Is the Future of Video Vertical?

We’re flipping our cameras on the side this month and featuring ads we’ve recently made for Stories, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. One vertical video with slight modifications can be 100% native for all 3 platforms, and reach very different audiences. Thats a lot of “bang for your video buck”! 

Here are 5 reasons why you should consider vertical for every video production:

1. It’s better for mobile viewers

We hinted at it in our introduction, but when it comes to mobile phone use, vertical is king.

Studies suggest that we hold our phones vertically an almost universal 94% of the time, whether banking, chatting, calling, scrolling our news feed or – indeed – viewing videos.

2. The big social platforms are embracing it
When trends and features are incorporated into the ‘big’ social media channels, they quickly become established as social media norms. Trends become accepted, and eventually, expected by audiences.

Vertical video has now been accepted and rolled out across all the major channels, to the point that horizontal video on mobile now often seems strange and jarring. The tables have truly turned.

3. Some of the world’s biggest brands are getting involved
We all know that marketing comes with an element of ‘Keeping up with the Joneses.’ New video technology, like any innovation, requires its pioneers – big brands willing to put their head over the parapet and take a chance on it. These things almost always trickle down from the big brands to the little ones.

New trends like 360 degree and interactive video, for example, are incredibly exciting, but it’s taken big brand pioneers like John Lewis and Tipp Ex to set an example to the rest of the market and demonstrate their real-world potential.

4. There’s growing evidence that vertical video performs better
Of course, you aren’t just going to invest in a marketing technique because everybody else seems to be doing it. You want to be sure that you’re reaching out to your audience in a format that gives you the best possible chance of engaging and converting them.

You’ll be interested, then, to know that some of the numbers around the performance of vertical video on social channels are pretty staggering.

5. It’s made for social
It’s now widely accepted that the majority of social media browsing happens on mobile devices. In fact, Backlinko reports that 99% of all social media users access the platforms through a mobile device!

Because nearly all social browsing is done on phones…and the majority of phone use, as we’ve established, is vertical, social media is increasingly a vertical phenomenon.

And, from a UX point of view, you really need to consider that when publishing and sharing content.

So what does this all mean for you?
In simple terms, it means rethinking the way you do video on social media. It’s time to take a step back from doing what you’ve always done, and consider that your audience is now predominantly browsing vertically. Your videos should match that experience!

It means challenging a lot of popular logic around social video production. If you film video blogs, for example, every ‘how to’ guide will teach you that you need to hold your camera or mount your smartphone horizontally.