What winning video advertising creative looks like in 2024

Are you intrigued by the world of video production and creation in advertising and digital media?

The content development industry has evolved rapidly over the past two decades, fundamentally reshaped by human behavior and social content.

Let’s explore the powerful forces driving its ongoing transformation.

The evolution of video production and creation for advertisers

To create such impactful and rapid change, a set of advancements are needed:

• Technology must evolve quickly.
• A low regulatory bar for projects and companies that test and fail.
• A proven market base to optimize, improve or resume.
• In advertising, the engine doesn’t run unless advertisers are willing to spend money to reach consumers. Advertisers won’t spend if there isn’t an audience to convince or attract.

All of these variables create a torpedo of evolution in digital advertising.

Video production

Initially, video production required what we now consider to be large and very cumbersome tools to deliver an average experience.

Twenty years later, we have a production studio in our pocket and can create content seen by millions in hours, even minutes, thanks to technology, social connections and an engaged audience.

From my perspective, deeply rooted in analyzing client creative and performance outcomes to drive revenue for our agency, I admit that my perspective is very analytical and data-driven, which at in my opinion, is crucial in today’s video and advertising media.

With 17 years of experience in advertising, I remember a time when large creative teams were discussing which spot they would create to air on different TV channels at key times for massive reach.

Fast forward to today. Small teams of three (two founders and a media buying freelancer) review five variations of a FTC (Face To Camera) founder with two main variables: location (car or outdoor) and starting hooks.

Ease of creation has transformed into the ability to test at low cost, with no creative experience needed to deliver a video version capable of generating sales at scale. This change highlights the importance of data analysis in the process, especially for improvement.

Digital advertising has grown, adding more available data as metrics have evolved from TRPs and reach to impressions and clicks, and now shares, earned views, and saves.

Some might say we have too much data to analyze today, but if you can ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) all the necessary details, the brand gains a real advantage. Thus, analytics plays a vital role in video creation, optimization, and production.

3 superb examples of 2024 creations

Here are some of my favorite examples (from Binky, Oreo, and Gathre) of 2024 creatives that performed better than expected or had an inspiring impact on brands creating new ad content:

Across businesses large and small, and in the seven years we’ve been running our own store, I find that brands are leaning heavily towards the tried and true, relying primarily on in-house teams. It’s an addiction that I think will change in the years to come.

Brands will need to expand their creativity across multiple agencies, as continuous testing of content will help drive interest and conversion.

One piece of advice I give to brands that have been around for 8-15 years and have found success thanks to the COVID e-commerce boom is that trying new creative can help reach different generations in different ways.

Gen Z and Alpha consume content differently than Millennials and older generations.

Generation Z, reaching adulthood, holds significant purchasing power despite difficult times. Speaking their language is essential to making an impact and generating conversion. This generation has more experience with social platforms than traditional television, which results in a completely different approach to reaching, convincing and converting these users.

Consistent production is your best friend, but it doesn’t happen without analyzing the impact of production costs and creative output.

Who should produce videos for these platforms?

From founders to interns to influencers, production success can come from anyone.

Founders have an extreme advantage in selling a product or service, but creative influencers, creators, interns, and new hires can match, or even exceed, their success in some cases.

So, varying your production and focusing on “Vertical Video” is crucial.

Why focus on vertical video?

For organic and paid social advertising, it allows you to capture:

• Important inventory source: TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Reels and Meta Shorts (Instagram/Facebook)
• Cost (CPM): Vertical video is the most cost-effective way to reach users on TikTok, YouTube and Meta.
• Cross-platform analysis: Analyze one or a similar creation on several platforms (TikTok, YouTube, Meta)
• Multivariate analysis: Analyze combinations of platforms, creatives and versions to find the best user experience and most impactful insights, helping to optimize budgets.

Test, analyze, optimize

From a production perspective, don’t assume you know what works without data to back it up. Produce variation – the greater and wider the variation, the better the learning and performance.

For example, you can see below where we compare different YouTube video lengths:

In a variation test we can see the impact of long-form content and completion rate, but also how Google Ads, in this case, will not spend compared to what we think is best for the brand .

This highlights the importance of analysis and optimization in the testing process. Although all variations are derived from the 2:24 ad, creating the 1 minute, 30 second and 15 second ads, the long form is best for the brand due to watch time and completion rate .

Creation and distribution of videos

If production gets us halfway there, creation and distribution are equally important, but all fail without analysis.

How a brand relays its key values ​​or reasons to believe is unique to the founder or investors. Some companies want certain people to convey specific messages and usually have standards or brand values ​​as guardrails.

My best creative tip is to loosen or remove these guardrails. They should be more like parking spaces – sometimes parking in line, not coming to a complete stop, or leaving a car door open.

This flexibility is crucial for testing variation. Brands need different perspectives (from creators, influencers, and creative agencies) to see how their brand can work for different audiences. Confidence and humility are necessary for the best creation and optimization of video creation for long-term success.

The distribution of creation on all platforms is also crucial. A variationless creative that only lives on Instagram is like a tree that falls in a forest with no one around: no one will know how that creative performs with the performance of a single platform.

A cross-platform approach allows for a comparison of platform variables. In my experience with hundreds of brands, the user experience across platforms differs regardless of the same creative, highlighting the importance of variation in creatives and platforms.