How Brands Can Rise Above Run-of-the-Mill and Get More from Their Video Investment

How Brands Can Rise Above Run-of-the-Mill and Get More from Their Video Investment

Adopt the Right Technology Stack Video viewing has traditionally been a lean-back experience, where the audience watches content passively. Here’s how: Interactive Videos With interactivity tech, users can tap or click on certain hotspots strategically placed within the video, to change the course of the story at their own will. Gamified videos work best on mobile phones, as here push notifications can be leveraged to dole out points and coupons. Personalized Videos What if videos could be personalized and created specifically for a named customer? Video personalization technology makes it possible to extract CRM data to personalize a video for each individual customer. Depending on the personalization video tech that you choose, the cost of building, hosting and distributing such videos could be expensive. Host Videos on Your Own Branded Video Platform Brands sometimes have a dilemma about whether to host videos on a public (and free) platform like YouTube/Vimeo or to invest in their own online video platform. Moreover, since YouTube or Vimeo controls the video player, you cannot play special videos with interactivity, gamification or personalization on these platforms. While selecting an OVP, brands should consider whether the platform provides flexibility for easy customization, supports extreme personalization and interactivity, and offers a SaaS pricing model based on usage. Next, the entire video package needs to be hosted and distributed from one’s own branded online video platform, where marketers have complete flexibility to store, manage and distribute video campaigns, along with the ability to measure their effectiveness.

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[Pic Courtesy: Bruce Mars, pexels.com]

Every Company is a Media Company!

Thanks to ubiquitous, inexpensive mobile broadband availability and the proliferation of video platforms, consumers are hooked on to videos like never before. In 2017, 74%e traffic came from videos[i], and consumers were watching more than an hour of online videos per day[ii].

Leveraging videos for marketing communication is no longer a strategic option for brands – it’s the most important toolkit at their disposal. The question is – are you fully prepared to exploit this medium to maximize your ROI? Is your video content driving the brand loyalty that your desire? Grabbing eyeballs and holding them is a herculean task with today’s demanding, distracted consumers. If that weren’t enough, you also have to worry about delivering the videos to multiple platforms, measuring their reach and assessing ROI. So, it’s super important for you to choose the right strategy for making your brand a great content destination.

Using standard video platforms like YouTube or Vimeo has remained the benchmark for most marketers over the last decade. We’d say it’s about time to embrace innovations in this space – so that your communication does not get lost amidst the 300 hours of videos uploaded to YouTube every minute![iii]

In order to become a successful content destination, brands need to adopt a 2-pronged approach. Firstly, they need to create content that is meaningful and interesting for the audience. Secondly, they need to incorporate the right tech interventions to deliver more than just a passive viewing experience.

Create Content Worth Sharing

When viewers are bombarded with repeated ads over TV and digital media that carry the same boring message, they tend to blank out the ads, treating them as a disruption to their viewing experience. Brands are therefore turning to what is called “native advertising”, where ads match the look, feel and function of the media platform on which they appear. Here, the brand and its offerings are talked about subtly, and not overtly. According to Business Insider, by 2021, native display ad revenue will make up 74% of total U.S. display ad revenue[iv].

The learning here is to create thought provoking content that is useful to the audience of your brand, content that they can share among their friends and have a conversation about. If you are a beauty products brand, talk about inner beauty beyond moisturizers and creams, and if you are a bank or financial institute, give sound investment tips. Audiences relate brands with what they believe in. Striking the right chord is therefore key for driving brand loyalty.

At the end of such native ad content, you can include a call-to-action (CTA) that will persuade the consumer to click through and try out your products or services. But the communication needs to be subtle, non-intrusive and non-patronizing.

Adopt the Right Technology Stack

Video viewing has traditionally been a lean-back experience, where the audience watches content passively. Today, thanks to smartphones, people want to touch and control everything that appears on a screen. Moreover, there are hundreds of push notifications vying simultaneously for users’ attention. It is little wonder that only 37% of viewers watch an average video till the end, while the rest drop off at various points (Source: Vidyard blog).

However, the right tech interventions can help convert lean back viewing to a lean forward experience. Here’s how:

Interactive Videos

With interactivity tech, users can tap or click on certain hotspots strategically placed within the video, to change the course of the story at their own will. They can choose their own adventure – find more details, shop through an ecommerce site, visit to a microsite, go to another video and much more.

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