Dive Brief:

• Brands and publishers creating videos for social media are torn over whether or not to use sound in their videos, accoding to Marketing Land. 
• The struggle stems from two engagement stats from competing social media platforms: On Facebook, users watch video without sound about 80% of the time, while Snapchat reports that two-thirds of its videos are watching with sound. 
• “When it comes to producing the content, we need to make sure we have both [audio-friendly and audio-optional versions of a video],” Berta De Pablos-Barbier, VP of Marketing at Mars Chocolate North America, told Marketing Land.

Dive Insight:

Video has become the killer content type for mobile users, but it's not without its challenges. Many brands and publishers are looking to create mobile videos that don't require sound, according to Marketing Land. Before the audio issue, marketers already struggle to create video that fits both horizontal and vertical formats. 

While Snapchat has led the charge for vertical video with the sound on, Facebook has told brands that video is fine without sound. Facebook autoplays video without sound and counts those videos as "watched" through its viewability standards. 

Snapchat's stats add a wrinkle to that idea. While Facebook users may have adapted to watching videos without sound, the bottom line is video can pack more of a punch with sound. A message delivered with video, audio and text is more powerful than a message delivered with anything less than all three.