Short-form or Long-form: Which one is the best fit for SEA?

Content is the king (or I’d prefer to say queen), right?

In a world where we are constantly surrounded by a great deal of noise, no one would argue that you need the right content to stand out and make your voice heard. Using the content that resonates most with your audience will help you succeed with your content strategy.

But then another question arises: What is or which one is the right content??

Obviously, quality is a must as is the case for everything else. How about the length of the content? There is a lot of debate/conversation going on around the “battle between the long and short form” content (Check out Storyly’s Head of Marketing ?rem’s interesting take on it here).?

According to research from this year, “adults across the globe are increasingly turning to short-form social video on platforms for entertainment and relaxation”. Specifically,? Generation Z has grown up on mobile devices and shorter videos on platforms like Snapchat, WhatsApp, and TikTok, making short-form content the norm for them. A recent report from Reuters Institute also found that younger people follow more news on social media, which is likely because it gets in front of them through short-form content.?

?Additionally, more and more people are engaging with tappable mobile content and leaving the scroll feature behind. According to one survey conducted by Forrester, 64% of people prefer the tappable mobile web story format over scrolling articles. The fact that we are living in a mobile-first world now has a great impact on this trend. Most of the content consumption is on mobile and clearly, short-form is easier to consume in the limited screen size.?

?The trend might be different in different parts of the world. Let’s talk about South East Asia - a region I love exploring.?

Short-form content is growing in popularity worldwide, but audiences in South East Asian countries are particularly drawn to it. When marketing to this region, you can't go wrong with short-form content, and recent trends prove this.

TikTok continues to reign in South East Asia when it comes to short-form video, with one month in 2021 alone generating over 80 million downloads in SEA. Other platforms like YouTube are also in the game to take their share of the pie.?

If you want to connect with audiences in South East Asia, short-form is particularly invaluable while long-form content has its purpose at the right time and in the right context too. I truly believe, based on the stats and trends out there, that short-form content is only going to continue dominating the future of content marketing. If you're not making use of short-form content, you're missing out on a highly lucrative opportunity.?

I am not suggesting long-form is useless, though. Both short-form and long-form content are important for any content strategy.

?Long-form content is often valuable and has its place. It might take up more of the viewer's attention, which is increasingly difficult as people's attention spans are narrower now. But it gives you more chances to inform and entertain your audiences. You can stretch your creative muscles with long-form videos, blog posts, and other content. As long as it's engaging, people will likely love a lot of your long-form content. As such, you should use short-form content as a complement to long-form content.

?Short-form content obviously appeals to younger audiences if these groups are your target market. Unlike long-form content, short-form content is much briefer and easier to digest for viewers. Sometimes people don't want to stick around for a long video that lasts for a half hour or longer. Some may not even have the patience or time for a 10-minute video. Instead, they want to find content that offers a bite-sized piece of information or entertainment, which can essentially provide food for thought without overwhelming or boring them.

?Generally, short-form content can get more attention and engagement, as it encourages people to consume it more eagerly. There isn't as much of a commitment with this content as with long-form content pieces. Best of all, short-form content is much easier to create, requiring less time and dedication to put together. You can quickly and easily build a library full of valuable short-form content that audiences all over the world can enjoy, especially those in South East Asia.

The mobile content format Stories is a great example of how engaging short-form content can be. They are quite intuitive, interactive, and authentic (in contrast to other formats which tend to be highly curated). From our own data, we know that users of mobile retail apps consume an average of 7 Stories, which in some cases increases up to 25 Stories. Probably that is what makes it the leading mobile format.?

I think the key is to strike the right balance between short- and long-form content to get the results you want from your strategy. As you develop your content strategy, assess the different types of content, audiences, and goals you want to target and create content accordingly. Test various formats and see what kind of responses they generate. You can then determine which types of content are best to use.

But I cast my vote on short-form. :)