Technology

Thursday Buzz: Vertical Video Is OK

We may be used to horizontal video, but, thanks to mobile technology, vertical video is no longer a crime. Plus: How to gamify your next association event.

Remember those days when vertical video was a crime? Well, people will let you go these days.

With television sets and computer screens, horizontal video was always the norm. Videographers, designers, and mediaites frowned upon the wave of vertical video. (Mind you, there are still campaigns to shut down vertical videos.)

However, today’s smartphones and mobile apps have led to the widely accepted adoption of vertical video. Think Snapchat—which sees 2 billion videos per day—and other video messaging apps like Vine, Meerkat, and Periscope.

(Even Instagram, the king of squares, is willingly changing up its format. On Thursday, the company announced that it now allows vertical and horizontal video and photo formats. That’s big news for people who don’t want to be locked into a square frame.)

Vertical video was always going to come into play, because tablets and smartphones (and books before the digital age) have always been oriented vertically to fit our hands better, industry experts told Farhad Manjoo of The New York Times.

As a result, the shape of video is shifting. Facebook now allows vertical video, as do YouTube’s mobile apps.

Media outlets have even jumped on board. “We find the engagement much higher. Users are more satisfied, and there’s a higher completion rate on them,” Jon Steinberg, The Daily Mail‘s chief executive for North American operations, told the Times.

Gamify Your Event

Wanna bring out your attendees’ competitive spirit? Do it through gamification, and you might end up getting people more involved.

At the Event Manager Blog, Christina Green shares some ways to gamify your event—by introducing motivation, game play, and rewards. Associations can make the challenges benefit them, and the rewards motivate players to participate and encourage social shares. Be creative!

Additional Links For Your Day

Communication is not just all talk. “It is good communication that allows people to understand and move through a situation,” Laura Otten writes for LaSalle University’s NonProfit Center site.

Does your organization want to go global? Matthew Brodsky at CMSWire shares several ways to make multinational marketing happen—offering up tips by Cloudwords CEO Scott Yancey.

A one-page quarterly plan could be the perfect approach for nonprofits to follow. David Finkel lays out the strategy at Inc.com.

(iStock/Thinkstock)

Patrick deHahn

By Patrick deHahn

Patrick deHahn is a contributor to Associations Now. MORE

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