7 Short-Form Video Trends to Maximize Impact in 2024

The Rise of Short-Form Video

First, what is short-form video content? There’s no universal definition, but most sources agree it’s video content that’s no more than 90 seconds long. (Dynamite really does come in small packages.) Longer than a minute and a half, and you’ve created “long-form videos.”

In case you’re wondering whether your business or brand really needs to get in on the short-form video action, here are some short-form video statistics to help you decide:

• 80% of online traffic comes from video views.
• Adults in the United States spend, on average, 58 minutes (nearly an hour) on TikTok every day.
• 50% of TikTok users bought something after watching TikTok LIVE.
• Videos shorter than 60 seconds make up 57% of total YouTube views.
• 87% of marketers report a direct increase in sales through video.
• 73% of consumers prefer to watch a short-form video to learn about a product or service.

What’s more, according to the 2024 HubSpot State of Marketing Report, marketers use short-form video more than any other format. HubSpot research suggests short-form video has the highest ROI compared to other marketing trends, with 67% of social media marketers planning to invest more in this content type than any other format.

It’s clear: Short-form video can’t be ignored. Understanding the trends shaping the short-form video format will let you start using this small but mighty tool for your brand.

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7 Short-Form Video Trends To Watch in 2024

At Superside, we're more than just a video production company. Our comprehensive creative subscription model includes everything you need to bring your videos to life. Additionally, we have the best experts in the world. Today, Ashlee Fitzgerald, Superside’s Production Director, shares her insights on the seven short-form video trends in 2024 that cannot be ignored.

1. AI-powered short-form video

As effective as video content may be, it can also be time-consuming and costly to produce. In a lightning-fast digital world, video marketers can’t afford to spend weeks producing videos if they want to stay top-of-mind with audiences.

AI is changing the short-form game in so many ways! It has a huge impact on faster turnaround and it’s breaking a certain barrier to entry. We’re also watching it level up existing content in the paid area: Seamlessly bringing motion and dynamic visuals to previously static posts, which is pretty exciting.

Ashlee FitzgeraldProduction Director, Superside

Enter artificial intelligence (AI) for short-form video production. In a nutshell, generative AI uses existing content like audio, video and text to generate original video content, automating many labor-intensive stages of the video production process, such as ideation, script writing, filming, editing and transcription.

AI is making it easier to generate high-quality content quickly and adding new creative possibilities through automation. This means more time for creativity and less time spent on technical details. However, on the flip side, this also means that audiences should be extra vigilant about the accuracy of the content they consume when it comes to misinformation.

Ashlee FitzgeraldProduction Director, Superside

What does this mean for businesses and brands? Potentially, massive cost and time savings, increased engagement, improved accessibility and scalable video production.

Synthesia, a leading AI video communications platform, says they’ve reduced their average video production time by eight days, or 62%. Check out a few more of their AI-powered video success stories:

• Teleperformance, a top global provider of outsourced omnichannel customer experience management, reports saving $5,000 and five days per video made using AI, compared to traditional video production.
• Ocado Group, one of the world’s largest online supermarkets, used AI to empower their employees to create customer training videos, resulting in more than 450 videos created by one team in a year.
• Europe’s biggest home appliance manufacturer, BSH, reports savings of more than 70% in external video production and 30% greater engagement with global supply chain training videos produced using AI.

Superside recognizes the power of AI in video production and we’re already incorporating cutting-edge AI tools into our workstreams to enhance our video production capacity but never to replace our human creative talent, as Anja Thompson, Senior Producer at Superside, confirms.

At Superside, we have not yet used an AI video generator capable of crafting a complete story or creating an entire video by itself. Human intervention has always been necessary to refine the output into a polished final product suitable for public sharing.

Anja ThompsonSenior Producer, Superside

While AI can automate tasks and generate content and ideas, human expertise is still essential for overall creative direction and video marketing strategy.

Superside experienced this first-hand when tasked with producing a short video animation in just five days for the genome engineering company, Synthego. While AI tools like Midjourney and Photoshop Generative Fill were instrumental in pulling this off successfully (and beautifully), a key learning from the project was that AI couldn’t replace strong storytelling and a solid production plan.

2. User-generated content (UGC) is king

In today’s social media empire, UGC reigns supreme. Unlike influencer content, this type of content is created by a brand’s real customers and fans (who aren’t being paid to do so), which boosts the brand’s credibility and builds trust among audiences.

User-generated content (UGC) remains a powerful force on social platforms. People crave authenticity, and UGC delivers that in a bite-sized format. This is shown in recent trends like de-influencing: the rise here due to how audiences resonate with genuine, relatable content over polished, brand-centric messaging.

Ashlee FitzgeraldProduction Director, Superside

Take a look at what a survey by UGC agency EnTribe, which included more than 1,000 participants, showed:

• 86% of respondents reported they’re more likely to trust a brand that publishes UGC.
• 81% said a brand’s use of influencers has either no impact or a negative impact on their perception of that brand.
• 83% would be more inclined to buy from a brand that used more UGC in its marketing.
• 90% reported purchasing a product after being influenced by friends or family.
• 80% of Gen Z respondents—TikTok’s largest demographic—said they’ve shared or would share content on social media.

In a recent HubSpot survey of more than 500 marketers who sell products or services on social media, 92% said UGC increases their brand awareness. Additional HubSpot research suggests that 40% of marketers rank UGC as a high-ROI format on social media.

From a psychological perspective, people are naturally drawn to seeing other people in content. It taps into our inherent desire for connection and relatability. So, real people doing real things–that’s what we want to see, and that’s what UGC is about.

Ashlee FitzgeraldProduction Director, Superside

Superside has proven the power of UGC in short-form video, too. On a mission to keep our ads fresh and our audiences engaged, we decided to play with UGC to promote our popular guide on the dysfunctions between marketing and advertising teams. The result was a 45-second ad featuring Supersiders (shot on an iPhone) that generated more than 4,600 clicks, 590,000 impressions and nearly 1,200 leads in just one month. Sounds unbelievable? Find out how we did it.

This success was inspired by Superside’s initial testing of UGC-style ads. After experimenting with influencer video ads that had performed fairly well, our performance marketing team wanted to test how much influence the influencer really has over metrics. So they ran a similar campaign, but with a tweak: They removed the influencer and starred Supersiders. The in-house ad performed even better, with our cost-per-action (CPA)—in this case, demos booked—dropping by 30% compared to influencer content.

Clearly, seeing the human side of Superside’s business was working for our audience, so we continued to test how UGC-style content could improve campaign performance. Overall for Superside, UGC-style video has delivered a 217% increase in lead acquisition and cut our cost-per-lead by 45% month after month.

3. Soundless optimization for no-audio scrolling

In an increasingly noisy social media environment, it’s not surprising audiences are opting more and more to watch video without sound.

Soundless optimization is a place where AI is shining! The ability to generate auto real-time captioning and translation on screen is a huge success.

Ashlee FitzgeraldProduction Director, Superside

In a recent survey asking more than 5,000 participants which type of online ads they found most annoying, 49% agreed that auto-play videos with sound are the worst. Further research backs this up:

• Multiple sources suggest that 85% of Facebook videos, 80% of LinkedIn videos and 40% of Instagram videos are played without sound.
• According to Facebook, feed-based mobile video ads that play loudly when people aren’t expecting it triggers a negative reaction toward the platform and advertiser.

What does the rise in muted video consumption mean for short-form video advertising? Strong visual storytelling has never been more important. Elements like text overlays and subtitles, eye-catching motion graphics, creative transitions and edits, branding, and emotionally evocative, relatable content can all help tell a story and engage audiences in a sound-off environment.

Viewers want the info as quickly as possible in a way that offers them a 'content currency' (basically another value element, like entertainment, humor or education). Providing value through content that communicates effectively in silence is key to engaging today's audiences, and to increasing content accessibility.

Ashlee FitzgeraldProduction Director, Superside

Recipe videos are a great example of how to get this right. They rely heavily on visually appealing, step-by-step demonstrations to convey each step. Close-up shots of ingredients, clear actions and well-paced sequences keep viewers engaged, while text overlays provide crucial information about ingredients, measurements and cooking times. Visual cues, like a sizzling pan or the transformation of food from raw to cooked, add to the appeal.

Tasty is a lesson in how to cause a stir online, one snackable video at a time. First launched as a Facebook page by Buzzfeed in 2015, Tasty quickly went viral with recipe videos that are easy to follow without sound. In December 2016, Tasty generated 1.4 billion video views, 1.2 billion of which came from Facebook.

Today, Tasty has more than 104 million followers on Facebook and 1,3 million on YouTube. Its “Four Ways to Make Anything” series is among its most popular, with each of these short videos getting tens (sometimes hundreds and millions) of views, all without the need for sound.

4. Behind-the-scenes (BTS) content to build community

Who doesn’t love a peek behind the curtain of their favorite brand or small business? While it may feel scary for a business to reveal its inner workings, showing the human side of a product or service fosters trust and relatability among audiences, which in turn helps build brand awareness, loyalty and community.

People want to know the how and the why–they want a peak behind the curtain, as we mentioned before. Companies can really tap into this world easily since the setup is always there already, it's just about planning to capture that phase of content.

Ashlee FitzgeraldProduction Director, Superside

But having a big, happy brand community is about more than increasing leads or prospects. A brand community shows that a business cares about its industry and those involved with it. When done well, a brand community provides people with a sense of belonging and shared interest and generates engaging discussion and connection.

One study from Sprout Social found that despite much negativity surrounding social media, 91% of participants believe these platforms can connect people, and 78% want brands to use social media to bring them together. A reported 70% of those surveyed said they felt more connected to brands whose CEO is active on social media, while 65% said seeing a CEO using social media regularly makes it feel like real people run the business.

Bringing the customers behind the curtain allows for them to be included in what the brand has done, making them equal and enhancing brand trust. This transparency fosters a stronger connection and deeper engagement with the brand community–along with being entertaining!

Ashlee FitzgeraldProduction Director, Superside

Short-form video is ideal for creating the type of behind-the-scenes (BTS) content that can help build community. Quick, low-cost, unpolished clips showing anything from key moments in product development to team get-togethers, are highly shareable. One study of digital marketing trends showed that 67% of small businesses found TikTok most effective in telling stories creatively, followed closely by Instagram (65%), YouTube (58%) and Facebook (55%).

Superside recently leveraged the power of BTS video content for Pernod Ricard U.S.A.’s BarTrendr Magazine. To showcase the brand’s first-ever photo shoot and provide added value for the customer’s marketing and communication teams, we formed a team of talented creatives from around the globe to help bring the concept to life. The result was a BTS video showing the process of photographing some of Pernod Ricard’s most iconic cocktails.

5. Brand challenges continue to rise

Most of us will remember the ALS Association’s #IceBucketChallenge of 2014, which flooded social media feeds with videos of people dumping buckets of ice water over their heads for a good cause. While not a traditional brand, the ALS Foundation reached millions worldwide (more than 17 million people participated), raising $115 million for research and creating one of the most successful viral campaigns in social media history.

In 2020, Nike launched the #PlayInside challenge in response to the pandemic and worldwide lockdowns. The challenge encouraged people to stay active indoors and featured athletes and users sharing creative ways to exercise at home. Aligning with Nike’s values of fitness and perseverance, the campaign resonated globally at a time when safety and well-being were top of mind.

Widespread participation in the challenge helped Nike maintain strong engagement and relevance during a challenging period for many businesses and brands.

The success of brand challenges lies in their ability to harness the power of social media virality, so it’s no surprise that this trend continues to grow within short-form video. Audiences love to be entertained in just a few seconds and, as research suggests, are 97% more likely to purchase something from a video ad they’ve enjoyed watching.

According to HubSpot research, 20% of marketers have leveraged brand challenges, and 42% said they performed better than expected. TikTok is making it easy for brands to create videos featuring brand challenges with a specific category of ads called Branded Hashtag Challenges.

Fashion giant GUESS was the first U.S. brand to partner with TikTok in a six-day campaign using a TopView TikTok ad format. With the campaign, every TikTok user in the U.S. would be sent to the brand’s #InMyDenim hashtag challenge when they opened the app. It shot the lights out for GUESS, getting more than 38 billion views.

6. Stories take center stage: Short-form video in social media stories

There’s no doubt that Stories is the star of the social media show: More than 500 million people use Instagram Stories and 300 million use Facebook Stories each day. It’s a great feature on Meta and other platforms that can help ensure your target customers watch videos intended to pique their interest in your brand.

Introduced by Snapchat and popularized by Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, the social media story is perhaps the ultimate in bite-sized content and the ideal home for short-form video. On most platforms, posting long-form videos simply isn’t possible. This quick, temporary (usually with a 24-hour lifespan) format taps into users’ FOMO (fear of missing out), creating a sense of exclusivity and urgency to engage with the content before it disappears. Audiences are also more inclined to watch a story to the end. For example, Instagram Stories have an average monthly completion rate of 85%.

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The appeal of Stories lies in their authenticity. They often showcase highlights, unpolished BTS glimpses and real-life moments, fostering a sense of intimacy and relatability. For brands, Stories are a powerful way of maintaining visibility, engaging with audiences and combining promotional content with genuine interaction. According to Instagram, 50% of users have visited a website to buy a product or service after seeing it in an Instagram Story.

Interactive features like polls and quizzes in Stories have the potential to make viewing a dynamic experience, providing instant feedback, sparking discussion and creating a sense of brand community by involving the audience in decision-making processes or testing their knowledge. These features offer valuable insights into consumer preferences and behaviors while keeping content fresh and engaging.

When Superside was tasked with creating a campaign to attract new advertisers for Reddit, Stories helped us get results. Inspired by Reddit’s well-known reaction-style memes, we developed the same over-the-top, testimonial-style portraits, turning them into static, carousel and video/GIF ads for Facebook and LinkedIn. Also used as Stories, the ads clicked through to full case studies on the Reddit site, allowing us to drive advertisers from awareness to conversion.

Along the way, we’ve learned that using each platform’s Story feature as intended is key. It makes sense, for example, to crosspost your bite sized videos in the form of Instagram Stories to Facebook (Meta frequently leads in terms of short-form video trends), but note that many features can’t be carried across. Meta provides a useful table of features you can check out.

7. Influencer videos to reach new audiences

Love them or loathe them, influencers are here to stay, with an estimated 70% of U.S. consumers actively following them. And because our attention spans are officially lower than that of goldfish, we need influencers to hurry up and show us something we like, or we’re moving on. It’s easy to see why short-form video will continue to be integral to brands’ influencer marketing strategies.

Influencer marketing is not one-size-fits-all. Influencers need to align naturally with your brand and audience to be effective. If they feel relevant enough to collaborate, then they can showcase a huge success.

Ashlee FitzgeraldProduction Director, Superside

And with TikTok reportedly the most-searched-for short-form video platform globally, it’s also no surprise that this is where influencers will have the most impact. The research also shows:

• Nearly one in four people say TikTok short-form content influenced them to make a purchase within three minutes of first seeing it.
• 51% of people named TikTok’s short-form content as their top influencer for impulse buys.

What’s more, HubSpot reports that 88% of companies using short-form video in influencer marketing say it’s effective, and 55% say they’ll be investing more in it going forward. Influencers also play a key part in shaping the world’s short-form video trends.

If you can't find the connection between your audience and influencers immediately, then opt for the authentic UGC route by filming with a content creator and sharing that content as the brand. This allows for more meaningful interactions to take shape from the brand voice directly, without your audience feeling like you've thrown a 'celeb' at them without cause.

Ashlee FitzgeraldProduction Director, Superside

Based on what Ashlee mentioned, Superside took a different approach for Suzanne Kalan by deviating from the traditional influencer model, which can dilute creative control and brand identity. Instead, we focused on finding professionals with a social presence who could embody Suzanne Kalan's brand values. This strategy allowed us to complete the project in less than one month, resulting in a 5,124% increase in TikTok views within three weeks.

What’s Next for Short-Form Video?

The rise (and rise) of short-form video looks set to continue, as people continue to share video twice as much as any other type of content.

The explosive growth of TikTok, Instagram and Facebook Stories and Reels and YouTube Shorts demonstrates the increasing consumer demand for short, vertical videos:

• According to Meta, more than 200 billion Reels are currently played across Facebook and Instagram each day.
• TikTok is expected to surpass 1.8 billion users by the end of 2024. Short videos remain the juice that fuels this machine.
• In the United States alone, there’s currently an estimated 164.5 million YouTube Shorts users.

The emergence of new platforms and technology will also help short-form video remain at the forefront of online marketing for the foreseeable future.

While not a new player in the short-form video game, music video app Triller is one to watch. It could fill a gap for users in countries where TikTok may be on the chopping block.

The innovations in the short-form video landscape are democratizing content creation, allowing more people to bring their ideas to life, and to share them! As more platforms like Triller emerge, the competition will drive innovation in short-form video creation, while also pushing other platforms to enhance features and UX.

Ashlee FitzgeraldProduction Director, Superside

Machine learning is poised to significantly disrupt the video marketing industry by personalizing content delivery, enhancing user engagement and automating some video production processes​. More than ever, marketers need a partner who can leverage both AI and video production to beat their brands’ competitors by using short videos.

However, it's not just about having access to these tools; it's about using them effectively. Video AI and curation platforms will highlight creators who can master the art of prompting and storytelling, distinguishing them from those who can't. This will foster a community of highly skilled creators, and brands will need to engage with this talent pool to stay relevant and ahead of the curve.

Ashlee FitzgeraldProduction Director, Superside

Don’t Get Shortchanged: Capitalize on the Short-Form Video Boom With Superside

Short-form video will remain an indispensable marketing tool—one that brands must use in 2024 and beyond if they want to stay relevant. Book a call with Superside to discover how we can supercharge your video marketing efforts.

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