In a December post, Tyler Lessard, CMO of Vidyard, wrote on MarketingProfs about how 2015 not only turned out to be the year of video marketing as predicted, but that 2016 would be an even bigger year for video throughout the customer journey.
He’s quite right, of course, although for me, it’s been less of a huge leap year over year and much more of a steady march for online video towards relevancy going on for over a decade. Who, after all, didn’t become a fan of online video the second they watched the watershed viral video Numa Numa hit back in 2004?
Many of us immediately starting using online video first as a marketing and distribution channel for what we were already making, and then later started to create original brand content for it, praying for a lucky viral hit.
Reading the data, such as eMarketer's Q4 State of Video Report, shows the online video business now truly bearing fruit at scale, although it doesn’t seem to give much direction to brands. TV advertising (cable and network), according to the report, continues to feel the pressure but still “dwarfs” the spending of digital video ads. The expensive — often disposable—TV spot lives on. In 2016, we should see if YouTube Red gains any traction, and perhaps additional, including smaller, players will break out as well.
Content itself has become a story with so much high-quality original content coming from the new networks and services. Most of my December viewing was Homeland and The Affair on Showtime and binge-watching Man in a High Castle and Transparent on Amazon. For regular brands migrating from TV advertising, the trick is to figure out how you can play in this new world of interrupt-less entertainment. Native advertising around the show? Product placement within? Underwrite original programming? Or perhaps it’s not commercial messaging, but creating your own content to complement what's out there. For example, the protagonist on Transparent frequently moves from place to place; I can see a moving guide from an insurance, telecom or shipping brand. With The Affair, why isn't there a rental car or cookbook tie-in?
Advertising as content, message with purpose
With advertising-driven holidays such as Presidents Day and Valentine’s Day coming up (don’t these feel artificial as holidays?), the creative challenge for marketers is real. Do we need another auto salesman in a white wig with balloons or something more substantial that will actually help me shop for a car? Last year, Hallmark's "Put Your Heart to Paper" online video showed us what the new world could look like, creating advertising that was content and a message that had purpose. More than a million views for what looks like a production budget of $50,000.
Content goals: Not impressions, engagement — and leads
The newest wave of audio podcasting (thank you, Serial) may also encourage marketers to create more targeted video content as a valuable mini-series as less as a disposable mass market one-shot. If you think about your content goals less as sheer volume of cheap impressions (e.g. viral video) and more as customer engagement and lead generation, then you’ll look at the video content you create quite differently. The Webby Awards has a category for more traditional video short form that’s commercial-like, but also one for online film and video branded series which would need to earn an audience to work.
This year's Presidents' Day and Valentine's Day
For Presidents Day this year, what if VW, who desperately needs a sales rebound, created a video series less like a commercial and more like content. For example: "How To Shop For A Car When You Don’t Want to Shop for A Car.” An ongoing platform of video content could engage potential customers by flagging their attention, building and nurturing leads by solving a need, and be regularly refreshed which would have cost and production efficiencies. Another thought is for Valentine’s Day. I never understood why jewelry store Jared (He went to Jared!) would advertise right in front of the potential recipient, losing any surprise or creativity for the gift buyer. Wouldn’t it be far better to release a more secret video passed around among men with gift ideas for their lady friend? The goal wouldn’t be to try to go viral, but instead to be valuable content that drives sales right away and also start new relationships with throughout the year for other occasions.
I don’t have predictions for online video this year. I just have some high hopes on what brands will do with it.
