As customers look for greater and greater value in terms of the brand experience, marketers must continue to develop more creative and immersive marketing experiences to really engage and sustain the interest of their market (sponsored article).

Engaging content marketing goes far beyond creating campaigns however; we all know that the attention spans of our customers are getting shorter, that people are looking for more visual and memorable experiences, but simply creating a great graphic or video is not enough on its own to broadcast a brand’s message.

A comprehensive marketing strategy starts with an in-depth understanding of the target customer, beyond their basic demographics of age, gender, location and income, to understand their specific wants and needs, their lifestyle preferences, and the way that they think. Only then can a brand tailor a truly engaging video experience that drives action. Good experiential content will appeal to the emotions of the specific customer in such a way that it automatically has an impact on their thoughts and/or behaviours.

With ‘content marketing’ being adopted as a key strategy by marketers around the world, the importance of not only the story, but of breaking it down for each audience, becomes much more prominent, and this will only continue in the future as the customers and content increasingly drive the marketing agenda.

Video is set to be a key focus of the customer-centric, content-driven marketing strategies of 2015. Digital video advertising viewership and spend increased dramatically in 2014 and we only see this increasing over the year ahead. According to eMarketer, by the end of 2015, buyers and sellers will transact more than $2bn worth of video ads on programmatic platforms, this is nearly triple the spend of 2014.

It is in response to this demand that we at Exponential have developed Video-Driven Experiences (VDX), which provide immersive brand experiences across multiple screens. This format enhances ad effectiveness in-browser whilst extending brand touch across mobiles and tablets, and can be uniquely customised to allow brands to be creative without dwelling on production.

This is of particular importance considering the explosive increase in mobile video. Customers are shifting their focus to smartphones and tablets and brands need to follow their eyeballs. However it is so far a trend that marketers have been slow to leverage, due in part to a lack of standard practice and understanding around targeting, impact and measurement of mobile video.

Successful marketers in 2015 will need to continue to find ways to embrace the increasing growth in demand for video and content-driven marketing. In the Middle East, we have already seen a high level of interest for VDX as marketers realise the tremendous opportunity that this provides.

For more information about VDX and its opportunities, please feel free to contact me: amer.attyeh@exponential.com

This article is brought to you by Exponential, partner at today’s Festival of Media MENA in Dubai