Dive Brief:
- Vine stars are reportedly leaving the platform behind for Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat where it’s easier to make money via ad dollars.
- According to the Wall Street Journal, this is a reaction to marketers and brands no longer being willing to spend ad budgets on sponsored Vines.
- As other platforms expand the time limit for videos, such as Instagram allowing for up to 60-second clips, Vine still relies on its six-second-long looping video clips.
Dive Insight:
Influencer marketing has gained in popularity in recent months, but as it becomes a more fragmented category, where influencer stars appear on multiple social platforms, marketers aren't the only ones frustrated by the lack of clear paths to ad revenue. For brand marketers, the issue is more about murky measurement capabilities, but for influencers, at least on Vine, the heart of the problem lies in getting paid.
When it comes to Vine, one issue for the platform is it doesn't have any built-in ad units, so for marketers to tap into Vine's audience, they have to work directly with Vine stars to craft and launch influencer campaigns. But parent company Twitter has made moves recently to improve its ad offerings across its platforms, and some brands are still finding success on Vine.
“We thrive on creators doing awesome things on Vine, Periscope, and Twitter,” Will Stickney, spokesman at Twitter told the Journal. “It’s one of our top priorities this year to give those creators even better tools across all those products, including Vine, which continues to be a place where creative trends start and explode across the Web.”
The Journal reported that a year ago Vine was a top-five entertainment app in the iOS store and in the top 50 overall. It’s now a top 20 photo and video app, but has been passed up by Snapchat, Instagram and even by specialty apps like Solo Selfie, and ranks around 200 among all apps.