Getting Comms Right

If the recent pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that online video content truly has the power to bring people together. With thousands of viewers tuning into the likes of Joe Wicks’s virtual workouts or live-streamed performances from the National Theatre, video has become an essential tool for engaging with the public in the age of lockdown.

In PR, video is also an excellent way to add value and extend the reach of press campaigns. At Templemere, we’ve been working closely with our clients to create video news stories to accompany outgoing press releases, which has brought a number of benefits.

For one, these offer additional opportunities for better, broader news coverage. Our media use video on their sites and social channels, and video content from our clients has been very well received.

At the same time, as attention spans get shorter and shorter (the average human attention span has reduced from 12 seconds in 2000 to eight seconds today, according to a Microsoft study), video press releases provide an ideal way to get client messages across. Video means we can present the key facts of a story in a clear and concise manner, in an easily-digestible format that helps build greater engagement with audiences. In fact, studies have shown that viewers retain 95% of a message when watching a video, compared to just 10% when reading from text.

As more people choose to receive information via online channels, it makes sense for PR teams to increase their time and investment in video content to strengthen their client communications. And with a recent Ofcom study finding UK adults are spending over six hours a day watching online videos and TV during lockdown, now has never been a better time to start.