ROVI – Return on Video Investment is a phrase you may well have come across before, but if you haven’t, don’t worry, because you will soon notice it everywhere.
At its simplest level, ROVI is exactly what it sounds like – the return you will get from investing in video production to market and sell your product or service.
“But” we hear you say, “that’s just ROI spent on video” to which our answer is, ambiguously, both yes and no.
It is absolutely that – but it represents so much more as well. Allow us to explain ourselves in more detail.
Using the phrase ROVI enables special focus
Return on Video Investment is a subset of your overall ROI for marketing and promotion, but it should be viewed separately.
This is why thinking in terms of ROVI is beneficial, as opposed to just your overall return on marketing investment, as it helps keep in mind the special benefits that video offers to your overall marketing strategy, that nothing else does. It helps keep you focused on what is most important.
Video is unquestionably the most powerful marketing tool we now have, and it is vital that we fully understand this. The details will be different for every business, of course, but the common ground is that it is no longer enough to view video as just a part of your marketing. Yes, it needs to fit into your overall marketing strategy, but in many arenas, we are at a tipping point, where trying to market without video almost guarantees failure.
As you will discover, there are now really only two successful states of video marketing:
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- Those who do not already use video but are soon to do so.
- Those who are already using video and are moving towards using it more.
This is because ROVI is huge.
Anyone who has tried video marketing has learned this lesson already – that, done correctly, the ROVI is always worthwhile (note the emphasis on the word correctly).
Everyone else who does not currently use video is already thinking about it because they can see the difference it makes to their competition.
If you are in the minority of the few who do not fit into either of these groups, then you need to keep reading.
Watch your ROVI – it’s a bit of an eye-opener
As well as keeping you focused on the importance of video as a marketing tool, there is another excellent reason for tracking your ROVI.
It allows you to compare it to the ROI you get from your other forms of marketing.
Pound for pound, the return on investment you get from video is massive, compared to other marketing tools
We are visual beings – 90% of the information transmitted to the human brain is visual; for almost all of us we live in a visual world and are attracted (and distracted) by visual stimulus above anything else.
Whether we are scrolling through Facebook, looking through Instagram or reading through our Twitter feed – when a video pops up we take notice of it, either consciously or even subconsciously.
The moving image taps into a different part of our brain to other visual stimulus and gets our attention like nothing else.
Away from our mobile and computer screens, it is the same story. Imagine yourself reading a book and out of the corner of your eye, you notice a movement.
What is the first thing you do? You look, of course, to see what it is!
This is primal programming leftover from a time when human survival depended day to day on being aware of dangers all around.
What video taps into, for a few seconds at least, is the same mechanism, which is why video can get attention in a way that text, or even photographs, cannot. We are hard-wired to pay attention.
Video is – literally – an eye-opener.
And so is your ROVI, once you start to track and compare it to your other marketing formats.
Remember that where both video and text information are available on a page, 72% of people would rather learn about your product or service from watching the video.
79% of consumers say that a brand video has convinced them to buy an app or software package (Wysowl).
Can you say the same for a marketing email you have used, or a static landing page on your website?
Marketers are using video more and more because it works
When surveyed, 99% of marketers who use video plan to continue using it.
As an example, many people already know the story of the Dollar Shave Club – if you don’t, you’ll find it at the end of this piece about the Top 25 eCommerce Startups.
Here’s another great example of how video can capture the attention and captivate – far more than just text and photos ever could. Watch this 60-second video and then think about how much more difficult it would be to engage on the same topic with just a couple of still images:
So why does video have such an impact?
Simple – as we have already mentioned, we are predominantly visual communicators. 80% of people remember what they see, compared to just 10% of what they hear and only 20% of what they read. (Sadly, that includes you reading this article, so may we politely suggest you bookmark it so you can easily come back to it later?)
So to sum up this section – track your non-video marketing ROI for a while, and track your ROVI separately.
Then do the maths, compare the two, and prove the ROVI case for yourself.
Right now, Splento is researching the impact of using 360 product video for eCommerce stores. If you currently sell through an eCommerce platform and want to be a part of this trial (including getting a free 360 video), then you can find more details here.
Video marketing is a moving target – ROVI helps you keep track
Video marketing is constantly shifting and changing form.
A year ago, you could make the case for Facebook ads being the prime spot for many markets for video marketing; today, you could argue that this is no longer true and your marketing budget will be better spent on Instagram Reels, TikTok or even YouTube.
Tracking your ROVI across different platforms will help you keep on top of what’s hot and what’s not.
The beauty of video as a marketing tool – and what makes it the most cost-efficient method of marketing – is its flexibility.
Stop here for a moment, and imagine that you had produced a video that had run successfully as an advert on Facebook for months, but then you began to experience a drop-off in conversions.
You conduct some market research and discover that your focus should now be on another platform, say, Instagram. This requires a different length video, in a different format.
Reshooting or producing a new advert costs. But the beauty of video is that you may not need to – simply take the footage you already have, recut it, maybe produce some fresh titles and you now have your advert created for your new campaign, on the new platform.
Video allows you far more flexibility and creativity than other marketing forms – and this translates into lower costs.
In the hands of a competent company, video is the most cost-effective of all visual content marketing.
But even as platform preference is shifting, so are consumer habits.
Due, in part, to the various lockdowns and unusual experiences of 2020/2021, even the way video is consumed in the home is changing.
According to a recent ComScore report, 72% of households with wireless internet now stream video on their connected TV screens.
In the USA, every month, over 100 million people watch YouTube videos and YouTube TV on their regular TV screens.
Think with Google goes on to say that “The streaming landscape is filled with opportunities to reach the audiences you care about. In a time when media spend needs to stretch farther than ever, ensuring that your advertising strategy reaches the audiences you care about in the places they are can help drive real results for your business.”
Whereas sudden shifts in the customer base can spell disaster for more traditional marketing methods, in the world of video marketing, every change or shift in consumer whim represents a new way to reach out to them.
And as video is so fast and responsive to change (as we have seen above), swings in consumer trends such as these are no longer an expensive problem – they are an opportunity for you to capture a larger market share.
But – at the risk of repeating ourselves – to know this you need to have your finger on the pulse, and that means keeping a close eye on ROVI.
While we are on the subject of changing consumer trends, it is worth mentioning one more important point.
At the time of writing, May 2021, many parts of the world are emerging from the 2020/2021 global lockdown and returning to bricks and mortar shopping, after a year of doing most things online.
Whilst many will have permanently altered their shopping habits (meaning your online marketing needs to remain in peak fitness), even those who are returning to the High Street are displaying interesting changes of behaviour.
We’ll mention just one here – according to Google, more than 55% of shoppers are now using online video while actually shopping in a store.
This is not to be ignored; it means that the new habits and shopping traits consumers acquired under lockdown may well be here to stay – and that means an increased reliance on online advertising, product reviews, testimonials, product options and so on.
All these can be online, on video and on their mobile device while they shop. And that gives you access to some incredible new tools for market engagement that you have not had before.
How does that sound for a return on your video investment?
More ROVI good news
And the good news doesn’t end there!
The latest data demonstrates two more shifts in behaviour:
First, the prediction that consumers will spend an average of 100 minutes per day watching online videos in 2021 (19% up from 2019).
Second, the average length of online video, including adverts and other marketing formats, is trending shorter each year. In 2017, this figure was around 6 minutes; in 2018, around 4 minutes.
Today, many video marketers would agree that your video content should run for 3 minutes or less – in some cases, 30 seconds is enough.
Shorter video lengths for the same gains means one thing – increased ROVI.
According to Rocketium, in a recent survey, 95% of B2B buyers said that they wanted shorter and highly visual content.
Even more ROVI good news
There’s more? Well, yes.
From time to time, various forces come together in business and create the perfect ‘sweet spot’ for an event, and for video marketing, we are currently in one of those times.
Investopedia defines a sweet spot as the point at which an indicator or policy provides the optimal balance of costs and benefits.
The time for investing in video marketing is now, simply because it has never been so in demand by the consumer, nor so cheap to create.
And now add to this the fact that, currently, only 66% of B2C companies use video in their marketing.
This means that, by using the most cost-effective and impactful marketing tool available, you automatically place yourself above at least a third of your competitors, regardless of the success of the campaign.
Having a well-planned, high-quality video marketing strategy then improves the odds even further, but you are starting from a strong foundation, just by starting.
Conclusion
The key takeaways from all this are quite straightforward:
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- Consumers love video
- Video is the most cost-effective marketing tool available
- Much of your competition are not currently using it
- You need high-quality, short video
- If times are tough, you can afford to drop your marketing budget, but not your video marketing budget
- Done professionally, your ROVI will outperform your other marketing ROI every time
ROVI needs to be in a class of its own – because it is.
There are so many options today for making video, for making video more cost-effective and for spreading the costs (meaning you start to see ROVI immediately) that you may be left with some questions still unanswered.
If you have any questions, or comments, about anything discussed on this page – we’d love to hear from you!
Contact Splento directly here, today – or fill in the form below and we will get in touch.
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