Video analytics systems might be associated primarily with law enforcement agencies ensuring physical security, but the technology value goes beyond that. Marketers use video analytics to capture and analyze data that can facilitate decision-making and help develop effective marketing strategies. For example, cashier-less convenience stores may install video systems to enable an unrivaled shopping experience — and this is just one of many examples.

As video systems become more prevalent, the value of the video content they generate increases too. In 2019, the video analytics market was estimated at more than $4 billion. Now it is projected to grow at a CAGR of 25.1% from 2020 to 2027. By the end of that period, the market value might surpass the $24 billion mark.

Video analytics systems are an efficient tool for retail, social media monitoring, healthcare, marketing, manufacturing, and many other fields. But what is the power of video analytics augmented with cutting-edge tech? How do they serve the needs of various businesses and industries? What are some of the best video analytics tools? Read on to find out the answers and learn ways your business can harness the potential of video analytics for growth.

AI-powered video analytics

Video analytics systems have become more powerful with the addition of artificial intelligence (AI). Machine learning and deep learning made object recognition and classification for video analytics more powerful than ever. Technology allows to recognize, map, track, and control an object or a person automatically on a video stream in real-time. It also allows tracking and analysis of actions — the AI feature used by Amazon Go and sports broadcasting.

Video analysis gives an understanding of the key factors that make video content valuable for a company. There are many ways to acquire video data. Deep learning technology and AI classify this data for further strategy generation and development of marketing content.

Data that is collected by video analytics systems can be used for various purposes, such as understanding user behavior or receiving a full view of a market niche to pick the best environment for a product. Also, relevant data can help improve the user experience: video analytics systems can process a video of an accident or a security breach and conduct analysis to find the cause of the incident.

AI-enabled video analytics assist marketers with defining the impact of advertisements on the behavior of target audiences - video analytics systems can help identify when a user is interested in a product and recommend changes to the promotion strategy.

Another example is how security agencies and law enforcement representatives use video content to identify an object or a person and analyze behavior patterns. In case a security breach happens, video analytics systems equipped with facial recognition capabilities help recognize if a person is entering a restricted area and identify the location of a potential threat.

Examples of using video analytics across industries

By implementing video analytics, businesses might significantly improve fraud detection, consumer behavior monitoring, social media listening, information gathering from websites or mobile applications to learn about current market demand and provide on-time feedback. Let's take a look at how video analytics may help business owners across different industries.

Retail

In retail, the uses of video analytics are far more widespread than in other business areas. The popularity of video analytics systems for retail originates from the need to monitor consumer behavior, detect buying criteria and consumer preferences, and learn how long a consumer stays in a particular store section or website page. The intense competitiveness makes retailers opt for technology to prevent losses, manage queues, optimize stores, and take other measures to boost engagement and increase revenues.

Healthcare

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered new cases of using video analytics, namely for mask detection, alerting on social distancing, tracking patient inflow, restricting crowds, and tracing contacts. All those measures might be extremely effective in combating the pandemic, and valuable data, gathered via AI-enables systems, might play a major role in that. Besides, healthcare institutions continue to actively use video analytics to handle emergency cases, supervise facilities, conduct remote patient monitoring, and manage security and safety.

Social media monitoring

The global social media analytics market is forecasted to grow from $3.6 billion to $15.6 billion by 2025. One of the drivers for growth is an increased interest of users in social media platforms, which is attributed to easy access via smartphones. Thus, video analytics would enable product or service providers to gather valuable information about their consumers and trace competitors' social media presence and activities.

When a video is posted, it can be used to gather information about how many times the audience views and shares that video. By analyzing videos shared across social media platforms, marketers may discover what content creates hype and which content is less effective.

Manufacturing

Product makers increasingly invest in video analytics - this helps them identify manufacturing issues earlier, evaluate and improve quality control, and minimize damage caused by workplace incidents. Using surveillance cameras and video analysis, they may promptly identify manufacturing defects and reveal areas for improvement.

Video content analysis can also help improve product safety and maintenance. For instance, automakers use video analytics to monitor the condition of vehicles, identify flaws in machinery, and optimize production line and assembly line processes. By reducing product defects, manufacturers decrease production costs and avoid massive product returns.

Conclusion

Video analytics can provide valuable insight into the wellness of your business. AI-augmented analytics is a powerful tool for analyzing the web traffic data, social media, condition of machinery to find ways to improve current business processes and unearth hidden opportunities.

If you are a business owner, you may want to consider implementing video analytics in your service provision or production processes. It is a great tool to help you enhance marketing approaches, improve the bottom line, gain new loyal consumers, and increase ROI.