0 Opinion Last Christmas saw some of the most compelling and creative story-driven advertising ever. Now every video marketer is asking the same question: How do I engage consumers with soundless video? Consumers want control Mobile video is a thoroughly modern trend. Adding subtitles allows users to experience the content they are viewing in full, wherever they are, even when their device is set to “sound-off”. With surveys in two key markets – entertainment and FMCG – suggesting that control is highly important to most people, especially when using their phones. So while creative teams or brands might consider subtitles to be intrusive, that matters so much less in the mind of the consumer than being ‘that’ person on the train. Importantly, it’s not just in user experience where research is showing subtitling to be an effective addition to mobile video marketing. KPIs before captions Overall, the AdColony research found that subtitled advertising just about outperformed non-subtitled across all focus areas for the companies tested. As well as for campaigns aimed at communicating a key product feature, on which subtitles pushed the creative to fare 12.1 percentage points better generally, and helped 23 percentage points more people understand a manufacturer’s core message about the superior technology they use. Clear messaging The fact that subtitles can help campaigns hit their KPIs is obviously noteworthy from a media planning point of view.
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Opinion Last Christmas saw some of the most compelling and creative story-driven advertising ever. H&M enlisted Wes Anderson. John Lewis broke away from sentimentality and embraced humour. And Burberry paid big money to get Hollywood A-list actors to tell the story of their founder. Yet, while many of these adverts would have been watched on TV, an unprecedented number of views (and repeat views) were online, on mobile, and without sound. For many brands, that’s a problem. Now every video marketer is asking the same question: How do I engage consumers with soundless video?
Understandably, given how much work goes into creating impactful videos, many brands have been reluctant to subtitle, preferring instead to auto-play sound, or just hope that the visual approach interests consumers enough to act. Some marketers don’t want to compromise their creative work, while others may not even have considered that many users have their devices set to silent, thus negating the impact of that beautiful backing track or informative voice-over.
However, new research from AdColony and Kantar Millward Brown has now revealed that the best way to circumnavigate the problem of ‘sound-off viewing’ is to subtitle it. Confirming to marketers everywhere what they really already knew: if you want to engage people, talk to them.
Consumers want control
Mobile video is a thoroughly modern trend. It’s quick, it’s compelling and it taps into the contemporary appetite for rich media over static imagery. With the best will in the world, subtitles are not necessarily modern. They hark back to a world of Teletext, rather than forward to one of VR. So it’s no surprise that many are a little unsure about using them.
But the fact is that many mobile viewers are happy to watch content without listening to it. And while that’s fine for 11-second football clips, or videos of cats knocking things over, for a visual that depends on an accompanying audio story to be understood, it’s a different matter. Just think of that H&M example. With sound, it’s a funny and engaging Christmas story from one of the world’s most celebrated filmmakers. Without sound, it’s Adrien Brody running around a train.
Moreover, subtitling mobile content addresses one of the main drivers behind people setting their devices to silent – avoiding disturbing those around them. There’s nothing more embarrassing than…
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