As mobile device capabilities and popularity continue to skyrocket, more brands are realizing the marketing potential of smartphone and tablet platforms. With more affordable smart devices on the market, consumers are accessing content wherever and whenever they want.

Meanwhile, video is playing an increasingly important role in social media, and marketers are taking note. Within days after Twitter released Vine, companies were already tapping into its ad value. When BlackBerry introduced ooVoo, a video chat platform during its BlackBerry 10 launch, advertising experts were quick to note its video advertising potential. 

Is mobile video the next social trend?
Uberflip, which makes PDF conversion software for web apps, recently compiled a series of data from Cisco, comScore and eMarketer on how social media profile owners use mobile video.

“With the increasing adoption of mobile devices and the popularity of video-sharing sites… it’s clear that mobile video will be the ‘next big thing’,” Uberflip states.

The consumer adoption rate for video is growing quickly. An estimated 16,900 petabytes of video were consumed in 2012. That number is supposed to hit 21,000 petabytes in 2013 and 45,300 in 2016. To help marketers understand the significance of this number, TechTerms.com explains one petaybyte is worth 1 quadrillion bytes.

Mobile video will represent 66 percent of global mobile data traffic by 2017, up from 51 percent in 2012, which means video ads catering to smartphone and tablet users will likely play an increasingly larger part in overall marketing strategies.

Embracing the trend
It’s no secret that video ads online are an essential part of a multiplatform ad campaign. Eighty-seven percent of marketers in the U.S. use video for content marketing. In addition, video ad spending is expected to increase from $2.9 billion in 2012 to $6.3 billion in 2015.

In a recent post for ClickZ, Adria Saracino, the head of outreach at online marketing agency Distilled, shared some tips for businesses that want to take advantage of the healthy predictions for video ads on mobile.

Pre-roll ads are the way to go on mobile devices, Saracino states, as they have the highest completion rates. In addition, brands should target video ad campaigns based on demographic and psychographic data, which is easy to access for mobile users.

Keeping ads short, packed and avoiding a sales angle can help catch consumers’ attention and keep them interested. Quality over quantity is always a good rule of thumb.