Vine: The Next Big Marketing Channel?

This was originally posted on Quora, Inside the Product, on 1/19.

I’ve been playing with Twitter’s new app, Vine, since it’s launch last Thursday. So far I’ve really enjoyed it. It may be the first mobile video app I actually use consistently.

Here are my initial impressions:


Designed for Mobile
Since Instagram blew up, several players have attempted to recreate its success with video (e.g. Socialcam, Viddy) although I would argue that not enough thought was put into how users want to create and consume video content on a mobile device/context.

Vine is designed for mobile. Videos are short (6 seconds max), instantly consumable (a la animated GIFs), non-disruptive (sound isn’t a requirement), and easy/enjoyable to record videos (like Snapchat, simply hold to record).


Reliable Distribution Channel
Like social gaming in the early years of the Facebook platform, previous mobile video apps leveraged Facebook’s Open Graph to generate massive distribution and virality. Unfortunately for them, Facebook giveth and taketh away (and history repeats itself).

Fortunately for Vine, they have a large distribution channel they control - Twitter. Vine also aligns with Twitter’s increasingly obvious strategy to become a media destination.


A Marketers Dream
It’s hard to create good video content. While Vine certainly isn’t perfect, it substantially lowers the barrier, giving marketers the opportunity to create instant product demos, sneak peaks, and behind-the-scenes videos. Like Instagram and Facebook before it, Vine has the potential to become the next big marketing channel.

Here’s one great expample from the guys at Noodle Cake Games, showing off a new character in their mobile game, Happy Jump. As this demonstrates, if a picture says 1,000 words, a video says 1,000,000.

Although it’s hard to say this early if Vine will flourish or die on the vine (*rimshot*), it certainly has potential and having a clear value for businesses certainly helps.


Update (1/27/2013) #1 - I noticed Gary Vaynerchuk (as you might expect) is experimenting with micro wine reviews. Check it out (#vinelibraryTV)

Update (1/27/2013) #2 - TechCrunch posted an article pointing out early marketing experiments from Ritz, Trident, and Dove.