The Big Small Screen

The moment may have finally arrived.

For years, I have been blogging about the potential of mobile video. In fact, that’s a lie. Long before I joined Twist Image, I helped Andy Nulman launch his mobile content play, Airborne Entertainment. Back then, we were talking about content and video on a 2×2 screen. Nobody wanted to hear about it. Not even the mobile carriers. Well, things have changed in the past decade-plus, but it looks like this past year is really one where mobile video content is beginning to crank through in a big… no, make that major… way.

Is the future of video in the palm of your hand?

There is a valid argument to be made about the challenge in creating and publishing compelling mobile content. We don’t consume this content in the same way that we used to consume video content. Think about how the screen is used. Think about how "on the go" we are when we’re watching this content, and how it is surrounded by notifications and distractions. I’m not just talking about the notifications of emails, tweets and Facebook updates, but also the general distractions of the world around you.

Physical and virtual collide.

The battle for attention in a mobile content world cannot be diminished. It’s a major shift in how we consume video content, and it’s even more important because the vast majority never thought anybody would care to watch video on the go, let alone with their mobile devices. Now, we’re here. People have devices that are mostly screens, they’re watching less and less video content live (a lot more of our consumption is on the go and on demand) and we are quickly getting to a point when 4G and LTE networks are truly delivering mobile content at the speed with which we don’t have to deal with buffering issues. Yes, it’s getting good.

Really good.

If you need more proof that we’re moving into an interesting time with video content and our mass desire to watch it in the palm of our hands, look no further than Business Insider. On November 5th, 2012 they issued a fascinating slide deck titled, Mobile Video: The Small Screen Boom. I could go on and on about the merits of the content, but I won’t. These slides say it all.

Take a look…

Now, comes the hard work of figuring out what this will mean to marketers and the media professionals. Something tells me that this is bigger than creating smaller versions of the thirty second spot.