The Power of Video Promos By Andy Meadows

Even before the rise of Instagram and TikTok, social media had become a visual media. We all realized that text and audio alone wasn’t enough, so we began adding pictures to everything. But standing out in a crowded feed with a static picture isn’t easy. That’s why it’s time for radio to up our game and fully dive into video content. Video is significantly more effective that static images on social media. In 2021 86% of businesses use video as a marketing tool, a 25% increase since 2016. People stream over 1 billion hours of video a day on YouTube and Facebook gets over 4 billion video views per day. By 2022 the number of videos crossing the internet per second will approach 1 million, translating into 82% of all online traffic

Most of what we do in radio is tailor made to be turned into video content because shorter works better. On the Instagram feed videos can be up to 1 minute, but according to Hubspot Research videos that are an average of 26 seconds received the most engagement. So virtually any 30 second on-air promo we’re producing could be turned into effective video content for web/social, either by recording it as video first using a video host or by simply adding original footage, stock footage, or pictures with motion to go along with the VO. Here’s a blog showing some of the tools we use.  Since writing that post we’ve also added the full Adobe Creative Suite to pick up Adobe Premiere and After Effects, which I spent the pandemic lockdown learning and I believe anyone who’s proficient with an audio editor can pick it up if they put in the time. 

Here are a few of the types of video we create for our consulting clients, that we’d be happy to create for you or teach you how to create on your own: 

  • Music Tests: Modern video version of the smash or trash new music feature 
  • Top 5 Tunes Video: Based on online/in-app/social votes/requests by listeners 
  • Artist of the Month/Showcase Yea Videor: For stations that don’t play new music 
  • Jock Recycle Promos: Turning audio recycle promos into video 
  • Benchmark/Feature Video Promos: To pre-promote on social 
  • Podcast Video Promos: Specifically promoting an upcoming episode 
  • Programming/Promotions Video Promos: For any big on-air promotion 
  • Features/Benchmark Post-Promote: Using pics/video/on-air audio 
  • Concert Calendar Video: Hits highlights and points back to a full online calendar 
  • Event Calendar/Things to Do Video: Same but covers all kinds of events 
  • Upcoming Music Teasers Video: Plugging a few of the upcoming tunes that hour 
  • What to Watch This Week Video: Hits a few of that week’s shows/movies, ties to web article 
  • What to Play This Week Video: Same but for new video games coming out that week 
  • 60 Seconds With: Off camera interview with artist or celebrity 

All of these are tied back to on-air and website elements to create multi-platform content that’s very sponsorable. That’s why I consider them promos. Yes, they’re content, but they’re content specifically created to drive traffic elsewhere. We’re also always looking at other content creators for ideas we can borrow, including comics, podcasters, TV Morning Shows and even brands. 

A quick note, it’s important to remember to add captions, 85% of viewers on Facebook are watching with the sound off. Plus, Facebook has a free built-in tool to automatically add captions now (although it typically requires a little bit of hand-editing). It also helps to do separate vertical versions for TikTok and Instagram. 

What are your stations doing with video? Comment below or email me at andy@radiostationconsultant.com.

Pic designed by starline for www.freepik.com.

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