In the professional environment of marketers, designers, photographers and, of course, videographers there are “weeks of high fashion and haute couture shows” – this is the period from November to February, when all authoritative sources publish articles on the topic “Trends of the coming year”, and then another institute Pantone announces the color of the year – and here we go!

About Abalmasov Production studio

Trends are a matter of competitiveness and income: we create music video content that we sell on video stocks, so we shoot on relevant topics and in accordance with global demands. This work experience allows us to say that the trends of the next year are already here and now!

We decided to take a bold step and publicly make our assumptions about what will be trending next year and start with visual trends. And the image, as you know, conveys the meaning that is so important in marketing.

How did we compile the list of trends for 2021?

1) We watched videos that are released by large brands in a niche with high competition, study marketing meanings

2) We read the cases of leading agencies and understand how video is used now

3) We watched the competition works of various festivals that took place this year

4) We watched photo and video stocks (especially the categories “popular” and “recently added”)

5) Do not forget about related industries: wherever it is possible to use video, there are trends

6) Watched music videos

As a result of reviewing and analyzing the work, we have identified these key trends that we consider relevant. Go!

Try different video orientations

The last couple of years have been talking about vertical video – this is due to the development of Stories as a whole channel for video posting. For over a year now, stocks have been recommending authors to shoot content in vertical orientation. But we’re guessing that video-oriented play in general is going to be the new trend. The same objects and stories, shot vertically or horizontally, with an aspect ratio of 3: 4 or 16: 9, are both adaptation for different ways of displaying content, and a new game with the viewer, which you can involve.

Filming from the first person visw and mocumentaries (pseudo-documentary)

Of course, these are different techniques, but both have one concept – the effect of presence, where the author of the content is a direct participant in the events. Remember the trend for authenticity and naturalness that began in 2018 and is still gaining momentum? This is its continuation. Ideal and “cleaned-up” pictures today lose out to the real ones. Therefore, shaking the camera, imitating peeping, approaching the heroes in the frame not with the help of a steadicam, but with ordinary steps – this is what we will see more and more often in the coming year.

AR technologies

There are already a lot of cases (remember the same Nike campaign that sold a new Jordan model in 23 minutes using an AR lens). Now the “gold VR-rush” is coming. Hundreds of Instagram masks are already being created as elements of identity, but we are waiting for interesting cases and useful applications with augmented reality.

What kind of people will be filmed

Every year a trend sweeps across the era. This year was the 90s, next, it is logical to expect no less bright, but more daring 2000s. But we deliberately did not highlight this as a separate trend, because we consider more important what kind of people will be the “advertising images” of large and small brands.

First, those born after 1995. The aesthetics of the 2000s just arouses great nostalgia for them, but that’s not even the point: it is now the most influenced by advertising and media layer of people, the core of target audiences. They are now 23-24 years old, and they themselves make a choice in favor of certain brands.

Secondly, young adults, or people aged 28-35 (at the moment). This is the first generation of people who put education, self-development and travel above family, they are in no hurry to have children and live for themselves. As a result, advertising should have more images, where parents are a little older, and a young family does not need to be with a child in the frame in order to be clearer to the audience.

Third, the expansion of the social framework. Ideal models in the frame do not evoke emotions for a long time. Social networks show real people, and all this should finally appear in advertisements of all brands, in the visual images of companies. Different nationalities, figures, features of appearance – what was previously considered a reason for complexes, today is becoming a source of pride. Special attention should be paid to people with disabilities. In a foreign Coca-Cola video, a girl in a wheelchair is dancing in the center of the party, and in our country such images should also become the norm.

Fourth, there are even fewer gender stereotypes. This already exists, and in 2021 we are expecting even more videos and shots where the boundaries between “male” and “female” are breaking.

Overall improvement in the quality of user video content

Remember how Instagram photos started for regular users? Food photos, uncomplicated backgrounds, selfies. Now the quality of photos has increased hundreds of times, thanks to presets, photophones, the development of photo studios and professional photo shoots that are done for the sake of content. Here’s the same thing we predict with video in 2021. Video is no longer a tool for big brands. Bloggers, micro-brands, and ordinary users alike recognize that video content is the future. Now Stories act as selfies, but soon they will start to be made with the same aesthetics as photos in the feed, and a bunch of applications for shooting and video processing turn the smartphone into a production studio. This should be used in the marketing of companies: provoke the audience to create user-generated content – now they have the opportunity to do it beautifully!

We also want to highlight several visual trends that will run like a thread from 2020: minimal processing (bright presets in the past), colorful and neon colors, scenes against the backdrop of nature.

To be continued…

We prepared this list on video marketing decided to publish it here and to check our hypotheses. Here are only the key visual trends of video 2021, but we have also prepared semantic and marketing features of video 2021 and will definitely share with the readers of Social-Media.PRESS!