Summary

This article explores the growing popularity of 'vertical video' - video content designed to be viewed in portrait rather than landscape form - which is driven by mobile devices.
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Research has found that 29% of the time Americans spend watching video is done so vertically, compared to 5% in 2010, with the growth caused by casual video viewing on mobile devices.
Social platforms like Snapchat, Periscope and Meerkat have encouraged people to shoot and view film more casually and on-the-go, and often that film is shot or viewed vertically.
Brands including Audi and Burger King are including vertical video in their content strategies, especially when they want to appeal to younger consumers.
Video does not easily transfer into a vertical format, so brands need to think carefully about how they re-use vertical content on their websites.

Trend Snapshot: Vertical video

This Trend Snapshot includes:

Trend overview: what it is and why it's important
Brands ahead of the curve: examples from Audi, Burger King and Cosmopolitan
What it means for brands: expert insight from Sergio Claudio of RockOrange and Tom Westerlin of Huge
What can we expect: where this trend might lead
Next steps: how to get involved
Further reading: where to find more on this subject

Trend overview

As consumers watch and shoot more content on mobile phones, they are fuelling a move towards 'vertical video' – tall, narrow clips best displayed in portrait, rather than landscape, form.

Compelling evidence supporting this shift comes from Mary Meeker, a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers, who releases a highly influential digital trends report each year. Her latest analysis suggested that 29% of the time Americans spend watching video now occurs vertically, compared with only 5% in 2010.

This is a 'massive change at a relatively rapid rate', she argued, and mirrors the rise of handheld devices as supplements to channels – like TV and desktop PCs – that favour horizontal formats. 'We used to look at video on large horizontal screens. Increasingly, we're looking at video on our small screens,' Meeker said. 'Something funny happened on the way to the small screen.'

That charge has been led by mobile apps which employ vertical video as their native format, a list headed by messaging tool Snapchat – where an audience of 100 million consumers, the bulk of which are drawn from the 13–34-year-old demographic, watch two billion videos a day. The company has even launched a product called 3V, or 'vertical video views'.

'A lot of folks in the transition to mobile – which is still ongoing – were taking video that was formatted for livestream desktop and TV, and they were jamming that creative into a mobile feed,' Evan Spiegel, Snapchat's CEO, told AdWeek. 'Our baseline was full screen. And in order to get full screen, you've got to do vertical video.'

Livestreaming services like Periscope and Meerkat have, equally, encouraged users to spontaneously shoot video on wireless devices – a process that is typically simplest while holding the phone vertically in one hand.

'Taking that extra step to turn it to landscape or horizontal, sometimes it's too much for some people,' Andrea Allen, director of original productions at video platform Vimeo, said. 'They want to have a quick video they want to share with friends and … depending on the viewing device, that's a great way to shoot and share a quick video.'

Not everyone will be pleased by such developments, however. A longstanding complaint about vertical video is that it leaves ungainly black bars on either each side of long, skinny clips when played back on desktop sites – leading to what has been termed 'vertical video syndrome', and criticisms that it is simply the amateur alternative to the landscape equivalent.

Other objections relate to the fact that the human visual system works from side to side, rather than top to bottom, making it hard to watch vertical clips. And even if this problem is mitigated on smaller screens, some creatives are concerned that the portrait format threatens to restrict their options for similar reasons.

Many brands, however, believe this format could let them reach consumers in new ways.

Brands ahead of the curve

Audi has been a consistent early adopter on mobile, as demonstrated by an innovative program it ran on Snapchat during the 2014 Super Bowl. In June 2015, the luxury car marque allied with creative technology firm Celtra to test short-form vertical video ads for a campaign based around the Le Mans sports car race.

This initiative ultimately yielded a 36% ad completion rate, easily beating norms for the automotive sector. 'The campaign performance exceeded expectations by far – achieving results 80% above industry benchmarks,' Giovanni Perosino, Audi's head of marketing communication, said.

'In consideration of our brand values, we are constantly looking for innovation and ‘Vorsprung' in media and aim at partnering closely with suppliers who are able to spearhead and deliver media firsts.'

Burger King, the quick-service restaurant chain, has also shown how vertical video can be deployed as a narrative medium by releasing various 'snapisodes' – targeted squarely at young consumers – on Snapchat. One illustration was the humorous 'Whopper Dad' series, which featured a father-and-son duo representing its famous burger.

According to Conor Champley, a copywriter Code and Theory – the agency behind this effort – the goal was to connect with Snapchat's marketing-averse young audience in an organic way. 'We didn't want it to be to marketing-y, so we used the product in ways that would appeal to the 14-22 year olds that hated being advertised to,' Champley added.

Elsewhere, Cosmopolitan – the female-focused magazine published by Hearst – has also been an enthusiastic fan of Snapchat, updating its channel every day and repurposing landscape video to suit this medium. "Mobile phones are vertical devices," said Troy Young, Hearst Digital's president. "Turning it sideways is a lot of work."

The magazine has let brands including shoe specialist Sperry and apparel retailer Victoria's Secret sponsor its channel on Snapchat, and encouraged them to shoot new vertical content for this outlet. As that represents an expensive pastime for a single media exercise, Cosmopolitan also created vertical display units capable of playing these commercials on its website.

Perhaps the ultimate expression of confidence, though, has come from WPP Group, the advertising holding company, and the Daily Mail, the news title. They have joined forces with Snapchat to create Truffle Pig, a content agency that will test new marketing formats – especially vertical video – on DailyMail.com, Elite Daily and Snapchat, alongside running broader digital campaigns for brands.

"The whole notion of turning your phone on its side to watch a video is awkward and a bit of a hassle," said Jon Steinberg, CEO of Daily Mail North America. "Our findings have convinced us that we need to move even more aggressively to develop vertical content ... and that our industry must develop creative content for this mobile format."

What it means for brands

Sergio Claudio, vp/digital innovation and strategy at RockOrange, argued marketers may benefit from approaching vertical video in a similar fashion to native advertising, in terms of delivering material which is truly 'relevant to the medium and the platform that people are engaging with' on mobile.

'You're going to have someone that's going to be consuming content on the fly on their mobile device: make the best use of the space that's available to you,' he advised. 'So, rather than having 40% of black-box area … create a video that's going to be formatted to be viewed on the mobile device, and feel like it belongs in that space.'

Tom Westerlin, creative director at Huge, built on this recommendation by suggesting that there are certain contexts where this tactic might be particularly appropriate. 'The biggest vertical video opportunities for brands are around live events they are sponsoring or have some stake in,' he said.

While Snapchat and Periscope are leading the charge in this space, he reaffirmed the importance of researching the target audience's device and viewing habits to find precisely the right channels to reach them. Such analysis could also help offset an understandable 'hesitation' among clients, especially when considering live broadcasts on vertical video.

'Not embracing these new platforms and techniques is the biggest risk for brands today. It's a digital wild west out there and a great time to experiment and carve out a niche in this new medium,' said Westerlin.

Where brands have aims beyond securing a short-term engagement kick with their vertical video, Claudio added, they should attempt to guide consumers towards a 'commitment point', the result of which is a longer period of horizontal viewing.

'If they try and go out with a 20-minute vertical video of pre-recorded content, a user may drop off,' he said. 'Vertical video seems like something a user might want to use in their initial few minutes of engagement. But, physically, it can be daunting to hold your phone in front of your face with one hand for an extended amount of time.'

High-quality vertical video, he continued, will give brands the chance to 'stand out' in a sea of amateur footage. In further allaying cost concerns, he also reported that this material usually displays well on Facebook, and can be employed in skyscraper and 300 x 600 ad units on desktop, providing the 'same amount of real estate' as on mobile.

'So there's another way to repurpose those videos and start to use them through digital media buys,' he said. 'It is not just limited to the in-app experiences, but it now creates a better fit for the ad products that are out there today.'

Looking forward, Westerlin proposed that – with the help of faster internet speeds on desktop and mobile – video could potentially replace all images and gifs across the web. 'What we need to do is push the big online publishers – Facebook, YouTube and Twitter – to unlock the aspect ratios on videos,' he said.

'YouTube would silence the ‘vertical video syndrome' banter if they would just play a vertical video at its native resolution and not crush it down to fit in a 16:9 black box.'

What can we expect?

If current trends continue, vertical video should gain further ground in the future. But television and desktop are likely to remain central parts of the media mix, too, meaning that brands will have to consider how best to maximise their budgets across horizontal and portrait formats – be it through repurposing ads from the former to the latter or creating bespoke content.

Achieving this aim will require understanding the moments when vertical video is of greatest relevance to consumers. It might, for example, most commonly be enjoyed while people travel between home and work, are quickly looking for information, or before falling asleep in bed late at night.

"Is it going to change the industry? No," Jon Gieselman, svp/marketing at DirecTV, said in describing such an idea. "But vertical can sometimes be more impactful."

This knowledge can also help brands identify the specific characteristics their vertical content should possess. A consumer sitting aboard a train or in a coffee house may not want videos to automatically play at full volume – one reason Facebook and Instagram mute videos when they start. Creatively, utilising text to convey messages could be effective, too.

New technologies are emerging which may soon impact this space, too. They include: Horizon and Stre.am, a mobile app that shoots video in landscape format whatever the orientation of their phone; Mindie, an app enabling consumers to easily add music to vertical video; and Vervid, a platform seeking to become the 'YouTube of vertical video'.

Given vertical video is still at a nascent stage, marketers face the prospect of adopting a platform-by-platform approach for the short term at least. YouTube, for instance, only uses horizontal video, with Vine, Instagram and Snapchat similarly tied to bespoke formats. And the fact both content types prosper on Facebook suggests netizens often 'just want entertaining', however it comes.

More positively, these videos may soon be usable on other media, which could advance the business case by controlling costs. A few outdoor signage companies, for example, have long given brands the chance to show content in portrait mode. Ensign, a start-up, is exploring this space, and JCDecaux is also reportedly making some provisional steps in the same direction, too.

Additionally, while creatives may be unhappy about the limitations of vertical video, it is part of a wider move towards alternative formats – as further evidenced by the use of square content formats on numerous channels. With virtual-reality tools like Oculus Rift, as well as 3D and 360-degree offerings, in various stages of development, enhanced flexibility will be a must.

It will, in many cases, be up to agencies to convincing clients that the investment is worthwhile – and converting any in-house sceptics. 'My point of view is, we're in the business of telling stories, so just be flexible. It's an ongoing push and pull,' Noah Mallin, MEC's North America's head of social, said. 'The resources it takes to be successful in digital are very high.'

Next steps

Assess where and when consumers make the greatest use of mobile to understand the points that vertical video could have the greatest impact.
Identify which mobile apps are most relevant for your brand, and where vertical video sits in their product mix.
Discuss which type of vertical video – from paid-for advertising to organic content and livestreaming – represent the safest starting point.
Remember that viewers are used to watching horizontally from left to right, so this new format may require making creative adjustments.
Seek out opportunities to reuse vertical video on other channels, such as banner ads on the desktop web or digital out-of-home.