Trends Regarding the Popularity of Video Ads in 2016

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Video ads have been rising in popularity and use for the past few years, the trend steadily rising at first and then shooting up. And, considering how visual today’s audiences are, it’s actually no surprise that video ads are only rising in popularity – and that they will continue to do remarkably well, especially in the year of 2016.

Hence, if you’re in any position that is related to decision-making or strategizing in the marketing and advertising realm, expect video ads to be a big part of your strategizing in 2016 – no matter what industry, sector, or business you might be in the position to market, and no matter whether it’s online and/or offline.

So, when it comes to video ads in 2016, here are the trends you should keep an eye on:

1)Video ads are on the rise
Video ads – whether you’re talking about TV ads or Internet video ads – are on the rise. In fact, it’s practically a demand now that marketers and advertisers have video ads as part of their campaign. The current audiences are much more visually stimulated. And hence, they’re more likely to pay attention to video ads than any other medium right now. Now, the production and reach of video ads – both online and offline – have been on a rising trend for a while now. And this upward trend is only looking to be more prominent than ever in 2016.

2)The focus and budget for TV ads will shift from television to digital
The old trend was that TV was the best medium to promote video ads no matter the subject-matter. However, with the rise of the Internet – that easily facilitates all media of advertising – and with more and more audiences using the World Wide Web, marketers and advertisers are more likely in 2016 to focus more on video ads on the digital sphere (i.e., on the Internet) than on TV. One main reason for this is, of course, the vast numbers of Internet audiences who are visually inclined. The other reasons though, is that creating and finding ad slots and platforms for videos online is a whole lot easier, more versatile, and much, much more inexpensive than it is to buy and use a TV ad slot.

3)Video ads will dominate in 2016
With the popularity of videos and the positive reactions of the masses online to marketing, how-to, and ad videos, it is little wonder that 2016 will be seeing video ads dominate in the advertising sphere – especially online. Marketers are allotting a more generous budget for video ads, and more and more people online are accepting video ads. In fact, video ads are such a trend right now that they’re popping up everywhere and not just in video hosting sites like YouTube. In fact, the number of ads that can be skipped on such video hosting sites as well are actually reducing, and that has not deterred users from either the ads or the videos they were trying to watch in the first place. All in all, the trend of videos dominating is so prominent that, now, marketers can’t afford not to use video ads.

How To Choose The Right Kind of Voice Over For Your Explainer Video

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Audio works on a slightly more subconscious level than video does – meaning that it isn’t as obvious how it influences a message. But, the tone, the voice, the accent, and audio effects and background audio all play a key role in how effective and well-received your explainer video will be. And, as the voice over (VO) is one audio aspect that most explainer videos simply can’t do without, we’re going to focus on choosing the voice for your video. For, an explainer video can bomb with your audience if you choose the wrong kind of VO for it – no matter how great your video is.

So, to avoid that scenario, here’s how you can choose the right kind of voice over for your explainer video:

View things from your target market’s point of view:
First and foremost, you need to understand what your target market is and what appeals to your target audience. For this, you’ll need to stand on the same side as the market you’re trying to reach and connect with your video and look at things from their side.
The main goal here is that, if you understand what appeals to your target audience, you will understand what kind of voice over(s) will best appeal to your target audience.

Pick the right voice accent and language
Depending on the geographical location of your target audience, and the primary language that the demographics of your target audience engages with, you’ll need to pick a voice over artist that knows the language well and also have the appropriate accent that will best appeal to the target audience. Don’t underestimate how much a familiar accent will engage the audience with the video.
Plus, even more than the accent, make sure your voice over artist has good pronunciation, pacing, and voice control (in the language of the video). Also, if your target audience stretches over more than one language, it’ll be a good idea to have videos with voice overs in all those languages as well. More than anything, the voice over should appeal to your target audience. And the correctness of the VO and the audience’s familiarity with the VO will go a long way in making your explainer video appealing to your audience.

Match the tone of the VO to the tone you want to represent your business
Is your video meant to shed a formal, emotional, humorous, or carefree light on your business? What kind of appeal and tone are you trying to evoke with your target audience? How do you want them to see your business and feel about it?
Depending on your answers to the above questions, you should accordingly choose the right tone of voice you want for your video. In fact, after you’ve made your choice, pick a couple of videos that match the tone you want for your own video and send them to the voice artist so that he or she knows what you’re looking for. Then, don’t stop with one take of the voice over recording for your video. If you’re not satisfied, go for multiple voice over recordings until you get the right tone for the video. Remember, the voice over represents the business in the minds of the target viewers just as much as the video does.

Everything You Need To Get Started in User Experience Design

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Websites that exist today are not just about showcasing the products and services, but over the period of the last few years, they have evolved to become a medium of business growth for their owners. With all this complexity involved in how websites look and function today, the popularity of user experience (UX) has also grown significantly.

UX design, however, is not just limited to websites, despite the major impact that the latter has on it. In fact, UX design also applies to tangible products and software, and UX designers play a major role in designing such products.

We’re sure you must have seen a job posting regarding the requirement of on a UX designer. But, what exactly is a UX designer and what do they do? Before answering that, it is important to know what a UX design practically is.

UX Design: An Introduction

UX design is all about simplicity – how simple, convenient and enjoyable the navigation experience is for a visitor, user or a consumer. It’s the art of making things easy, so that they can be enjoyed on the go. Moreover, it is a “silent” art – while the user gets to reap the benefit of a great UX design, he or she does not get to see the exact effort that goes into creating a user-friendly product that offers a great design.

Confusing navigation, poorly designed forms and information overload on a specific page of a website are example of a poor UX design. The role of the UX designer here is to create a final intuitive product that is enjoyable from a customer’s perspective, while retaining all the major functionalities within the budget specified by the client.

Who Is A Good UX Designer?

A typical UX designer must have an eye for functionality and the ability to see what would please the eyes of the visitor or a perspective customer. Some industry experts believe a UX designer to be a mix of a writer, scientist, software engineer and an artist.

However, the fact is that a UX designer’s job primarily involves listening to the needs of the client. It’s about listening and observing, before making good design decisions.

But, merely stating that you have great listening skills won’t fetch you a job of a UX designer. You must, in addition, have a set of technical qualifications for the job.

For example, the candidate should have fair knowledge of JavaScript, visual design, Adobe photoshop, user interface design and prototyping. In addition, a majority of jobs demand HTML5, usability testing, information architecture, conceptual development and Website design skills as their basic requirement for the job.

UX Designer: The Career Path

The job of a UX designer was once not so popular. However, today, it has emerged as a formal career field.

According to the experts in this field, naturally having the enthusiasm to figure out why one design works better than the other acts as a natural catalyst while working on the projects. More importantly, it is necessary for the UX designers to see how customers are interacting with their product. This not only helps generate an interest in the field, but also helps UX designers grow themselves in their career.

Your Guide to Writing Great Scripts for Explainer Videos

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Videos are the dominating media right now in the online marketing realm. And, out of all the types of video clips that are found online, explainer videos easily make the top of the popularity list. With their combination of storytelling styles and with the aim to convey useful information and how-tos to their target audience, explainer videos have garnered massive public appeal for a variety of businesses. And, with the World Wide Web being an “information” powerhouse first and foremost, even search engines look favorably on explainer videos more than any other kind of video there is.

However, as great as explainer videos are, your business is going to need a sold script as the base of your video. And here are some guidelines on how you can create a great script for your business’s explainer video:

Research and analyse your business:
You’ll need to research and analyse your business model from every angle to see how you can use it for your explainer video. See which angle you can pick for your main theme. After all, you need to see what will interest and benefit your target audience most with this video. Also, check out other related businesses and their videos to see what angles they have used. (Mind, this part is mainly for research purposes so you can get an idea how to go about it.) Your explainer video needs to be informative and original above all else, though. So customize your business model to suit a great concept for an explainer video.

Understand what your audience wants and needs:
Now, remember that this video will be hopeless if it’s created from your point of you. No. What you need to do is figure out your target audience and then look at it from their point of view: What will your target audience find interesting and/or useful? How can your explainer video connect with them? What are their main interests? What are their needs, and which of them can you fulfil, and how?
These are the questions you need to find answers to for your explainer video. And it’s one or more of these answers that will form the solid foundation for your video’s script.

Pick a theme for your story and focus on the benefits:
Even explainer videos are stories. And you’ll need to pick a concept or overall theme for your storyline in the video that will attract your target audience. For instance, humor is always a good theme. So is emotion. Or else, you can even choose a more popular theme that’s in trend right now. (For instance, Star Wars themed videos.) And then, once you’ve picked a theme, you need to be careful that you focus on the benefits of your business and not just its features. For, the target audience will be more interested in the advantages they can gain from your business and product. The features, though, are more or less par for the course.

Keep these three essential points in mind while you sculpt a script and storyline for your explainer video, and you’ll be much more likely to experience success.

7 Easy Tips For Designing Effective Animated GIFs For Your Website

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Animated GIFs are pure marketing goldmines. You have the visual dynamics of a video on your site that is a fraction of the size an actual video or animation would have been. But, you probably already know how great animated GIFs are and that’s why you’re here in the first place. Well then, here are seven great tips you should keep in mind when you design animated GIFs for your site:

Tip 1: Start out your animated GIFs as videos
To make your life a whole lot easier, when you’re creating an animated GIF, first create it as a video. (Practically any video editing and publishing software will do here.) And then, once your video is complete and ready, import it into Photoshop via the command File -> Import -> Video -> Frames As Layers.

Tip 2: Cut down on the colors in your animated GIF
Remember that, with an animated GIF, you don’t really need to have a lot of intricate colors to make your point. In fact, limit the colors you use in an animated GIF. It will not only greatly help you in reducing the file size of the animated GIF, but it will also give you the consequent benefit of adding more actual content in your GIF without creating a monster of a file that doesn’t load on your site quickly enough.

Tip 3: Motion blur adds more pizazz to your animated GIF
If there’s going to be quick movements in your animated GIF, use motion blur whenever possible. For this has two uses: One, it actually makes the object look like its moving faster than it actually is and thus looks very professional. And two, it can help you cover up dropped frames and make the animation look really smooth.

Tip 4: Simple animated GIFs are the best
One key factor of the animated GIFs is that they run on a short duration of time. Plus, they often move fast and are on a constant loop. Hence, don’t go overboard with what you put into the GIF. You don’t need a thousand elements going into your 5-second GIF; a few that makes your point will do. Minimalistic is the mode to go when you’re designing animated GIFs.

Tip 5: Drop frames – especially duplicate frames
Where possible, reduce your file size. And one way to do that is to simply lower your frame rate and delete as many frames in the animation as you can.

Tip 6: Cut down on the colors when saving the final file
Yes, you’ve already used a limited number of colors on your GIF. Great. Now cut them down further in your “Colors” setting when you save the final file in Photoshop. Just make sure the GIF looks good enough with the minimum colors posible, and you’re good to go.

Tip 7: Keep your “Lossy” between 1 and 10
When you’re saving the final GIF in Photoshop, pick a value between 1 and 10 in the “Lossy” setting in Photoshop. It’ll further lower your file-size without ruining your GIF. Optimally, try to keep your animated GIFs within the file-size of 1MB.