Origins of the SMART revolution and mobile video marketing
The history of my company coincides with the origins of the SMART revolution and the concept of mobile video marketing.
If content is king, then, mobile must be the queen.
Chronology of a revolution at the smartphone’s reach
My passion for video has distant roots, to the late 1990s. Yet it was never a love of video per se, so much as an awareness that the communication of the future had to be visual and within everyone’s reach.
When smartphones began to spread and their cameras to develop, the question stopped being “if” or “when”. It became “how” and above all “why”.
1998 – videomaking before computers
By the end of the 1990s, personal computers were already widespread in homes, but the power of their processors and the analogue nature of handycams made the idea of video editing utopian.
Back then, I learned to edit using VHS: I played the film, captured it scene by scene with the “rec” and “stop” functions.
As you can imagine, the result was not great. But it was still science fiction to me.
2010 – vlogging in the US
Ten years later, the technology had already taken off.
Digital editing was the norm and it was already being shared on YouTube and other social networks.
The video smartphone was still in its infancy, but despite the grainy images, it already revealed the enormous potential of the medium.
Because people were starting to move around and have, for the first time comfortably, a video camera with them.
2014 – mobile social inclusion
In 2014, the final piece of the puzzle arrived: the first apps to edit video directly on the smartphone.
It was confirmation that the future of video marketing could no longer be separated from the smartphone.
So I set to work on my first smartphone video project.
I thought that creative expression could be a tool for liberation, exchange and inclusion.
It was the beginning of something big.
2016 – men, smartphones, and mountains
The revolution had begun, but it seemed rather something to be done in the spare time.
It took some time and several media experiments to arrive at mobile video marketing.
It took time to understand that video production should stem from precise business and communication objectives.
And that this production is most effective when it is centred around the use of a mobile device.
For most marketers, mobile video marketing is the exploitation of mobile features, such as geolocation or augmented reality, to promote products or services.
For me, however, it is the idea that a creative campaign should be produced organically, that is from a tool that all people have in their pocket.
1. It’s not the features, it’s the habits
The difference in my approach is that everyone has a smartphone, but very few have the time and desire to exploit its full functionality.
So my focus is not how people might use their smartphones, but how they actually use them.
3. Deliver value, not products
Finally, there is the need to reconcile the mass use of these technologies with the very raison d’être of marketing. Which is to communicate value.
Placing and selling products or services is the natural consequence of this communication action.
Whoever forgets this will never do the customer, and therefore marketing, any good.
2. Use your smartphone less, use it better
It is also a question of technological fatigue.
Despite the emphasis of the mobile industry, it is not the fact of using technology that makes people tech savvy.
Not to mention the detrimental effects of using a smartphone too much.
My philosophy is: use your mobile device to develop your creativity, to learn, to become a more active part of your community.
CHOOSE YOUR MOBILE VIDEO MARKETING TOPIC
First, you need to identify your communication goal.
Then, figure out which video solution is the best fit for you.
Finally, start making one smart video every month.