People would rather read an ad than listen to it

Publication date: 10 June 2019

People increasingly watch video with the sound off. According to a survey conducted by Verizon Media and Publicis Media, every fourth of the surveyed watches video with no sound in public areas, and two in three respondents do so even in private. The overwhelming majority of respondents don’t have a hearing impairment. Meanwhile, advertisers work actively with sound and constantly introduce new techniques: jingles, audio branding, etc. Is it all in vain? To answer this question, we should understand why people prefer watching video with no sound.

• Find out which formats are among leaders in the ad market.

Why is silence needed?

There are only two main reasons for watching with the sound off. First, people do not want to bother others. Second, they do not want to be distracted while multitasking. The first reason is more common as seen on the diagram below.

What are the top reasons for watching video without sound?

But when people turn sound off, what can take its role? Captions! 80% of respondents say they are more likely to watch a video when captions are available. What type of content has the highest captioning expectations among viewers?

In what types of video content do viewers expect to see captions?

Consumers are more likely to remember ads with captions

Captions are added not only to please the viewer. Better ad performance can be achieved by coupling audio and captioning capabilities. For example, captions that appear in mobile videos within the first few seconds positively impact ad performance. As a result, advertisers get a lift in both ad recall and brand linkage.

How do advertisers benefit when captions are added to mobile video ads?

Though the above-mentioned data were collected in a survey of US residents (5616 respondents in total), general tendencies are most likely to be of universal character. It is well known that trends of the developed Western countries come to Russia within 2-3 years.

What’s new on video ad market in June 2019?

• VKontakte updated video section for mobile devices

VKontakte is testing a new mobile video platform for Android and iOS. In the new version of the section, users will find personalized recommendations, selections of the best videos, and other updates.

The updated video platform has “Popular” and “My videos” tabs with videos that users have added and liked and a “For you” tab with video content that special algorithms have selected with for every user individually. Moreover, users will find selections of various thematic videos.

80 million people watch video on VKontakte monthly. Videos get 650 million views daily, 80% of which come from mobile devices. Live streams on VKontakte are viewed 65 million times daily.

• Google told about its streaming platform

Google has announced Stadia, its new streaming platform, and explained a bit about how it will work. The streaming service will allow people to play video games without purchasing expensive hardware or downloading programs to PCs. Users will be able to play games in 4K resolution at 60 FPS (frames per second).