Pivoting to video is the biggest trend in media, but it may disappoint creators

In 2015, BuzzFeed assigned five employees to a single objective: Craft the perfect viral Facebook video.

To ensure maximum shareability, such a video had to be short - no more than 40 seconds - and enjoyable either with or without sound as users scrolled their feeds. The team found its solution in how-to cooking clips, and soon the videos made by its Tasty sub-brand began taking Facebook by storm.

BuzzFeed's success with Tasty, and the widespread popularity of rival food channels such as Tastemade and Delish, did not go unnoticed. Much of the media world has since invested in producing short videos to be shared across social media and watched (muted or with sound) on mobile devices.

With brands expected to spend $22 billion on video ads in the U.S. by 2022 - a 68 percent increase from this year, according