Top
How to ensure your digital video marketing is successful (2)

How to ensure your digital video marketing is successful (2)

November 21, 2017

Via: itCurated

We have seen in the first part of this article how digital video marketing works and which are the detailed elements that determine the final customer experience. Given this marketing method’s raising relevance for B2B commerce, video content marketing gains traction and its target widens. Simultaneously, the marketing services providers are adapting to better suit this trend.

However, what separates the video experience from the other marketing experiences – target-wise? Moreover, why are online videos considered a trend?

The explanation could reside in the shift that slowly takes place within the customers: generations are changing, younger professionals are taking charge and the workplace environment is bound to reflect this.

A different kind of sophistication emerges, in a world that is more direct, more tech-savvy and overall very demanding and featuring a new kind of perfectionism.

Personalization in digital video marketing

Acting as a major overall marketing trend, personalization would probably synchronize customer data with the visual offer – video advertising included. Using localization and data collection coming from wearables and other data collection systems, the marketers would be able to suggest certain services when the potential customer is in the right place at the right time. A short video sequence delivers the message better regardless of the customer being in a crowded environment or in a silent one.

For example, short (7 to 15 seconds), mute and vertical video ads are considered the best for mobile screens – a real success recipe when it comes to mobilizing customers. It is interesting how the so-called “vertical video syndrome” evolved from being criticized into acceptance and further into becoming widespread. Snapchat and Periscope made vertical videos the standard when it comes to advertising – one might say that brands took a vertical stance video-wise.

The best-suited video parameters combine with various personalization methods – and the video advertising platforms compete in terms of business features. You may check here a comparative listing of the offers coming from Sightly, Eyeview, Mixpo, Idomoo and vADZ. From responsive and localized videos to scheduled-to-play videos, the platforms strive to offer strategic video placement on social media networks, as well as a tight business control over their dissemination.

Action triggers

Once personalized correctly, video ads don’t require translation and are increasingly satisfying for customers who want the most efficient shopping solutions. What can be simpler than watching a video on the desired product or service, then clicking an in-video link that takes you straight to the shopping process? Apparently, online videos embedded with immediate action features are very effective. A 46 percentage of viewers feel compelled to at least find out more about the brand they just met in a video, if not to buy the presented product or service right away.

On the go consumers enjoy video ads because it speaks the universal modern language – relevant images in a short time span. The engaged, targeted and visually pleasing video materials capture people’s attention play on their good mood and anesthetic appetence. The main concern for the advertisers is ensuring their materials are welcome and consistent. For example, it is not positive to watch a video ad and decide upon a purchase only to get entangled into a much too sophisticated purchasing process or, even worse, to discover that some features are unavailable “at the moment” or “in your location”.

YouTube’s shoppable ads target the brands, and play on the “one click away” from the actual purchase strategy: watching product reviewing videos labels the potential customer as being very close to the decision moment, then why not make the process easier by inserting a clickable link?

The intrinsic entertainment

One of the reasons (younger) buyers prefer video ads consists of their intrinsic entertainment value: when the video ads are clever and they tap into social media trends, or even create new trends, they become viral and widely spread due to their content. In such situations, the brand may even take a second place somewhere in the background in what the viewers are concerned. Nevertheless, a successful video that is shared countless times and spreads virally serves the brand the best. Some of the viewers might not even remember what the ad promoted, but by reaching such a vast audience, such epic video ads ensure overall brand reputation and a successful campaign.

There are articles that give advice on how to create viral videos (such as careful planning, analytics/big data support, creating great headlines, tackling emotional topics and so on). Some of the most popular video campaigns mentioned in the same article are worldwide famous: the great Volvo-The Epic Split or Chipotle – The Scarecrow. We notice here longer video ads (the traditional length in advertising), up till now. However the next-gen shorter video ads are just at the horizon, about to become maybe even more viral while offering a more compact entertaining value.

A June 2015 article offers a top of viral video ads, most of them circling around the 1-minute time length. The podium is occupied by longer videos, however, which can be construed that an artfully crafted video that entangles its viewers from the beginning can manage to capture their interest longer. A more recent Business Insider top seems to have juggled the same ads, but this time the winner is the shorter Friends Furever Android ad coming from Google.

Creative Challenges

The 15 seconds or less constraint may seem very restrictive, but it simultaneously acts as a catalyst. Channeling their ideas and perspectives within the parameters of such a challenge, the advertisers may come up with totally unpredictable materials – in a positive way.

An older Digiday article that describes this unique moment of truth from the point of view of a creative gives us an idea of what exactly is happening when a 15-second limit is set for a campaign story caught in a video ad. New types of advertising professionals emerge: the mobile-minded creatives. The ideas have to adapt, the frames are few and therefore precious.

With such a new, dynamic creative process, short video ads are increasingly exigent and they hold the potential of being true gems.