Snapchat, another social media network that incorporates video, is growing nearly as ferociously. “Clearly, video is something we want to leverage in the future to stay connected to our driver partners,” said Joe Weigel, director of marketing and communications at Celadon Trucking Services, which frequently uploads its own videos on YouTube to enhance communications. “All of the web videos we make are located on our YouTube channels with the Crete account hosting the majority of the content.” Indeed, some trucking companies have been extremely successful with online video. 37 on the for-hire TT100, also sees visual content as “the key to great engagement,” said Joe Goering, the fleet’s vice president of recruiting. “To make it easier for every business to get started with advertising on YouTube, we’re launching YouTube Director.” The suite’s core product is a downloadable app featuring commonly used templates for video ads, which a fleet manager or trucker can use to quickly populate with his or her own video content. YouTube Director has video ad templates for those marketing presentations and more. Facebook, for example, has begun rolling out a live streaming service that’s ridiculously easy to use on a smartphone. •Unsplash — This site offers a plethora of high-quality images. Google, YouTube and Twitter offer free analytics tools you can use to further understand what marketing videos are working best for you. Web: www.joedysart.com.
This story appears in the November 14 print edition of iTECH, a supplement to Transport Topics.
While video marketing already is on the radar of many fleets, recent indications are that the medium will continue to explosively transform the web for years to come. Video- and photo-sharing social media startup Instagram — a mere blip on the web’s radar a few years ago — now boasts 500 million users. Snapchat, another social media network that incorporates video, is growing nearly as ferociously.
And YouTube — the online video king — cruises along these days at more than a billion users. Plus, YouTube is reaching more 18- to 49-year-olds than any cable television network in the United States, according to the company’s statistics page.
“Clearly, video is something we want to leverage in the future to stay connected to our driver partners,” said Joe Weigel, director of marketing and communications at Celadon Trucking Services, which frequently uploads its own videos on YouTube to enhance communications.
BEST OF NOVEMBER iTECH: More stories, columns
“In fact, we’ve invested in a mobile video studio that has a lighting system, microphone and backdrops,” added Weigel, whose company’s parent, Celadon Group Inc., ranks No 32 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.
Pat Hightower, vice president of business development at The Hightower Agency, a trucker recruiter that created a video-based recruiting website for trucking company American Central Transport, agreed: “Video is integral to our Facebook campaigns and as a component of social media campaigns. It’s a medium that’s a comfortable communications tool for millennials and for future drivers.”
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said, “We’re at the beginning of a golden age of online video.”
© 2016, Transport Topics, American Trucking Associations Inc.
Reproduction, redistribution, display or rebroadcast by any means without written permission is prohibited.
A 2015 Animoto study found that 55% of consumers watch at least one video per week on a mobile device, and 48% of millennials view videos exclusively on mobile.
But perhaps most telling is a prediction from market researcher eMarketer. By 2017, businesses will for the first time spend more advertising dollars on digital advertising — approximately $77.4 billion — than on television advertising, according to the think tank.
“We currently utilize web video to relay messages about recruiting, company announcements, tips for truck maintenance, health tips, company information and history and general information about the trucking industry,” said Todd Sanning, director of marketing at Crete Carrier Corp., which ranks No. 33 on the for-hire TT100. “All of the web videos we make are located on our YouTube channels with the Crete account hosting the majority of the content.”
Indeed, some trucking companies have been extremely successful with online video. Bison Transport Inc., for example, says its top-viewed video has more than 100,000 hits.
“Video has been instrumental in delivering our content-marketing needs,” said Lionel Johnston, corporate marketing manager at Bison, ranked No. 65 on the for-hire TT100. “We have used video to demonstrate the equipment we use and to highlight our culture and programs, to name just a few examples. Video has been a large part of our external communications, but it has also been utilized in many internal communication projects.”
Plus, carriers often find that by adding video, their websites do better in search-engine returns.
“Improved search engine optimization from videos increases your chances of a front-page Google search,” said Melissa Nishan, director of recruiting at Epes Transport System, which also posts its videos on YouTube. Parent company Epes Carriers Inc. is No. 71 on the for-hire TT100.
© 2016, Transport Topics, American Trucking Associations Inc.
Reproduction,…
COMMENTS