Posts for 'Brand Marketing'

Facebook reported record results for 2015 late yesterday and on the earnings call, video was the first thing Mark Zuckerberg highlighted when discussing the company’s product strategy for delivering more engaging experiences. He added that 100 million hours of video are now watched daily on Facebook by 500 million people (though “watch” can be an ambiguous term for Facebook given its autoplay, audio-off format).

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Pixability has released its second annual, deep-dive, "Beauty on YouTube" report, finding, among other things that beauty video views have increased by 50% between January, 2014 and April, 2015. Overall, beauty is one of the most vibrant verticals on YouTube, with 1.8 million videos driving 45.3 billion total views to date, of which 55% are now viewed on mobile devices.

There are over 123 million subscribers to YouTube beauty channels. Makeup accounts for 51% of beauty videos, far ahead of hair (28%), nails (10%) and skincare (6%). No surprise, 89% of YouTube's beauty audience is female.

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A new study from Brightcove has found that 76% of consumers cite video as their preferred content source when consuming brand information, with 79% overall favoring digital content over traditional. In addition, 24% of respondents said video is their "most trusted" source for brand content, with 44% of them saying video was more appealing, authentic (29%), engaging (28%) and shareable (10%) than other communication formats.

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People want to skip ads, right? The conventional wisdom is yes, but it turns out the answer isn't quite so simple. In fact, viewers are seeking out, watching and sharing certain types of advertisers' messages in record numbers. According to Visible Measures 2013 Branded Video report, branded videos (video campaigns advertisers posted online, as opposed to video ads that run in-stream, etc.), generated 8.3 billion views, up 44% vs. 2012.

There's huge momentum in branded videos: of the 8.3 billion views, 6.5 billion, or 78%, were for campaigns newly launched in 2013. This compares with 3.8 billion views for new campaigns launched in 2012 and 1.7 billion views for campaigns launched in 2011.

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According to a new report from video analytics provider Pixability, beauty brands are dominated on YouTube by independent beauty personalities and video bloggers ("vloggers") in terms of video views and engagement. Pixability found that major brands have just 3% of the 14.9 billion beauty-related video views on YouTube. YouTube vloggers, "haul girls," and other beauty content creators control 97% of conversations around beauty topics and related brands on YouTube.

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Poor quality online video experiences cost brands in numerous ways, according to a new Brightcove survey. 62% of respondents are likely to blame the brand, rather than their ISP or video hosting provider such as YouTube, when encountering poor quality video. In addition, 60% of respondents experiencing poor video quality said it would dissuade them from social engagement with the brand, 57% said they'd be less likely to share a low quality video and 23% said low quality would make them hesitant to purchase from the brand.

The Brightcove survey highlights quality issues with YouTube specifically, which brands have aggressively embraced for its massive reach. But while YouTube offers huge audience potential, 75% of survey respondents reported experiencing buffering and freezing on the site, with 33% saying these problems affect half of the videos they watch. This leads to about 1/3 of viewers experiencing problems abandoning the video rather than waiting for the buffering to stop.

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Taboola and Kaltura have released the results of a poll taken during a recent webinar they conducted, in which attendees (content publishers and advertisers) were asked about their interest in using paid recommendations/native advertising to build their video viewership. The poll found that while 27% currently use paid recommendations/native advertising, 95% said they would "consider switching from  marketing their videos using traditional advertising to paid recommendations/native advertising in the next few years."

(Note a couple of caveats here: the sample size was just 34 respondents, so the results are more directional than statistically significant. Also the webinar itself was focused on content recommendations, so presumably those attending were already interested in the topic.)

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Underscoring how important YouTube has become as a marketing channel, a new study (free download here) from Pixability has found that all but one of the Top 100 Global Brands (as identified by Interbrand) now maintain a presence on YouTube. Together these 99 brands have generated 9.5 billion views on YouTube across 2,200+ channels, with over 258K videos posted.

Beyond the overall volume of activity, the Pixability study discloses a wide variation in the activity level and effectiveness of the brands' channels. Most striking is that less than half the brand videos posted gained 1,000 views or more while just 1,300 videos - a tiny fraction of all the total posted - achieved more than 1 million views. Further, 37% of brand channels haven't been updated with new content in over 120 days and many brands' channels were simply inactive.

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Last week at NATPE, I had the pleasure of interviewing Frank Cooper, PepsiCo's Chief Marketing Officer, Global Consumer Engagement. Frank provides great insights into how PepsiCo's brands are evolving from a traditional approach to marketing to the consumer, to one that is more focused on engaging them with the brands. Part of doing this involves adopting a "beta culture" throughout the company, where campaigns are iterative and not necessarily fully polished at the outset.

Frank sees content as a key element in engaging consumers and believes there's a huge opportunity in episodic content online, where PepsiCo brands themselves will become more active. That said, he's very pragmatic about branded entertainment, explaining that these days everyone is vying for the consumer's precious attention. Brands can't do sub-par work if they expect to be competitive in their entertainment offerings.

Among the other topics Frank discusses:

- The increasingly important role of data in informing content choices, channels and other decisions.

- How expectations of those under age 25 differ from those older than 25.

- Success metrics of two recent campaigns, Mountain Dew's "DEWmocracy" and Pepsi Refresh and what the company learned from each of these.

- The organizational challenges consumer packaged goods companies face in adapting their marketing practices.

And more.

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It may be 155 years-old, but Macy's marketing approach is thoroughly modern, as the company has fully embraced mobile and digital technologies to drive its business. In a fireside chat at the VideoNuze 2012 Online Video Advertising Summit, Macy's SVP, Marketing Innovation and Integration, Joe Feczko explains how Macy's sees itself as an entertainment brand, and how it is pushing further into video and branded content.

One initiative in particular that has paid off is the use of QR codes linked to videos about products. Joe said usage has jumped from 15K during the test phase to 750K this past season. Macy's is also leveraging its relationships with celebrities and the new program "Fashion Star" for more interactivity with target customer segments. Joe provides a compelling look inside how an established brand is using all of today's technology tools to keep up with a changing retail landscape.

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More proof that online video is opening up new advertising and engagement possibilities beyond traditional TV, as premium travel lifestyle company Tumi - which has never run a TV ad - has opted to exclusively sponsor a new web series called "Bourdain's TV Crew." Tumi's SVP, Brand Management, Alan Krantzler told me last week that its commitment was driven by a desire to increase brand awareness among younger customers and to leverage Bourdain's large Facebook fan base to build its own.

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