Increased focus on vertical video has reaped rewards for All3Media’s digital content arm Little Dot Studios. Speaking in the company’s end of 2022 review, the company’s director of entertainment James Loveridge said “increased focus on vertical short form” had been a highlight of the year. All told, “our dedicated vertical team achieved one billion total views on our Entertainment TikTok accounts,” he added.
With 2023 set to see the competition between Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts intensify, Loveridge said: “I’m looking forward to seeing the next evolution of short form vertical video across all platforms and the increased reach and revenue we believe it will bring for our partners.” With vertical firmly established as the dominant format on mobile-first social platform, there is now plenty of evidence to show that audience engagement with vertical is far higher than with horizontal.
The Little Dot Americas’ team endorsed Loveridge’s view that 2023 could see a step-change in the business model around vertical. Commenting in the review, they said: “Shorts are helping YouTube channels reach new levels of views and subscribers, and with monetisation on the horizon the anticipation for 2023 is electric.”
In terms of business results over 2022, Little Dot said it had launched 93 new accounts across all video platforms, and won new business with clients including Care Bears, Intelligence Squared, The National Theatre and Narrative Entertainment.
Identifying other 2022 highlights, director of content Alex Hryniewicz said: “We launched into new territories with our first dedicated French and Spanish language True Crime channels, as well as into new genres with movie channel Feel Good Flicks, gardening channel Sprout and several new niche History channels, including Progress, the history of technology. On Facebook we hit significant milestones on our Real Stories page which exceeded 6 million followers, whilst our Science & Nature Pod hit 1 billion minutes viewed across its 4 pages and our History pod grew its followers to 1.4 million followers and over half a billion minutes viewed.”
Executive creative director Tom Hemsley and head of production Hal Arnold singled out Tom Daley’s Secret Superpowers, a Snapchat UK original series, as a highlight. A nine part, LGBTQ+ positive show fronted by Tom Daley, Secret Superpowers explored the hobbies, interests and side hustles that make his friends feel their most complete. Guests included Jill Scott, River Medway, Sam Ryder and Roman Kemp.
The company also made significant inroads into sport, said director of sports, Robbie Spargo: “2022 has been full of highlights for Little Dot Sport. Our burgeoning start-of-the-year partnerships with the LTA and Ascot grew and flew, producing some exceptional content and results. TikTok became an ever bigger area of work for us, and the creativity and innovation it unleashed in those working across accounts like the FA WSL, England, Ascot, Extreme E, and eSkootr Championship has been amazing to witness. My personal highlight was seeing our team take our work to the next level, forming new partnerships with esports teams (Guild), football clubs (West Ham United) and broadcasters (DAZN) among others.”
Finally, managing director James Carson, picked out podcasts as a growth area for Little Dot Studios: “Our podcast network went from strength to strength, with the introduction of three new shows. Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society hosted by Kate Lister, Patented: History of Inventions hosted by Dallas Campbell and American HISTORYHIT hosted by Don Wildman were all successfully launched into the History Hit network, now totalling eight shows.”
