OPINION Viewpoints
“‘WebRTC advancements have changed the nature of informal comms in our personal lives, evidenced by the
rocketing use of tools like WhatsApp. ” Tim Mercer, CEO of Vapour Cloud
Video: A Two-Way
Street in 2019?
Tim Mercer, CEO at Vapour Cloud believes video engagement with consumers needs to become far more
interactive – more ‘talk with’ rather than the present ‘talk at’. The good news is that Richard Middleton at Lifesize
hints at this capability heading our way soon
Tim Mercer, CEO at Vapour Cloud
According to Tim
Mercer, CEO of Vapour
Cloud, savvy marketers
have long realised the
potential of video so brands
are increasingly embracing the
medium to promote products
and services or educate their
customer base.
“Given some of the stats
surrounding video marketing,
this media-rich approach to
comms is hardly surprising –
78% of people are said to watch
online videos every week, for
example, and 55% on a daily
basis (HubSpot).
But the key thing to note
here is that the majority of brand
communication videos talk at
a customer. ey rarely invite
real-time two-way or multiway
dialogue, which is why
conversation surrounding video
has really revved up this year.
WebRTC advancements
have changed the nature
of informal comms in our
personal lives, evidenced by
the rocketing use of tools
like WhatsApp. Yet the
evolution of video tech in the
business environment has
been comparatively lacking.
Solutions like Skype have tried
to bridge the gap, but sound
quality and connectivity is often
questionable, plus the security
and accountability isn’t geared
up to support the modern needs
of commercial entities.
e channel has to do more,
and I think 2019 is the year for
it to do just that.
With some clever thinking
and intuitive deployment,
WebRTC innovations could
change the face of business
comms. We keep talking about
unied communications and
truly omnichannel capabilities,
but video regularly comes last,
with many organisations having
to default to a free browserbased
solution or a standalone
conferencing device that doesn’t
integrate into the rest of their
infrastructure.
2019 has to be the year
when the channel starts
to recommend video rst
(providing it is relevant to the
client of course). Forrester
research has found that one
minute of video is worth 1.8
million words, and it is claimed
that 55% of executives would
rather watch a video than read
text (Wordstream). We have to
empower businesses to capitalise
on these trends.
But the channel partners
42 | Comms Business Magazine | February 2019 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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