Video Is The New Text

If you are a big sports fan then you are likely familiar with ESPN and Fox Sports, two of the largest and most dominant sports broadcasting networks in the world. You have probably visited both their websites to check out the latest scores or to play fantasy football. You probably noticed they are pretty similar, considering they report on the same source content. So how does one network try and gain a competitive advantage over the other, especially in the hotly contested online arena? Move away from the norm.

In June 2017, Fox Sports overhauled their web content by scrapping all written content and replacing it with video content (Shaw, 2017). Their website has no written articles. They let go of 20 journalists and replaced them with video production personnel. Fox Sports’ overhaul is a move away from traditional sports reporting content which is mostly written articles. Fox is attempting to separate itself from other sports websites, namely ESPN, by shifting from traditional sports reporting to opinion-based video content that complements their television content, increases web advertising opportunities, and exposes viewers to Fox Sports on-air personalities (Shaw, 2017).

But is it a smart move? The shift was recent, so only time will tell, however, research has shown that consumers are far more likely to be drawn in to video content than text. Benefits of video content include:

• Increasing consumer understanding of a product or service by 74% (Gardner, 2016)
• Consumers are 64% more likely to buy a product if they view a video (Gardner, 2016)
• Video promotion is 600% more effective than print and mail (Gardner, 2016)
• Consumers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% in text (Young, 2016)
• Video increases the chances of a website landing on page 1 of Google by 53% (Young, 2016)
• Adding video to a website makes it six times more likely to convert a “browser” into a paying customer (Young, 2016)
• 60% of consumers would rather watch a video on a website (Young, 2016)

Overall, adding video content to a website has far more benefits than only text and many websites are taking notice. 79% of global internet traffic is predicted to be video by 2020. Video support both consumer perception and marketing strategies when considering that 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual and a single minute of video is worth 1,000 words (Young, 2016).

It’s too early to tell if Fox Sports’ move will pay off but the benefits of incorporating video format into web content is something that should be considered when developing online strategy. Use text as a complement to video. Create websites with video content in mind and consider how the consumer will absorb the content. It can only help increase productivity.

References:

Gardner, M. (2017, January 18). Video vs Text – Which is Most Effective? Retrieved August 06, 2017, from http://www.gandbagency.com/video-conversion/

Jarboe, G. (2017, March 09). Video Will Account for 79% of Global Internet Traffic by 2020. Retrieved August 06, 2017, from http://tubularinsights.com/video-79-percent-internet-traffic-2020/

Shaw, L. (2017, June 26). Fox Sports cuts web writing staff to invest more in online video. Retrieved August 06, 2017, from http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/breaking/ct-fox-sports-layoffs-more-online-video-20170626-story.html

Young, M. (2016, June 06). Looking at the Facts-Why Video Content Has the Highest Retention Rate. Retrieved August 06, 2017, from http://www.popvideo.com/blog/looking-at-the-facts-why-video-content-has-the-highest-retention-rate