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The Rise of Short-Form Videos: How to Leverage Platforms like TikTok & Instagram Reels

By Marketing, V-Blog

In recent years, short-form videos have taken the digital world by storm, revolutionising the way we consume and engage with content. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels have become immensely popular, attracting millions of users who crave bite-sized, entertaining videos. As masters in video marketing, we’re about to explore the rise of short-form videos and uncover some strategies to leverage these platforms for maximum reach and engagement.

Short-form videos offer a unique opportunity to captivate audiences with concise and visually appealing content. Their quick and engaging nature makes them ideal for capturing attention in such a fast-paced digital landscape, enabling businesses to effectively convey their brand message and connect with a younger, highly active audience.

To succeed in this realm of short-form videos, it’s essential to embrace creativity and authenticity. These platforms encourage users to showcase their unique personalities and talents, providing an opportunity for businesses to exhibit their brand’s human side. By creating original and relatable content, brands can establish an emotional connection with their target audience, fostering brand loyalty and trust.

While TikTok and Instagram Reels share similarities, it’s important to tailor content to each platform’s specific audience and format. TikTok thrives on trending challenges, viral dances, and comedic sketches, while Instagram Reels caters more to polished and visually stunning content. By understanding the nuances of each platform, businesses can create content that resonates with their target audience and maximises engagement.

Hashtags and trends play a crucial role in increasing the visibility of short-form videos. By utilising popular hashtags related to your industry or current trends, you can boost the discoverability of your content and attract a wider audience. It’s important to research and stay updated on trending topics and incorporate them into your videos to ride the wave of viral content.

It’s a no-brainer that influencer marketing has become an integral part of short-form video strategies. Collaborating with influencers who have a significant following on TikTok or Instagram Reels can exponentially increase your brand’s reach and exposure. Partnering with influencers who align with your own brand values and target audience can help you tap into their established fanbase and create engaging content that resonates with their followers.

To continually improve your short-form video strategy, it’s crucial to analyze metrics and iterate based on the data. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels provide valuable insights into video views, likes, comments, and shares. By monitoring these metrics, businesses can identify what content resonates the most with their audience and refine their approach to drive better results.

Not sure how to leverage the power of short-form videos?
Contact us at [email protected]  and let us guide you to viral success!

Sustainability: Empower Your Brand, Empower the Planet

By Marketing, V-Blog

In such a fast-paced, environmentally conscious world, sustainability has emerged as a crucial consideration for businesses across various industries. As consumers continue to prioritise ethical and eco-friendly practices, highlighting sustainability in marketing campaigns has become crucial.

One exemplary brand that seamlessly integrates sustainability into its marketing strategy and brand values is Dilmah: a renowned tea company with a deep commitment to social and environmental responsibility that our team had the pleasure to work with.

Portraying a purposeful brand image isn’t just about promoting products or services; it’s about embracing values that resonate with consumers. By embracing sustainability, companies like Dilmah communicate their values and engage consumers who share similar concerns, namely social well-being and the environment.

All of the content calendars that we created for Dilmah’s local social media pages highlight the brand’s commitment to sustainability. From the tea gardens to their production process, the company is big on ethical sourcing, fair trade, and eco-friendly practices. Even their packaging is sustainable – and our team made sure to demonstrate that to help Dilmah effectively communicate its dedication to sustainability, and how it encourages consumers to make conscious choices.

In order to effectively integrate sustainability into your marketing strategy, you must educate and empower consumers. Dilmah achieves this by showing consumers its efforts to preserve biodiversity, conserve natural resources, and support local communities. Through informative content, social media engagement, and collaborations with environmental organisations, Dilmah empowers consumers to make informed decisions that contribute to a greener future.

In a digital world consumed by marketing messages, there is nothing like authenticity. By integrating sustainability into marketing campaigns, brands like Dilmah create genuine connections with consumers, which helps to build trust and loyalty among one’s target audience.

Highlighting sustainability values is a great way to differentiate your brand in a competitive marketplace. Consumers feel better about making purchases from brands that demonstrate a genuine concern for the planet and society. This is exactly how we made Dilmah stand out from other brands, which enabled them to attract a dedicated customer base which over time fosters long-term relationships built on shared values.

Sustainability in marketing aligns with the triple bottom line approach, which focuses on the economic, environmental, and social impacts of business practices. By highlighting sustainable values, companies like Dilmah exemplify this approach, proving that profitability can coexist with environmental responsibility and social welfare. This holistic approach strengthens their brand reputation and fosters a positive impact on the world.

As sustainability continues to gain traction in society, integrating it into marketing campaigns is no longer an option but a necessity. Dilmah’s exemplary efforts serve as an inspiration for other businesses aiming to prioritise sustainability in their marketing strategies, further linking them to the #SustainableGastronomyDay (18 June) – which celebrates and promotes the importance of sustainable food practices and their impact.

Rising Above The Crowd In Today’s Competitive Market

By Marketing, V-Blog

In today’s fiercely competitive landscape, standing out with your marketing is not just a choice—it’s an imperative. It holds the key to establishing a distinctive brand identity, amplifying visibility, captivating attention, fostering brand equity, attracting the ideal audience, and remaining relevant amidst the ever-evolving consumer preferences. 

To position your brand for long-term success and exponential growth, a multifaceted approach is indispensable. By strategically blending creativity, innovation, audience-centricity, and data-driven insights, you can unlock the true potential of your marketing efforts and propel your brand to new heights

Effective differentiation sparks curiosity, builds trust, and compels consumers to choose your brand over competitors. It’s the secret ingredient that fuels recognition, fuels customer loyalty, and drives your brand towards long-term growth. It’s the art of carving a distinct identity that sets you apart from the crowd.   

Through carefully crafted messaging, innovative campaigns, and unique value propositions, you can create a powerful narrative that resonates with consumers. By highlighting your brand’s own authentic story, exceptional qualities, and unparalleled offerings, you establish an emotional connection that goes beyond transactional relationships. 

To forge an unbreakable bond with your audience, you must delve deep into the intricate fabric of their desires, aspirations, and pain points. By unravelling these insights, you can unlock the key to creating strategies that resonate with your audience on a more profound level. With empathy as your compass, you can craft personalised experiences that speak directly to their hearts, making them feel seen, understood, and valued. 

Never be afraid to think outside the box to generate fresh ideas and innovative approaches. Dare to defy the status quo and venture into uncharted territories of imagination. With creative and impactful marketing campaigns, you can capture attention, evoke emotions, and leave a lasting impression, ascending your brand to new heights.

Optimising your online presence is essential in this day and age. By embracing your social media platforms and online presence, you unlock a multitude of benefits. Expand your visibility to a broader audience, fortify brand credibility, foster unwavering customer loyalty, and unlock the power of measurable results and data-driven decision-making.

Create a consistent and unified brand identity across all touchpoints: harmonising messaging, visuals, and the overall brand experience to align with your core values and captivate your target audience. This deliberate consistency cultivates deep brand recall and ensures customer loyalty.

Stay updated with the latest marketing trends, strategies, and technologies with thorough research. Propel your growth by investing in professional development, immersing yourself in industry conferences, fostering valuable connections, and nurturing a culture of relentless learning within your team. Embrace the transformative power of knowledge and seize every opportunity to elevate your marketing endeavours.

Refine and optimise your marketing campaigns by regularly analysing key performance indicators (KPIs) and using data-driven insights. Continuously adapt to changing market dynamics and refine your strategies to ensure maximum impact.

With the right formula, your brand will shine brightly, captivate audiences, and thrive in the dynamic landscape of modern marketing.  

Not sure how to get started? Contact us on [email protected] 

Marketing Specialist

Counting Down Some Of Our Best Projects Of 2021

By Uncategorized

The VSQUARED team is made up of talented individuals who, through sheer determination and will, come together to create some iconic and creative work that transcends our clients’ businesses to the next level.  From managing social media platforms to providing digital and video marketing services, we’re ranking down some of our best projects for 2021!

CHRISTMAS VIDEO CAMPAIGN FOR MIA

Building on our previous project from last year, we wanted to create a continuation for the Malta International Airport: same boy, same suitcase, but a different narrative… As airports and borders re-open, our clients wanted to remind the public that they can enjoy the thrill of travel once again and at long last, reunite with their loved ones! After coming up with the concept, our talented team utilised everything from creative direction to animation in post-production to bring it – and the adorable suitcases – to life!

VIDEO CAMPAIGN FOR THE POINT WITH SARAH ZERAFA

Transitions, transitions! This wasn’t our first time working with The Point or the queen herself (we’re looking at you, Sosa), and it surely won’t be our last. It all started from the creation of our concept Feel Like A Star and with a little help from our production team, we managed to pull it off!

OXFORD HOUSE REBRAND

One of our biggest projects of the year involved giving Oxford House a brand-new look! From strategy and design, to revamping their hues into a chicer colour palette, we were there for it all. No, seriously! We went beyond digital marketing and delved into the internal processes of the company, like the layout of the showroom, signage, and even the launch event. Above all, though, our talented team was in charge of flaunting their fresh look in a video launch!

GADGETS REBRAND VIDEO LAUNCH

As we always say, we are storytellers, and at the start of fall, VSQUARED was tasked with making its mark on the Gadgets’ audience by bringing the company’s fresh look to life through a captivating rebranding video. Besides a dynamic and tech savvy video led entirely by our team, we were also in charge of creating a cohesive and forceful digital marketing campaign!

THE NEW VICTORIANS’ MUSIC VIDEO

The New Victorians came to us with the idea of re-creating their song-writing experience during the pandemic, confined to the 4 walls of their bedroom. So, we created a visual representation of just that – but here’s a fun fact: the entire music video was filmed in front of a green screen! Yep, it was all post-production… and let’s just say that the numbers speak for themselves – I mean, the video currently has nearly 200,000 views on YouTube!

VIDEO CAMPAIGN FOR GO

If you cuddle up on the sofa with a snack in hand, and a TV remote in the other, every Sunday to tune into the X-Factor, then you’ve probably caught a glimpse of our video campaign for GO! VSQUARED handled the concept creation, creative direction, and set design of the commercial, as well as filming, editing, lighting, and VFX!

The Power Of Video and Social Media

By V-Blog

A few days ago Facebook published a blog about updates towards videos on Facebook. Facebook has come up with a new algorithm, which will give longer videos more credit. The new algorithm will take in account the percentage of completion of videos, since it’s harder for a longer video to get a complete viewing than shorter. This means that longer videos will be pushed a bit more and shorter videos might get sidelined for a while.

This does not mean however, that you can post a 10 minute video of you staring at the camera and it will be on everyone’s news feed. The videos still needs to be compelling to generate as much percentage completion as possible.

Social media videos have become highly popular, so much so that they generate 8 billion views a day on Facebook. Videos engage the audience because they provide information in an easily accessible and entertaining way. People are more likely to stop scrolling their news feed for a video than pretty much anything else, unless it’s a picture of someone they’re currently stalking.

There are various reasons why some videos are more popular than others. Cute animals doing funny things, prank videos by worst boyfriend ever, videos that tag on our heartstrings, what they all have in common is that they evoke some type of emotion from the viewer.
For an advert this can be more difficult since you need to promote your company and a video of a puppy falling asleep, although adorable, won’t really get the message across.

Case Study

V Squared tells… is-serkin

Taking one of our own projects as an example, our first instalment in our V Squared tells series, ‘is-serkin’, reached over 260K people and 110K views and it was all achieved organically. There are various reasons why this video was such a success but the two main factors were timing and the emotions it evoked.

The shop ‘is-Serkin’ has been around a long time and gained popularity for almost never closing during the weekend. People leaving parties at four or five in the morning, would find is-Serkin open and providing some much needed comfort food.

Having our video posted a few days after the Serkin’s owner announced his retirement meant that people were already in the process of reminiscing the good times they had. This made the video become a hot topic and reached 1.6K shares.

The importance of video as part of a marketing campaign seems to be only growing. According to a report by Cisco, this will only increase in the future, predicting that by 2019, video will be generating 80% of the global online traffic.

Are you interested in producing an online video? Send us a message or email us on [email protected] and we’ll have a chat over coffee.

Fresh content is King!

By V-Blog

Having fresh content on your website and social media pages has always been important. However, while in the past this might have been seen as a luxury, nowadays fresh content is a necessity.

Most people will carry out an internet search before even thinking of visiting a store or contacting a company. Not only does fresh content show prospective clients that you keep up with the trends but it also boosts your page to the top of search engines.

In the past, producing one very high quality and high budget video, would last for a few years. However nowadays splitting that budget over a few less budget-consuming videos and producing a video every few months allows the company brand to stay fresh and current.

This doesn’t mean that the video needs to be a low quality video. While having fresh content is important, having interesting and engaging content is always a priority. By having engaging content produced on a regular basis, you create a brand presence and a brand identity. People are more likely to know about your brand. Creating hype and interest, allows you to make a mark in the world, and more importantly in people’s memories.

Would you like to have fresh online content for your website and Facebook page? Send us a message or email us on [email protected] and we’ll have a chat over coffee.

Choosing the right brand story

By V-Blog

Do you remember the good old days at school, when the teacher used to call all the children in the class to form a circle so that s/he tells a story? How did that feel? What was the experience like? All of us get excited to listen to a new story, to learn about a character and engage with that story. A good story gives a brand a voice. This is how you may construct your brand story.

Let’s start with the basics: What is a brand story? A brand story is a complete picture of every element in the Brand’s environment. Every element says something about your brand, be it your logo, the colours, the building or place where your brand is situated, the products or services, the packaging, the staff hired to deliver your product or service, and most importantly your customers. These elements all make up your story. This will allow consumers to perceive your brand according to the way you are presenting it.

WHAT IS YOUR BRAND STORY?

There are four key categories where you can focus your story on. It can be:

1. The Brand’s Founding Story
How did your business come together? And why?

2. Your Customer’s Story
How are customers overcoming a struggle?
What is the solution provided by your product or service?

3. The Employee’s Story
How are your employees growing?
What is their success story?

4. The Sponsorship Story
Who does your brand support? Who does it sponsor?
What Community is your brand part of?

USING THE RIGHT CONTENT IN TELLING YOUR STORY

When writing your brand story it is essential that such story is:

1. Valuable to the customer
Help your customers understand who you are, what you are offering, what are the benefits, how they can make use of these benefits;

2. Relevant to the customer
The story must always target your customer, and must be of interest to them;

3. Constant
Life is never static. Stories must continue to develop and therefore, one story is not enough.

4. Engaging
In the end, you want customers to take action. Make them like, or share your brand; and buy your products or services.

There are various mediums through which you may tell your story. One of the most effective mediums today is video. Video has the capacity to capture your brand story in a way that taps into the right emotion and engages the audience in a way that will make them care about you emotionally and intellectually. It is a very dynamic medium that when it is in the right hands, you will not be disappointed. The below is one example from V Squared’s Portfolio that tells a story the right way.

HOW IT IS DONE…

BARE Sports Promotional Video

Choose the Best Time to Post on Facebook

By V-Blog

Posting on Facebook and engaging users can sometimes feel like a gamble. Fortunately, getting the desired performance from posts on Facebook is not just a matter of luck, but rather, a matter of posting the right content, targeted to the right people, during the right time frame. Here are some tips on what day and time is best to post your content on Facebook and hit the jackpot.

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What We Know

After digging around the Internet and analysing our own data, we have concluded that as a rule of thumb the best time to post on Facebook is:

  • Thursday and Friday at 1–4 p.m
  • Wednesday at 3 p.m.
  • Saturday and Sunday at 12–1 p.m.

The peak time on Facebook is on Wednesdays at 3pm. Mondays and Tuesdays should be avoided as companies see the least amount of engagement and click-throughs on these days. Additionally, the worst time to post on Facebook can be said to be weekends before 8am and after 8pm.

Know your Target Audience

This is the most critical factor for your posts to be successful. Knowing your target audience will help you post at the time when they are browsing on Facebook. Nevertheless, as a starting point it can be said that for B2C organisations, posts published on weekends do better, while for a B2B company, best results are achieved during weekdays working hours.

Test and Track

Keep track of results through Facebook’s Analytics tool and get insights of when posts are doing best. For example, to see when your fans are online go to Insights and click on Posts.

Interested in creating an online marketing campaign but don’t know where to start? Drop us a message or email us on [email protected] and we can have a chat over coffee.
In the meantime, Happy Posting!