At this year’s PLAY 2021 virtual conference hosted by Brightcove, our very own CMO Hilary Kay sat down with Kipp Bodnar of HubSpot. As the Chief Marketing Officer at one of the most well-known brands in the Martech space, Kipp shared a ton of incredible insights into the future of video marketing.
Where video has been
Events in the past few years have significantly impacted the video landscape for marketers in every vertical. Users are spending more time scrolling, searching, and consuming video content than ever before.
For Kipp Bodnar of HubSpot, this is the continuation of a fundamental change in the way people shop, learn, and interact with brands. This shift to a more content-focused approach to marketing is what inspired HubSpot’s creation of a new category: inbound marketing.
Upcoming technologies, new platforms, and a demand for video content have changed the focus of content marketing. Before, videos were a “nice-to-have” and a format only a few big-budget brands could afford. Now, it is the centerpiece for a well-designed content strategy.
Any brand of any size can create a video that attracts and converts buyers.
Where video is going
As with the significant investment by media companies starting in 2015, Kipp sees marketing teams following suit in 2021 and beyond. With so much potential for growth and new platforms emerging, it only makes sense that big investments will be made.
There is a tendency for marketers to underinvest in what works. For Kipp, doubling down on “your hits” is the best path to scaling video production for your brand.
However, creating at the level you need to be successful requires agility by your team. Often, we create a content strategy and stick to it. One or two posts might do well, the anomalies, and we count it as a win. For Kipp Bodnar and HubSpot, taking those wins and diving deep into each is the easiest way to build amazing content that resonates with your audience.
So, what types of videos are you going to focus on in 2022?
About PLAY 2021
Brightcove’s PLAY 2021 virtual conference was a powerful event designed for marketers to learn actionable strategies and tips to grow their brands. In just two days, there were over 25 sessions to educate and connect with 7,500+ video experts from around the globe.
Highlights from Kipp and Hilary’s fireside chat
Hilary Kay
A lot of us are familiar with the fact that HubSpot actually coined the term “inbound marketing.” What did that process look like and how has the definition of inbound marketing sort of evolved today?
Kipp Bodnar
When you’re running a startup, you think about, “Am I going to be part of an existing category, or am I going to create a new category?” And for us, we felt like we didn’t fit into any of the current categories. We felt like the marketing industry at the time was going through a massive transformation and it needed a new category of “inbound marketing.”
We believe that the way people shop today is fundamentally different because of the internet.
It started as being about SEO and blogging and evolved to represent all the types of marketing that are non-interruptive, that really pull people in. Video marketing, marketing automation, email marketing, all of those things that engage the community and build a new one.
Hilary Kay
I had the chance to see one of your recent videos — it’s an explainer video and it’s a gem. How does your team keep up with trends in content and define the trends?
Kipp Bodnar
My tagline for marketing is “different, but familiar.” It needs to be different from anything else out there, but it needs to be familiar enough that it’s not jarringly different, that people can kind of organize it in their head.
Hilary Kay
We just saw the recent acquisition HubSpot made of The Hustle, and there seems to be a trend with brands looking more and more like publishers. We saw a really big investment in video from editorial teams back in 2015.
Do you expect marketing teams to start making that same heavy investment?
Kipp Bodnar
I do and I’ll tell you why. There are a couple of root cause reasons there.
The first is text content was always easier to create than video. But what happens is that now the text space is so much more competitive that you’re running into a lot more competition and there are diminishing returns there. Whereas the video space is still, for most companies, especially B2B technology, very wide open. So you’re seeing folks like us invest more and more into those channels that are less competitive and I think you’re going to see that continue across the board.
The second is we used to live in a world where search and maybe a little social was how people spent their day. Now, people have very fragmented days and they’re spending it across their inbox, podcasting, YouTube, TikTok, everything, right? And if you’re going to be a remarkable brand today, you have to exist wherever people consume and in the ways that are most convenient for them.
Hilary Kay
How do you approach emerging channels as a B2B brand, for example, TikTok?
Kipp Bodnar
I’m always of the mindset of focus and doing great versus spreading yourself too thin and under-investing. And then also what’s in line with your brand? Like we’re actually a pretty fun, inclusive, approachable brand. So, I think we do a great job on TikTok. We’re not spending and investing a ton on it right now because we’re not table-staked where we need to be on YouTube.
Quite frankly, we know a huge amount of our audience is on YouTube. And so as we start making real inroads, we begin seeing that take off. Then that’s a cue to do new, emerging channels and expand investment, but I want to focus my investment and really nail it on one video channel before expanding to another.
Hilary Kay
You have a broad suite of products — when you’re thinking about creating relevant content for multiple channels and audience personas, how do you scale production or go about prioritizing?
Kipp Bodnar
Most people under-invest in their hits, right? I find that most teams aren’t agile enough. They’re like, “Cool, we have this calendar and this plan, but we just keep operating along that” and they don’t take the time to stop and say, “Well, this thing worked well, let’s blow up that calendar and plan and reinvest and reinvest and go all-in on this,” the idea that’s working well.
Hilary Kay
Do you have a top piece of advice that you can share with the audience on how you grow a channel or an audience?
Kipp Bodnar
Don’t make anything unless you know how it’s getting out to the world. That’s job one.
We don’t make anything unless we are very clear on how it’s going to be distributed.
The Brightcove PLAY 2021 virtual conference was filled with expert advice and valuable marketing insights. Learn more about the Wibbitz-Brightcove integration here.