Six content creators in music, art, sports, food and news—many of whom made their names on other platforms—have lined up to promote Twitter's native video platform, and its @video handle, with short self-promotional videos in which they predict the year ahead for themselves and their work.
It's an interesting mix of talent: singer-songwriter @ShamirBailey, foodie @ImLauraMiller, DJ superstar @MartinGarrix, NBA-star impersonator @BdotAdot5, journalist @AnaKasparian and renowned visual artist @JRart. Each of them filmed videos—between one and two minutes long, and created by Los Angeles agency Standard Time—in which they talk about their upcoming work, how Twitter helps enable it, and how video is key to connecting with their fans.
Check out the videos here:
Defying genres with music and video clips, @ShamirBailey on your timeline is guaranteed to inspire you. #FFWD2016https://t.co/6EjoIo1PSZ
— Twitter Video (@video) February 22, 2016
#FFWD2016: Millions of RTs later, @BdotAdot5 is a legit video star with impersonations of top basketball players.https://t.co/G3dmN8ewTQ
— Twitter Video (@video) February 22, 2016
Worldwide work deserves worldwide fans. See how artist @JRart uses video to reach fans all over. #FFWD2016https://t.co/GFkEmMA6vx
— Twitter Video (@video) February 22, 2016
"Video has allowed my little food philosophy to reach a lot more people." - @imLauraMiller#FFWD2016https://t.co/9j3UW84vQX
— Twitter Video (@video) February 22, 2016
"Those who are politically active, who are passionate...really matter." @AnaKasparian on videos w/ impact. #FFWD2016https://t.co/fRxudtCs9y
— Twitter Video (@video) February 22, 2016
From Dubai, DJ @MartinGarrix talks about what drives him & the videos he'll be Tweeting this year. #FFWD2016https://t.co/lFDhpSVZvE
— Twitter Video (@video) February 22, 2016
None of the six can truly claim to have launched a career through Twitter, much less Twitter video, though several of them do have large Twitter followings. (@BdotAdot5's famous Russell Westbrook impersonation hit Twitter before YouTube last summer, but he has five times as many Instagram followers as Twitter followers. Likewise, Garrix has 2.4 million followers on Twitter—but just as many subscribers on YouTube, where he's enjoyed 244 million video views.)
This is mostly because Twitter's native video platform is newer, of course—barely a year old—and so the company doesn't yet have a deep roster of native video talent like YouTube, or even Instagram. But Twitter is clearly investing in native video.
Users can now film and upload videos directly from Twitter with its mobile video camera; view clips in their timeline with autoplay; send videos to friends privately through Direct Messages; and watch a curated set of videos daily through Twitter's own @video account.
As with any project that users influencers, the focus is split here between promoting Twitter and promoting the personalities themselves. If anything, the #FFWD2016 series maybe goes a little light on the Twitter branding.
But that's probably wise. People care about the content, not the platform—and for a first pass at a video series, #FFWD2016 acquits itself well.
CREDITS
Client: Twitter
Agency: Standard Time