just try to replicate what everyone else is doing. I find lots of businesses citing the same examples. They look at the really high-budget ads such as the Dove Real Beauty Sketches, and the viral results they are getting, and want to know how they can do it. They don’t realize how expensive that is and that, in fact, a high percentage of the views on those ads will have been paid for. That’s not to question the success of that campaign. It earned a lot of media as well as paying for a lot. But it highlights the cost of a project like that, which is what many businesses fail to see.
What trends are we seeing around video at the moment?
A lot of people are talking about the return of long-form content and I agree there are some good individual examples of long-form branded content. There is certainly a school of thought that people are less likely to click away after a minute or so of viewing, as we have traditionally thought was the tipping point. But I don’t think it’s quite the shift some people are saying. The things we are doing for branded-content clients are more focused on creating a big splash for that brand, creating press for it and growing its audience over time. That is about creating a series of videos more than it is about creating longer, individual videos. If we have seen any shift in video making I would say it’s a move towards longer-term investment in serial video content. That helps establish that brand over time.
What are the ingredients to a successful branded video? What makes video shareable?
A key thing is to always aim your video at a younger audience than it’s intended for – because that will be the audience that shares it to the larger target market. If you can get it into a reddit audience, for example, where the audience is very young and most active at sharing, then you will really see it take off. That’s where journalists and bloggers will pick it up. From there, it might make it on to Gawker or Buzzfeed. And that’s where the likes of the national press will pick it up. That’s a real strategy.
Another thing to keep in mind is that people want an emotional trigger. Is it funny, is it shocking, is it cute, is it sad? People want an emotion, so it is important to trigger one. But it is also important not to confuse that by going for too many emotions in one video.
What are the emerging video trends that excite you right now?
The exciting developments for me are not so much around technological changes. The exciting thing for us as a company is the appetite among clients and businesses to be a bit more open minded. They are beginning to realize that they shouldn’t view their branded content as making an advert or paying people to see their products. Instead, they should view it as keeping their media costs down by getting people to share their content for free. I think that’s an exciting trend right now. There is an increasing understanding that the way you represent your brand has to be done in a certain way. That’s exciting for us because in the future it will enable us to tell more fun and entertaining stories that are tangential to the brand.
About Joseph Wade
Wade’s background is in filmmaking, TV writing and producing – and he is CEO and co-founder of the creative agency Don’t Panic. In 2012 he created BBC Hat Trick show The Revolution Will Be Televised in the UK, alongside Heydon Prowse. The show holds politicians and businessmen accountable for their wrongdoings in a satirical manner and won a BAFTA in May 2013.
Under Don’t Panic Wade has produced several Channel 4 Random Acts films and web versions of the Channel 4 show Dispatches. In June 2013 he created Drones – It Wasn’t Me alongside KG & Marston for Reprieve UK.
About the Digital Innovators' Summit in Berlin, March 24-25
View the full programme for the Digital Innovators’ Summit 2014 and the speakers so far confirmed. Learn more about the Meet the Founder tour, on the 23rd ahead of the start of the Summit.
Register today to attend the Digital Innovators' Summit and/or Meet the Founder Tour. Not convinced yet? Here are several reasons why you should join us in Berlin.
Why not join us for the Digital Innovators Tour to the USA (May 2013)?
Join us on the first Digital Innovators’ Tour to San Francisco/Silicon Valley and Seattle from 18 – 23 May 2014. Places will be limited to 23 to ensure a quality experience, so make sure you register your interest with us to secure your place.