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Is Your Video Targeting the Right Generation?
When it’s time to create your next company video, there are a lot of variables to consider. For example, the purpose of your content. Are you trying to drive brand awareness or directly generate revenue? Another critical question is exactly who you’re targeting. What problems do you solve that you want to highlight in your company video? What target audience needs these problems solved? The answers to these questions should guide every decision you make as you aim to create content that effectively reaches and resonates with your targeted audience.
One of the most important questions you must ask about your target audience is what generation they’re from. Knowing the age of your intended target audience allows you to guess at a number of important concepts, such as the message you’re trying to sell them, their taste in company video content, and where they like to consume video content.
In order to help you make these key decisions for your own videos, here’s some helpful information you need to know about video content and targeting the right generations:
1. Preferred Platform
One of the first decisions you need to make about your company video strategy is where it’s going to live. Generally, people of all generations are now online, but their content viewing habits may vary wildly. YouTube is an excellent case study. 70% of people from Generation Z visit YouTube at least once per day, while only 49% of Generation Y and 35% of Generation X do. Over 30% of Generation X visited YouTube several times a month or less, while only 9% of Generation Z visited YouTube several times per month or less.
Facebook is a slightly different story. The youngest generation doesn’t use Facebook as often as older generations do. The age groups with the highest amount of U.S. Facebook users are 25 to 34 with 52.82 million, followed by 35 to 44 with 38.42. 18 to 24 is in third place with 38.25, and 45 to 54 is in fourth with 32.34. Essentially, you’re going to reach just as many Baby Boomers and people from Generation X as you will people from Generation Z.
Finally, you may consider other, newer, video platforms such as Snapchat. As you would expect, these platforms trend quite strongly to younger generations. If you’re trying to reach a more mature audience, your best bet is using social media platforms that have been around for a bit longer.
2. Tastes in Content
Generations don’t just vary on their platform preference, they also vary on the type of content that they prefer to watch. The same survey that asked people of different ages how often they like to use YouTube also asked them what type of content they prefer to watch on YouTube. The results were quite interesting:
- Generation X preferred to watch how-to videos and music videos. They watched more educational videos than any other generation.
- Generation Y preferred to watch how-to videos, but also watched unboxing and haul videos. They watched more workout videos than any other generation.
- Generation Z preferred to watch unboxing and haul videos. They watched more vlogs and style collection videos than any other generation.
- Viewers of all generations enjoyed watching product review videos.
In order to really capture your audience’s attention, it’s important to recognize what type of content they prefer. Older generations prefer something more informative, while the youngest generation prefers to focus on more experiential content. If you want to create something that reaches everybody, product review videos will be hard to beat.
3. Overall Message
Finally, you’ll want to consider exactly who each generation is and what’s important to them in order to craft your overall message to them:
- Baby Boomers – hold traditional values dear to them but also value the concept of youth, something they are trying to hold onto.
- Generation X – like Baby Boomers, they grew up in a time where technology wasn’t as widespread as it is today. They value information and the opportunity to improve themselves and provide feedback.
- Generation Y – having grown up in a time of rapid technological advances, they are extremely comfortable with modern technology and value speed above all things.
Take the time to carefully consider your audience’s generation and what they’re going to care about. Craft your message to appeal to their specific problems and values and you’ll see strong engagement.
4. Is Video the Appropriate Delivery Method?
The most important question to ask yourself about your target audience’s generation is whether or not making a company video is the right use of your time and budget. In the fourth quarter of 2016, for example, the average American 65 years or older watched 499 minutes of video each month. The average 18 to 24-year-old, however, watched an average of 1,949 minutes of video each month.
This means you should take the time to make sure that video is the proper content format for the message you’re trying to deliver to your audience. If you need to reach everybody in an older demographic, you will need to do everything you can to grab their attention since they don’t spend as much time watching online video. If you’re targeting a younger generation, you should feel much more comfortable that you’ll see quick results.
It’s important to make sure that video is the appropriate way to deliver your message to your intended audience.
No matter which generation you’re targeting, a professional crew can help make sure every company video you shoot is high-quality. And Crews Control makes sure you always find the right crew for the project, no matter how big or small it is, and no matter where in the world you need it shot. To get started, all you have to do is click here and we’ll send you a completely free quote!
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