By: Amanda Reseburg
For producers and other creatives, gaining the attention of today’s mobile-first audiences requires thinking outside of the 16:9 box. Today’s world is one in which viewers’ attention must be earned within seconds or risk being lost for good. Brands that succeed in this space aren’t just creating shorter video marketing content; they are creating platform-native stories with an immediate hook, clear emotional payoffs, and enough continuity to prompt viewers to return, often all while fitting a social-first, vertical-video platform.
Director Zane, founder of ZANE Productions, has spent over a decade working at the intersection of commercial production, entertainment, branded storytelling, and social-first content. His company has produced hundreds of commercials, music videos, branded campaigns, and entertainment projects for well-known brands and notable names.
ZANE Productions works under the belief that modern content must do more than simply look good; it has to perform in the spaces where audiences are actually watching.
Mobile video built for smartphones: Stopping the scroll
“Mobile devices have changed video production,” says Director Zane. “Vertical video isn’t just a change in aspect ratio. Cinematically, it’s a completely different way of telling a story.”
ZANE Productions approaches vertical video work as content designed for mobile behavior from the outset. This means creating an opening made to stop a person’s smartphone scroll and capture attention through fast, clear visual beats, built-in captions, and sound-on/sound-off accessibility.
“We strive to find a balance between production value and the authenticity that mobile viewing audiences expect,” Director Zane explains.
This approach has practical applications for brands fighting for recognition in a mobile-first world. While a video may showcase an excellent product, cool celebrity, or interesting concept, it can still underperform if the beginning is slow or visually passive. When viewing videos on a phone, audiences need to be given an immediate reason to stay.
Knowing this, companies like ZANE Productions kick off vertical videos with a provocative question, surprising claim, relatable problem, visual tension, humor, or a story beat that leads viewers to ask, “What happens next?”
“It’s not about empty shock value, but intrigue,” says Zane.
Content and brand-powered entertainment aligned with what people want
One of the central challenges in contemporary marketing that companies like ZANE Productions contend with is the fact that brands are no longer simply competing with direct competitors, but with the entertainment world. Consumers decide which creators to follow, which shows to watch, and which athletes may be worth their attention based on encounters with short, mobile-first ads. It’s a space where conventional product-first storytelling is limited.
For ZANE Productions, the answer to this challenge is brand-powered entertainment: content where the brand doesn’t merely appear around an entertainment experience, but helps power the premise, access, format, challenge, and story. While product placement in content can put a logo in front of an audience, brand-powered entertainment allows the audience to participate in the experience itself.
One example is the social-first vertical competition series “Best in Class,” directed by ZANE Productions and produced by Rock Studios at NBCUniversal in partnership with Xfinity Creative Production. The project brought six creators together under one roof with $100,000 at stake. The format combined emerging creators, branded challenges, recurring competition mechanics, multi-camera production, and vertical episodic storytelling for Xfinity’s Instagram and TikTok channels. It was a format audiences were used to, created for a different platform.
“Best in Class” illustrates how a brand can be more memorable when it is meaningfully connected to the content. There is no pausing the entertainment aspect of content to pitch a product. Rather, the brand is part of the opportunity, challenge, setting, or the ultimate payoff.
Mobile-first audiences feel this approach respects their time, never asking them to tolerate interruptions to sell to them but offering them entertainment with a branded angle.
Content optimized for vertical viewing: More than just following mobile-first content trends
Capturing the attention of a mobile-first audience is about more than just social media content trends. Brands need to think differently about how they are presented to this new breed of audience. While a hero spot can help define a brand’s central message or the campaign’s world, it should be buoyed by short-form videos, teasers, behind-the-scenes content, alternate hooks, and episodic installments that all work together to give the audience a reason to keep coming back and engaging more over time.
The real measure of success for companies like ZANE Productions isn’t initial reach; it’s gaining audience retention for its clients.
“This means matching the format to the audience and the client’s objectives, whether that is through fast, useful social content or emotionally-driven micro-dramas built for vertical viewing,” says Director Zane.
In an age that seems to welcome an onslaught of content online, strong storytelling, cultural understanding, and platform-specific content strategies still matter. Through ZANE Productions, connected, audience-centered campaigns help brands create entertaining content that keeps audiences coming back for more.
