Last June, the Co-founder of Undertone, Eric Franchi, wrote about his decision to invest in marketing technology on The Drum. His explanation was clear, digital is growing exponentially. It has even started to take away from TV’s advertising share, as digital videos are being voraciously consumed worldwide. Marketing technology is emerging as the hot new ticket for investors in 2018. However, it is the news about the rise of video that has led some investors to hone in on event marketing tech specifically as an under-rated investment with a potentially immense payoff.
How The Rise Of Video Has Led To Event Marketing Technology Adoption
The rate of consumer adoption of video has sent shockwaves through the traditional advertising industry. Overall, 94% of businesses see video as an effective tool, and the average company produces 18 videos a month. That’s exactly the same publishing schedule that used to be applied to blogs. It seems that people are rejecting the written word more than ever, and instead finding more engagement with video.
One of the best things about videos is their shareability. According to Small Biz Trends, social videos generate 1200% more shares than both photos and text posts combined. Those shares reach a captive audience as 55% of people watch videos online everyday – you may even be one of them! The staggering rise of digital video in consumer industries has made marketers start to quickly shift their strategies to focus more on video online. Wyzowi’s 2017 State of Video Marketing survey showed that 83% of business who employed video thought that it led to good ROI. So much so, in fact, that 82% of those businesses also considered it a key part of their overall business strategy.
Why Invest In Event Marketing Technology?
While marketing technology is a broad term that covers 5000 companies in the U.S, there are some aspects of the sector that will prove to be more profitable than others. Event marketing technology is poised to take advantage of the changing consumer preference for video. Event marketing technology may be limited to a few trailblazers, such as Valoso. However, they have one significant competitive edge over other marketing technology plays because of their software’s video functionality.
Event marketing relies heavily on videos, and video consumption is increasing at a dramatic rate as new smartphone adopters hit the internet. According to Facebook, smartphone users are 1.5 times more likely to watch a video, than those using a desktop to browse. In general, people are consuming more video marketing content than ever before. Collectively, we’ve hit one billion hours of Youtube a day. Even more incredible, Youtube reports that their data shows that mobile video consumption increases 100% year after year. Facebook generates 8 billion views a day, and video posts receive 135% more organic reach than photos.
Investment Potential Of Event Marketing
Event marketers are also starting to wake up to the viral marketing potential of videos, which Valoso has reported on. Videos have a much greater ability than any other form of marketing to help small businesses gain more reach. This makes cost-effective SaaS solutions very popular, as Half of event companies set aside a special budget for viral marketing. Additionally, an astounding 91% majority of the top performing event businesses will focus more on marketing live events in the future. These companies are also planning to increase their budget on events compared with other companies, investing around $4500 more.
Hubspot predicts that by 2019 consumer video traffic on the internet worldwide will account for 80% of all consumer traffic. A huge 87% majority of C-suite executives state that they are intending to invest more in promoting and recording live video events, so this trend looks set to continue even beyond 2019. This has led investors to start reevaluating the types of marketing technology they invest in. As Mr Garg of Foundation Capital told the Wall Street Journal, “I think we as investors are thinking much harder about which business models create long-term value.” Integrated video marketing technology offers the prospect of not just immediate returns from the initial MarTech hype, but also lasting value as the landscape of consumer preferences changes.
Integrated Video Marketing and Event Technology
Companies that can supply video production services to meet the new video marketing demand will be best placed to take advantage of these new consumer habits. Those that can bridge the gap between marketing technology and the event industry by also providing event marketing automation, as well as HR, CRM and QA services, will no doubt be immensely profitable.
The new Valoso studio is uniquely placed in the market because it offers an integrated, all-in-one platform, incorporating both video production, editing and branding, along with the latest event tech services. Find out more about the launch of Valoso Studio here.
