Online video marketing is the number one marketing strategy every business should be using.
Reason?
When studying the brains of ferrets, scientists at Rochester University have discovered that in the visual part of an adult brain, the parts responsible for processing visual information are still humming along at around 80% of their normal activity, even when the ferrets are in complete darkness.
Now, I've never been called a ferret, and I don't exhibit any obsessive behaviour to hunt for rabbits, BUT, I do share many of the same brain structures as those speedy rabbit-catchers.
Read this excerpt from Newsweek's end of May 2010 article on "The Hidden Brain" for example:
"In the visual cortex, nine times as many synapses carry the background chatter that goes on when there is nothing to see, such as in total darkness or when the eyes are closed, as handle signals arriving from the eyes. That suggests the default activity is constantly creating mental images that can help us make sense of real ones. Raichle compares the default activity to a conductor’s baton, keeping distinct brain circuits (instruments) always checking in with each other and, in particular, with stored memories—of other times when thrown balls have hit someone’s head, perhaps. Thanks to the constant default activity, even when we lose synapses (which are constantly being formed and broken), we do not lose memories. As long as the background music keeps playing, if the oboe drops out its replacement can easily pick up the melody."
That suggests that in fact, we as humans, we are even more likely to be affected by visual stimuli.
"But doesn't the article point out that it's when there is NO visual input that the brain is most active?!"
you object.
True. Read this section again, however:
"That suggests the default activity is constantly creating mental images that can help us make sense of real ones."
Now, I would hazard a guess that when the brain receives visual, moving images via video, it isn't very good at distinguishing the flashing photons from a TV or computer screen from the real world.
How elese do you explain why we cry when we see a sad part in a flim? Or why we spend so much money going to see films like Social Network (which grossed over $79 million within 2 weeks of opening...and that's not even considered particularly spectacular nowadays).
So if you run a business, and you aren't using video as a key component of your marketing strategy, you need to think again.
Because your brain is. Thinking. Visually. All the time.
