Is Shoppable Video Enough for Brands to Build Lasting Relationships with Consumers?

How to Reclaim Your Destination and Boost Brand Loyalty with Community-Powered Video

By Matt Wurst, Genuin CMO

It’s official: Video has taken over our feeds.

You can’t scroll through social media without being bombarded by it. From TikTok to Instagram, YouTube Shorts to Reels, this format has reshaped how we engage with content and interact with brands. For creators and consumers, it’s a goldmine of creative freedom and dopamine hits.

But for brands, media companies, and publishers, simply bolting vertical videos onto existing content strategies isn’t moving the needle anymore.

Sure, vertical video grabs attention, but attention is cheap. We need engagement. We need conversion. We need loyalty.

What we don’t need is the continual reliance on Big Social’s walled gardens, where brands rent relationships with their audiences but never truly own them.

So what’s the answer?

Why community first? * Watch and react on Genuin

It’s time to reimagine vertical video not as a standalone content format but as the engine behind engaging, shoppable, community-powered experiences. That’s where the real transformation lies.

“Big Social’s” Gravitational Pull (And Why Brands Need to Break Free)

For years, brands have been funneling dollars and resources into social platforms. The results speak for themselves: massive reach, viral content, millions of impressions.

But let’s be honest — most of that value stays locked inside Big Social’s vaults. They control the algorithms, they own the data, and they’ve turned your audiences into their currency. Brands get a fleeting moment of attention, a like or a view, and then… nothing.

The problem is deeper than just platform dependence. It’s the shift in where the relationship sits. Today, Big Social puts creators at the center, turning the brands into mere props in someone else’s story.

It’s an enticing model for engagement, sure, but it doesn’t give you the ownership you need to cultivate long-term loyalty or harness meaningful insights. And, most importantly, it doesn’t make you the destination.

This is the new frontier for brands. They need to stop being just participants in other platforms and start building their own. Community-powered vertical video is how they’ll reclaim their place at the center of the conversation.

The Vertical Video Trap: If Everyone’s Doing It, Why Should They Care?

When Instagram introduced Reels to compete with TikTok, the vertical video format reached a saturation point. It wasn’t long before the rest of the digital world followed suit. Brands eagerly jumped on the trend, embedding vertical video content into their articles, blogs, and marketing materials. But this “add video and stir” approach isn’t working anymore.

Think about it. Every brand, media company, and influencer is putting out vertical video. It’s an ocean of sameness. While consumers may have an insatiable appetite for this type of content, it’s getting harder to stand out in a sea of lookalike TikTok copycats. The novelty is wearing off, and engagement is flattening out.

And here’s a secret TikTok doesn’t want you to know: Shoppable videos on social are driving MUCH less conversion than those platforms want you to believe.

The lesson here is that vertical video alone isn’t the differentiator. The differentiator is how you use it to foster real community.

Community-Powered Vertical Video: The Next Evolution

The brands that will win are those that rethink video as part of a larger strategy to build owned, authentic communities. This is where vertical video-powered communities come into play. Imagine if, instead of relying on Instagram or TikTok to build your audience, you built it within your own ecosystem. It’s not about fighting the format — it’s about reclaiming the destination.

Communities thrive on content that feels personal and interactive, and vertical video is a powerful tool to deliver that in spades. But instead of hosting that content on social platforms, it should live where you control the experience: your website, your app, your digital properties. Here, users aren’t just scrolling through an endless feed; they’re engaging, participating, and becoming active members of a community that’s centered around your brand’s values and story.

With vertical video as the visual language of today’s consumers, brands can leverage it to invite real interaction. Think beyond just video views. Encourage user-generated content, host creator-led challenges, or offer live, interactive experiences that get your audience involved, not just passively consuming.

Reclaiming the Destination: Own Your Content, Data, and the Relationship with Consumers

When brands invest in building their own video-powered communities, they’re not just regaining control over content. They’re also reclaiming the relationships with their consumers that have been siphoned off by Big Social for too long. This is the only way to stop renting audiences and start owning them.

And let’s talk about data. The most valuable asset in digital marketing today isn’t the content itself; it’s the first-party data that comes with it. Big Social has made billions by hoarding this data and leaving brands in the dark.

But when your vertical video content lives within your own community, you have direct access to audience insights, preferences, and behaviors — insights that can inform everything from product development to future marketing campaigns.

Finally, let’s not forget the money. A brand-owned vertical video community creates new opportunities for monetization. Sponsored content, native ads, shoppable video posts — all of these become revenue streams that you control, rather than handing a percentage back to the platform gods.

The Long Scroll

Vertical video has changed the game, but “how to win the game” is evolving. As brands and publishers, we need to look beyond simply adding another video to the feed and start thinking about how to build communities that drive engagement, foster loyalty, and, most importantly, put us back in control.

The days of relying solely on Big Social are over. It’s time to reclaim our content, our data, and our audiences by putting owned-and-operated platforms at the center of our digital strategy.

Community-powered vertical videos aren’t just the future of content marketing — they’re the future of brand relationships. Now is the time to make the shift.

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Learn more about Genuin’s Community Media Network solution.