Video marketing is fast becoming the most popular approach to message delivery in the modern age and businesses are sharpening their game to reap the rewards. So how can you create something memorable?

Currently worth £325m a year in the UK, video marketing has experienced a growth of 63 per cent year-on-year according to a recent ad spend report by The Internet Advertising Bureau. By 2016 online video traffic will account for 55 per cent of all global consumer Internet traffic, according to Cisco.

Here are five ways you can enhance your competitive edge through video marketing right now:

1. Know your audience
Thanks to the dwindling attention spans of the 21st century, you have approximately 20 seconds to engage with your audience. This means it’s crucial that your brand message is delivered in less than 20 seconds or that you give your audience a reason to keep watching. Of course, both approaches involve truly knowing your audience.

This also applies for B2B purchasers as they’re almost 50 per cent more likely to buy a product or service than consumers if they form a personal and emotive bond, according to a recent study by Motisa. As serious as the B2B sector is, businesses still want to be wooed in the same way as a consumer, and video is a powerful asset.

2. Use your real-time data
The real-time data that social platforms such as Twitter, YouTube or Facebook can provide is invaluable to marketers. If a user clicks on an online video, you can instantly find out what they liked about the campaign and assess its successes, failures and opportunities.

This data, previously unattainable with traditional advertising campaigns, provides an exact breakdown of ROI, enabling you to crunch critical insights into the success of a campaign. You can respond in the short term by devising social engagement strategies around the results, and in the long term by rethinking your next campaign.

3. Maximise cross-platform reach
Marketers can no longer rely on one platform. A recent study by Nielsen found that consumers were 64 per cent more likely to recall an online ad compared to just 46 per cent who had memories of a TV ad.

Human behaviour has evolved and all brands are trying to adapt to a new converged world where customers engage with ads on TV at home, on tablets during the morning commute, and pretty much non-stop on their mobiles.

Mobile, in particular, looks set to grow majorly over the coming years. The total mobile advertising market was worth £1.031bn in 2013, compared to £528.5m in 2012, according to the IAB/PwC internet advertising report.

4. Think big, think ‘future’
Video is the future, you know that, but what does the future look like? Whilst we can’t be definitive on this one, you can look at what technologies are being tested in the market. One innovation in particular is a concept based off virtual reality headsets, known as Oculus Rift, which may sound funny now but Facebook were very serious in spending £1.2b to purchase the technology. Competitors such as Sony are already working on their own devices, and industries such as commercial aviation have suggested adopting the technology to revolutionise the in-flight experience.

5. Connect emotionally
Rational thoughts are often converted into real connections by the emotional mind. The best way brands can achieve this is through story, which equates to long-term value through loyalty.

Every Christmas, the UK’s biggest FMCG retailers battle it out with their respective festive ads. In an analysis of last year’s ads by TNS UK, it found that 63 per cent of Brits were positively engaged and 36 per cent motivated by John Lewis’ £7m animal-themed bear and the hare Christmas animation. These were higher levels than Tesco, Morrisons, Aldi and M&S.

People are still shopping at John Lewis due to the quality of that advert, and its tug-at-the-heart-strings animation. If you trigger the right emotive levels in a viewer it will nearly always translate into greater interaction and sales as it makes a brand feel relatable on a human level.

If you do choose to run an emotive story, make sure you get it right. Heavily panned for being sexist, Asda’s 2012 Christmas family ad featuring a “mum in the kitchen” portrayal of Christmas dinner, resulted in like-for-like sales falling to 0.1 per cent in the 14 weeks to January 15, 2013. In comparison, like-for-like sales stood at 1 per cent growth over the rest of the year.

Video has the power to make very real connections that encourage people to experience something personal. Every industry has the opportunity to make it work for their audience, no matter how serious their brand story may be.

Brought to you by an underscore thought leader:
Rachael Bradley, Strategic Account Executive.

Original Source

Today is a great day for new business
Today is a great day for new business