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Better than audio

Should marketers get on the video podcast bandwagon?

TikTok is now influencing the physical world with its new Out of Phone solution, which extends marketers' reach from mobile devices to physical locations. It allows Audio has historically been advertiser's opportunity for reaching consumers while they're on-the-go or multitasking. Now, video-first podcasts have stolen the show, adding a new—highly underrated—opportunity for brands to connect.

Despite their growing popularity, with 64% of podcast fans preferring visuals, they're still not widely used in advertising, capturing less than 10% of podcast ad revenue. This gap represents a huge opportunity for brands to connect deeply with audiences.

As a richer ad experience than standard audio, video podcast ads make for excellent engagement tools. And since the video format can be leveraged across other content platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Reels, they naturally offer a larger reach than their audio-only counterparts. 

As digital landscapes evolve, video podcast ads stand as an untapped channel for innovative and impactful marketing representing a new opportunity for brands to explore and embrace this medium for broader, deeper audience engagement.

New feature frontier

Is short-form video what LinkedIn's been missing?

Like all other social media platforms, LinkedIn has built up a community of creators and is now testing a short-form video feed feature—like TikTok, Reels, and Shorts.

For LinkedIn users at an individual level, this new format will be sluggish to gain traction. There's a bevy of other, more established short-form video platforms that offer a greater variety in content.

But from a gig worker perspective—the entrepreneurs, freelancers, and side-businesses who rely heavily on LinkedIn—the new feature is a great way to make their content more accessible to a wider swath of people, as well as brands trying to reach them.

Of course, B2B brands also have a promising opportunity. Fortune will favor those who get in early and test the short-form visual format while it's still new, especially by standing out on LinkedIn's historically long-form and text heavy environment.

Poke me

What's keeping Gen Z on Facebook?

Of all social platforms Gen Z is active on, Facebook is rarely a part of the list. However, research shows there are two major untapped opportunities to reach Gen Z on Facebook: Marketplace and Pokes.

As the second largest digital marketplace for secondhand shopping and the favorite amongst 18-24 year olds, over half expect to use Facebook Marketplace in the near future. Beyond that, it's undoubtedly a high-attention environment, making it a perfect opportunity for brands who align with the space.

Pokes on the other hand offer an ultra high-frequency environment. After bringing back the feature in early 2024, Pokes increased by 13x, over half being from 18-29 year olds.

Along with the vast targeting capabilities on Meta, the two underused features could be a brand's unique way in for an increasingly passive social media user group like Gen Z.