Content Strategy

What happened Gear Patrol's editorial team organized a marathon in honour of the coming TCS NYC Marathon, which is scheduled to hold on November 3, 2019. The 16-crew marathon was filmed and distributed across various social media platforms, such as; YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, IG TV, and Twitter. Why it matters The importance of video distribution cannot be overemphasized. Videos increase engagement on social media handles and drive more traffic to sites. According to 99 Firms, ‘87% of B2B marketers use social media to distribute content'. This story breaks down one of the most important aspects of Gear Patrol’s video distribution strategy that contributed to their success during the award-winning Running Paris video campaign and the recent Running New York video campaign. Digging deeper While the population of internet users watching videos from their mobile phones is on the rise, a significant number of viewers still access Youtube or IGTV from their personal computers. The percentage of Youtube viewers using desktop is higher compared to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat. However, Youtube changes the aspect ratio of videos based on the device and video format. In line withYoutube guidelines, ‘The standard aspect ratio for YouTube on a desktop is 16:9. If your video has a different aspect ratio, the player will automatically change to the ideal size to match your video and the viewer’s device. For some combinations of video and device aspects ratios, such as 9:16 vertical videos on desktop browsers, YouTube may add additional padding for optimal viewing. The padding is white by default, and dark grey when Dark theme is turned on.’ The Gear Patrol team understood the essence of using separate video formats for distribution and used it to their advantage, however, their choice of video width and height is flexible and depends on the media platform. For instance, the Youtube version is a horizontal video while the Instagram snippet is a vertical video. Companies that have more audience on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat are advised to shoot vertical videos, instead of horizontal videos. A vertical video, which is also called portrait mode video, is suitable for mobile viewers while the reverse is true for horizontal videos. In vertical videos, the height is longer than the width; however, the commonest aspect ratio for vertical videos is 9:16. There are two ways of making vertical videos — turning the camera vertically or cropping a horizontal video. The major downside of cropping a horizontal video is quality reduction. Bottom line The flexibility of Gear Patrol video distribution retained the video quality throughout all their social media handles. When it comes to online video distribution, using the wrong aspect ratio could reduce video quality.