Whenever Facebook goes in a new direction, ripples spread through any number of areas, including the hotel industry.
The social media giant recently announced the introduction of 360-degree videos into its News Feed, creating a larger splash than usual. With this immersive style of visual presentation, a user can click and drag the video to change the viewing angle, or do so with a glance (if they’re wearing a virtual reality headset). And for professionals in the hotel industry working to gain visibility for their brand, this new concept could provide a powerful tool to reach and engage prospective guests. Below is everything hotels need to know about this new video format.
A new immersive News Feed
In late September, Facebook announced it would support 360-degree videos in its News Feed, kicking things off with an immersive video for the forthcoming Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, in which viewers can hop on a speeder and cruise through a crashed Super Star Destroyer.
In the company’s announcement, Facebook said it introduced the new type of video because they found people enjoyed more immersive content in their News Feed.
“In the future, imagine watching 360 videos of a friend’s vacation to a small village in France or a festival in Brazil—you’ll be able to look around and experience it as if you were there,” Maher Saba, Facebook’s engineering director of video, said in the company’s announcement.
Of course, there is another reason—real-life virtual reality experiences are created using 360-degree videos, and Facebook has a significant stake in ensuring that VR takes hold and flourishes. In 2014, Facebook purchased virtual reality powerhouse Oculus. But what does this mean for hotels?
Rethinking marketing videos
Every day 8 billion videos are viewed on Facebook, according to USA Today. 360-degree videos are going to make up a growing segment of these videos, especially as the technology advances and the general public becomes capable of capturing this type of content.
The benefits of 360-degree video are in its immersive nature. Whether viewed on Facebook or another platform, users have the ability to change the angle of the content they are viewing, allowing them to better see and experience the video. This means an increase in user engagement and, hopefully, more bookings.
This also means successful marketing videos will need to include more than just a simple walkthrough of a hotel—there will need to be some sort of action.
For example, viewers of Qantas Airlines’s 360-degree experience can do more than just walk around Australia’s Hamilton Island. The experience begins with the viewer inside the cockpit as their plane descends toward the island, before taking them on an immersive underwater trip through the Great Barrier Reef.
Not every destination has something as recognizable as the Great Barrier Reef, but the strategy can apply almost anywhere—give the viewer something to explore, an ongoing narrative in which to participate. Festivals and conventions that call your location home are prime opportunities for a strong background narrative; inviting prospective guests to step outside the hotel walls and explore what the surrounding locale has to offer will provide even more opportunities to tell an effective story.
Understand the format
With Facebook’s continuing interest, immersive video as a marketing tool will also need to conform to the platform’s demands to be effective. Longer videos will still have a home on YouTube or your own website, but video intended to catch Facebook users’ eyes will need to be brief.
Rather than launch one long video, for example, Visit Savannah released 23 15-second featurettes specifically intended for Facebook and Instagram viewers. And since they first launched in March, those videos have garnered more than 200,000 views.
As Facebook and other online platforms place more emphasis on this growing trend, immersive video could provide a powerful new tool for hotels to distinguish their brands and stand out from the crowd. Studying the format, learning its strengths and weaknesses, will be the key to making that happen.
Contributed by Abi Mandelbaum, co-founder and CEO of YouVisit, New York City