Tuesday 22 April 2014

Looking At Video Marketing For Business

By Ryan Stone


You may be confused as to what exactly video marketing is, and what it can do for your business. In this series of essays we'll seek to answer those questions, but before you dive in we begin here, defining the meaning of video marketing. In my opinion, video marketing is the production of branded video content, that aims for a combination of three objectives, to inform, to sell or to persuade. Before that however, it has to be SEEN.

Videos that are broadcast online differ from TV commercials because of their shareability, the potential for interactivity and the means to target and measure their success fairly accurately.

Back around 2006 YouTube was still a bit of an unknown quantity in the online world, as with many new platforms and technologies it wasn't entirely trusted or understood by businesses and for a long time YouTube was the home of very amateur content and pirated commercial material such as music videos. Internet speeds and other web technologies weren't refined enough for YouTube to be a household platform but its raw and desirable content did mean that it started to generate an audience and a user base. As the user base continued to grow then of course marketers started to take notice - you go where the people are, but even then very few brands managed to capatalise on the platform. One of the earliest success stories however was Samsung, who created one of the first examples - in my mind - of genuine, viral content.

So Samsung held its nose and entered the world of YouTube with 'It's Flicky' a parody music video of Run DMC's 'It's Tricky' but using the flick mechanism of their X830 mobile phone. Looking to all the world like an amateur student video, but with that little spark of creativity. 'It's Flicky' became an instant hit on the teen-orientated platform and quickly 'went viral'. Comments under the video echoed with pro-purchase sentiment, unaware they were secretly victims of stealth marketing!

Over time though the concept of video marketing has expanded. We're no longer looking just at YouTube but the whole web structure - websites, social media spaces, email, mobiles and apps - all capable of delivering and measuring video content and video has now become a very important and lucrative marketing tool.

Video marketing is a hot topic right now with businesses launching entire campaigns and product PR via video. The share-ability and interactivity of the medium is almost unrivalled and is seen as one of the most powerful forms of marketing in the digital arena.

YouTube is no longer just the home of the amateur content creator, now it attracts brands such as Old Spice, Geico, Will It Blend, Volkswagen, T-Mobile and so many other as a platform to communicate and share content with its customers. For smaller brands, video marketing is used populate all digital spaces, especially the website to connect with visitors and to encourage brand loyalty.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment