#6 - GLOBAL TRENDS

 Silent Video Gains Momentum

 

  Video trends have shot to the top of social media charts in terms of marketing, influencers, and content creating. In 2021, 86% of businesses said that they were using video as a marketing tool with 93% saying it is a critical part of their strategy. With this growing video marketing trend, businesses are responding to consumers and playing into the likes of internet and social media users. 

    One global video trend that has taken the world by storm is silent video. Now, when I read some articles about global video trends, I was a little surprised about this one being on so many lists. I thought, "How could that be a trend? It's just people watching videos with no sound." However, it turns out that this is something marketers are specifically playing into in order to boost their views and consumers. This trend is also allowing social media to be more inclusive to those in the hard of hearing/deaf community.

    Right now, it is estimated that around 85% of social media users watch videos with no sound. In addition, 80% of users said they have a negative reaction when a video or ad plays an unexpected sound on their phone or device. A big reason for this is because people are constantly watching video on their smartphones everywhere they go, in public or private. However, 41% of videos are reported to be incomprehensible without sound. This leads to videos being purposefully made in a way that does not need the consumer to hear it and it also leads to another trend that flows out of the silent videos.

                                                             Searches for "video captions"

    Because so many videos need the sound in order to be understood, creators and marketers are now using closed captioning (CC) on their video content. Surveys show that people watched captioned ads for 12% longer than they did videos without captioning. Personally, I have seen how popular CC has become in videos on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. At first, I saw so many videos that talked about how much this captioning helps the hard of hearing and deaf community. While it definitely does exactly that, I have learned that it is also a huge benefit to people watching videos in their non-native language, children and adults learning to read, AND the deaf/hard of hearing community. In addition to helping these people groups, 80% of people have also said that they watch videos with CC because they prefer it and not because of being hard of hearing. 

    Closed captioning/silent video is something that is so common and normal to me but also something that I had never realized was truly a global trend. I watch videos with no sound daily, especially on Facebook and Instagram. I could scroll for hours (probably too many hours) watching videos without ever turning the sound on. Also, although I do not love it, I have many friends who constantly have the captions on while watching streaming services like Netflix or Hulu because they like it. Because of that, it has been extremely interesting to see how that has moved over into the social media world. I think silent videos will be around for a while as consumers respond to them more and businesses continue to utilize them in their marketing strategy. They, along with closed captioning, will also continue helping marginalized communities feel included in social media trends that everyone else is already enjoying.