The easing of pandemic-related constraints on in-person meetings and events did not slow rapid growth in the use of video for sales, marketing and other business communications, according to the fifth annual Video in Business Benchmark Report from Vidyard. The report, which analyzed primary data from more than 1,350,000 videos published by more than 2,000 businesses during 2021, showed an extraordinary 178% increase in video creation compared to the same period in 2020. In addition, the report found that 80% of all videos created were user-generated versus 60% in 2020.

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“Clearly, the rapid growth of video for business communications is being driven not just by pandemic-related necessity, but by video’s proven effectiveness at delivering key messages and the ease with which it can now be created, shared, and tracked by any business professional”

The 2022 Video in Business Benchmark Report, compiled by Vidyard and featuring data from Demand Metric, analyzes the way businesses use video to support sales, marketing and communications initiatives. The findings are based on analysis of anonymized video creation and hosting data from Vidyard’s user base, representing a broad range of industries and organization sizes. The 2021 report also evaluates, for the first time, the growing use of live video.

“Pandemic-related constraints on in-person interactions have no doubt been a catalyst for growth in business use of video over the past two years,” said Tyler Lessard, Chief Video Strategist and VP of Marketing at Vidyard. “But yet another triple-digit increase in the use of video for sales, marketing and business communications purposes – even as those constraints began to ease – signals that video is now firmly established as an essential tool for sellers, marketers and corporate communications teams.”

Rapid Growth Attests to Video’s Value Across Communications Disciplines
“Clearly, the rapid growth of video for business communications is being driven not just by pandemic-related necessity, but by video’s proven effectiveness at delivering key messages and the ease with which it can now be created, shared, and tracked by any business professional,” said Lessard.

To illustrate that point, Lessard noted that in Vidyard’s recently published 2022 State of Video Report, 82% of study participants said that video, as a form of content, is becoming more important to their organizations. In addition, 70% of study participants said that video converts better than any other form of content they use.

User-Generated Video Continues to Grow in Popularity
User-generated video—defined for purposes of the 2022 Benchmark Report as video created using Vidyard’s webcam and screen recording tool, versus produced outside the Vidyard environment and uploaded to the platform—accounted for 80% of all videos shared or published in 2021 by users of its platform, up from 60% in the prior year. Lessard said the growth in user-generated video is not surprising given the circumstances under which most businesses were operating in 2021. “User-generated video is quicker, easier and less expensive to create and is proving no less effective at delivering the desired results,” said Lessard.

Two-thirds of the user-generated videos were either screen recordings (capturing just what’s on-screen) or hybrid videos (which use a webcam feed of the presenter in a corner of the screen in addition to the on-screen browser tab or presentation). “We have found in other studies that hybrid videos generate the highest response rates and produce the best results and therefore expect to see more and more use of the hybrid format,” said Lessard.

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Key Findings from the 2022 Report
Some of the key findings and year-over-year trends from the 2022 Video in Business Benchmark Report include:

• High Tech continues to be the leading industry for video creation, with publishing volume up 51% compared with the previous year and an average of nearly 900 videos created per organization in 2021. The Media, Entertainment & Publishing industry grew at an even faster rate, with video creation up 109% compared with 2020, reflecting increases in media consumption, the continued prevalence of virtual events and the adoption of new ways to engage and interact with consumers.
• For the first time in five years, the Benchmark Report assessed use of live video. More than half of organizations (53%) reported using live streams, virtual events, live webinars or other forms of synchronous video in 2021. Even as many events returned to in-person attendance, organizers often added live virtual sessions for non-attendees to increase reach and enhance return on investment in event production.
• Among companies with fewer than 200 employees, 81% of videos published were user-generated. For companies with more than 600 employees, 75% of videos published were user-generated.
• Brand videos, product demos, and social videos were the most common types of on-demand marketing videos published.
• Social media and websites remained the top two channels for online video distribution. However, sales and customer conversations replaced YouTube as the third most used distribution channel in 2021 compared with 2020.

Video Engagement is Trending Up
In 2021, the average video length was nearly 10 minutes, a substantial jump from just over six minutes in 2020 and close to four minutes in 2019. The increase in average length results in part from a sizable increase in published videos of more than 20 minutes duration, likely a reflection of the increased availability of on-demand webinars, recorded Zoom meetings and video calls.

Interestingly, despite the trend toward longer videos, viewer engagement trended up. Averaged across videos of all lengths, 54% of viewers watched videos all the way through.

That said, Vidyard’s analysis indicates viewer engagement peaks in the first 10% of video runtime then steadily decays, a consistent finding over the five years of this report. For videos more than 20 minutes long, only 26% of viewers will watch to the end.

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