88% Will Increase Online Video Spending in 2018, Finds Wochit

Video is an essential for today's media companies, brands, and publishers, says a new report. Wochit, which offers an online video creation platform for brands, has released its year-end State of Social Video 2017 report, finding that 88.2 percent of respondents will increase video spending in the coming year.

Not only are brands spending big on online video, but they're big on experimenting with online video. They don't want to offer the same-old same-old that everyone else is doing. They want to be at the forefront. The biggest area for experimentation will be live streaming, Wochit says, followed by 360-degree video and interactive video.

"Live streaming came out as the new video product option that the vast majority—a full 75.0 percent of all participants and an astonishing 82.9 percent of the publisher/media group—wants to experiment with," the report says.

For social video, there's no question that Facebook is the most popular option. That's where 90.8 percent of respondents planned to focus in the coming year. Only two-thirds of those questions planned to devote efforts to YouTube, a low figure that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. Instagram is a far bigger target for companies than Snapchat: 61 percent will focus on Instagram, but only 17.7 percent on Snapchat.

Wochit also looked at obstacles companies expect to face in 2018, and the biggest one is the resources it takes to create video. Of those surveyed, 69.5 percent complained about the time and energy need to create effective video. The next biggest challenges were figuring out video ROI, defining a video strategy, and optimizing videos for various social networks.

"Skills, equipment, and time are among the most challenging obstacles. We need to be able to create high quality video with minimal equipment quickly," said Sean Heisey of the York Daily Record.

Wochit got its results by surveying 348 publishers, media companies, brands, agencies, and other video creators. For more on video creation in the year ahead, download The State and Future of Social Video for free (registration required).

Troy Dreier's article first appeared on OnlineVideo.net