Meet the Makers: The Power of Vertical Video

on the 16th and 17th of November, Video Snackbar Hub organized a crossover event with visual content creators - the makers - from all over Europe. For two days, the VRT and RTBF headquarters turned into an inspiring center exploring the world of online video. Discover everything about vertical video in this article.

As you know, vertical video is everywhere. Broadcasters are picking up on the fact that younger audiences are getting their information from a smartphone instead of a television or the radio. What are the challenges we face? And how do we tackle these? It requires a different approach than moving the same content from one platform to the other because vertical video has its own unique language. That is why we asked some international experts to share their insights into the lexicon of Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat with us.

How do you do, fellow kids?

Bavo Mortier, digital creative at the VRT sports brand Sporza, managed to grow Sporza’s TikTok followers from 15k to 65k in a little over 6 months. Sporza is known as a very reliable information source, but younger audiences did not seem to consume the articles on the website. That’s why the Sporza team defined 3 rules for their vertical content to comply with: the content has to be easily accessible, it has to appeal to the target audience and it has to be easy to make.

ARD’s news channel Tagesschau also suffered from a rather serious image that wasn’t sure how to attract “the kids”. Anna Metzentin is the strategic developer and host of Tagesschau on TikTok, which currently reaches over 1 million followers. Anna pointed out that social media needs “News + X''. Meaning that a platform like TikTok needs something more, something innovative. Tagesschau identified X as a “fun strategy”, by playing with the old-fashioned image that the brand has. Besides that, they also participate in viral challenges and give behind-the-scenes information, because they notice the audience engages more when they feel like they are learning something.

For Sporza, combining reliable information and humor is also a good mix. During the UEFA EURO 2020, they focused on “Alternative Match Reports”. Here, viewers received information about the match itself in a quick and funny way. The comment section of the videos is filled with reactions like “I can’t believe this is Sporza.”. This is good, because every comment boosts more traffic to their content. In addition, Sporza also combines explainers with viral sounds. When a user hears one of those sounds, they immediately know what they are going to get: another reason to keep watching.

Leave them watching more

It is key that a viewer keeps on watching the video, as the relative watch time influences the reach of it. That is why Joris Wijnen, the online editor of NPO’s children's brand Zapp, says it’s very important to make sure you grab the attention of the viewer in the first three seconds. That is where you make a promise for the rest of the video. During the video, you fulfill this promise. After the video, the viewer has to be able to answer the question: what have I seen in this short amount of time? Just like Bavo and Anna, Joris also emphasizes the importance of understanding the language on the platform: trends, sounds, music and memes.

“You have to be on the platform to understand the platform.”

Snapchat image 2

There has been a lot of talk about TikTok already, but in Norway, Snapchat is still the most popular social platform. Eirik Tufteland is a journalist working on new ways to present NRK news to a younger audience. Eirik told us that in Norway about 10% of people avoid the news because it harms their mental health. To not just present a problem, but rather include a solution, NRK released their website for constructive news called NRK Lyspunkt.

To platform or not to platform? That is the question.

Another broadcaster that isn’t on TikTok is BBC Scotland. Kirsty Drain is a senior producer at BBC The Social, an award-winning digital platform. BBC Scotland consciously chooses to try to get the audience back to their native platform instead of giving the control away. This poses one of the hardest questions in the vertical video debate: do we keep control with our own platform that won’t perform as well, or do we use the third-party platform where we know our audience is, and the videos will perform better? There is something to be said for both. Anna Metzentin feels that, as a newsmaker, she is often also a crime scene cleaner, fact-checking fake news on the app instead of giving new information. But Anna also realizes that Tagesschau can’t decide where their public is. That is why they decided to put their content out on TikTok.

BBC Scotland is more focused on building a brand. Although there is no denying that it is very challenging to get people to your platform. The Social is developing content with the audience: rather than a production team curating what BBC The Social makes content about, the ideas come from young contributors that are linked up with a production team. It gives the content a layer of authenticity. That authenticity is something very instrumental, and something that is stressed by every vertical video maker. How do you make your content authentic? In the case of BBC Scotland, it’s reflecting the country, different accents and communities.

“Being authentic is the most important”

Friendly faces

When we look at Tagesschau and Sporza, it is clear that hosts, or faces, work. People get invested in personalities on social media and build a relationship with them.

Bavo explained the dual power of creating vlogs at Sporza’s TikTok. It’s an interesting way to use the same footage twice, but people also started reacting to Bavo as a personality. He uses recurring sentences like starting the video with “Hi, my name is Bavo”,

which goes back to what Joris Wijnen said: people immediately know what to expect. Besides that, people comment on Bavo’s vlogs a lot: they ask questions, try to apply for his job (honestly who wouldn’t?) or just show appreciation for the content. Again, this boosts the algorithm that pushes the video out.

All about Instagram

Not having one specific on-screen personality proves to be a challenge for “The Warmest Week” on TikTok. Rani D’Hulster is a video snackbarista at VRT Innovation, which means she closely follows up on technologies and trends for video content across platforms. Armed with a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro or an iPhone 12 Pro Max, The Warmest Week is focussing on first-time-right shooting vertical content instead of cutting up a horizontal video.

Since their content is aimed at a younger audience under the age of 24, The Warmest Week is mainly focused on IGTV. Something that works well for the Instagram platform is when people with a bigger following repost your content on their stories. For one video The Warmest Week collaborated with influencer Elodie Gabias (@elogabias), who has over 100k followers. The Warmest Week reaches about 6k with a video, but when Elodie reposted the video to her story, that particular video hit 20k views.

The Warmest Week also puts their content on VRT NU, the online VRT platform. They opted to add letterboxes around the vertical videos instead of shooting horizontally simultaneously since that is how the content is meant to be watched.

“Memes and trends work. They get a lot of views, but you can not keep doing the same thing over and over again.”

So what have we learned?

The language of TikTok/Snapchat and Instagram are the same, but the accents are different. The keyword is authenticity: there has to be an element of self-awareness to your content. For TikTok and Snapchat, that translates into creating humoristic content that combines participating in viral trends and investing in personalities that the audience can connect to. But to be up-to-date about those trends, you have to consume other content that is on the platform. It is important to grab the viewer's attention in the first 3 seconds, and use viral sounds to set expectations. Because those sounds trigger their curiosity and help ensure that people watch the video until the end, something that is very important for the algorithm. Another way to make sure the viewer stays engaged with your content is to present personalities they can connect to. That is how they get invested, and how they will keep coming back. When it comes to Instagram, it works well when people share your content so you have to focus on boosting engagement through reposting on stories.

But most important of all: you just have to start doing it. It takes a combination of knowledge, consistency and a little bit of luck. However, it is worth the investment. Because the future of video is vertical.