The dizzying pace of change in the social video landscape can seem overwhelming — but marketers who stay ahead of the updates will be able to stay ahead of their competition.
So here’s your rundown on the latest updates from the major social video players:

YouTube

Doubling down on its commitment to being at the forefront of streaming video, YouTube rolled out support for High Dynamic Range video, the most advanced video technology currently available. HDR video offers more contrast than previous formats, boosting the video quality through more detailed shadows and highlights. HDR is only available on the most advanced devices, but as HDR devices become more widespread, advertisers can better captivate their audiences on YouTube.

Facebook

Facebook is tackling targeting against OTT content. The social networking giant has partnered with A&E and streaming startup Tubi TV to experiment with targeting set-top box viewers based on the Facebook profile data that’s tied to their IP address. Even as more viewers cut cable, or never subscribe in the first place, the desire to consume video in the living room still remains, and consequently viewers are turning to connected TVs to stream video.

Instagram

In November, Instagram began rolling out two new features: disappearing Live video and messages. As we’ve previously discussed, social video platforms are beginning to reach feature parity, and this update is no exception — the new features borrow directly from Snapchat and Periscope’s core offering. It’s another indication that Instagram is positioning itself less as a polished, curated feed, in hopes of boosting how often users share content.

Twitter

Twitter’s experimental new ad product, Promoted Tweet Carousels, is showing promising results. Similar to Carousel ads on Facebook and Instagram, Twitter’s latest ad product allows brands to aggregate multiple tweets for users to swipe through. Promoted Tweet Carousel ads for the NBC Universal film “The Secret Life of Pets” were clicked on 22% more on average than Twitter ads for other entertainment companies, and the cost per engagement was 6% lower than the industry benchmark.

Snapchat

Snapchat signed a deal with Foursquare to provide marketers with more precise targeting parameters when executing geofilter campaigns. Foursquare’s rich data set maps more than 90 million locations — instead of simply targeting a set of coordinates, marketers can now fine-tune the targeting of their geofilter campaigns, selecting specific locations such as stores, restaurants, parks, or museums.

Pinterest

Pinterest is experimenting with autoplay video. This new ad product now appears in a new “Explore” section, which highlights the best of Pinterest, and attracts users looking to discover new content. Auto-play Promoted Video will also automatically advance to the next video of a playlist, allowing brands to make a deeper impact among engaged viewers.

Vimeo

Vimeo is rolling out a new over-the-top offering that distributes live and on demand video across the complicated network of set-top boxes, apps, and streaming sticks that make up the OTT video ecosystem. When we caught up with Vimeo’s Director of Business Development, Jamison Tilsner, he shared some of the advantages offered by the new technology: “Vimeo’s full-stack OTT solution includes all elements required to quickly stand up a subscription streaming service with limited upfront costs and infinite flexibility and scalability.” The new platform offers a variety of services for publishers, including an OTT content management system, a content delivery network and streaming player, custom analytics dashboards, payment processing, and templated front-end applications for web, Apple TV, Android, Roku, iOS, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV and XBox One.
Even as social video platforms move toward feature parity, differences in metrics and reporting can make it hard to measure cross-platform campaigns. Contact us today if you’d like to learn more about how Pixability’s technology can help you or your clients achieve advertising success across social video platforms.