Video marketing is the current buzzword in marketing. Every platform you turn to recommends video content to reach a wider audience effectively. In fact, 84% of marketers consider video creation an “essential skill” in marketing. Video is not a niche, it is mainstream, and it may even be solely responsible for holding up many successful marketing campaigns.
As often is the case with most viral topics, you hear a lot about the “What” but the “How” goes missing. If you are looking for actionable insights to ace video marketing from your brand, here are some, straight from the horse’s mouth: Google. The company has been sharing insights spanning geographical locations, subject matters, and industries for budding brands.
It is a creator and brand favorite, making us dig deeper into the ThinkWithGoogle insights on what works in video campaigns. And with good reason, too. Before Instagram, TikTok, or Snapchat – there was YouTube, and it is the second most popular social network with 2.562 billion active monthly users.
So, if you are looking to refine your video marketing strategies, you are in the right place. We have summed up the right ones based on Google.
TikTok is currently very popular for all B2B and B2C campaigns. The short-form video content has truly taken off and shown brands that this platform can drive reach, revenue, and impact. So why are we talking about Google insights and YouTube? Because while TikTok is a major piece of the puzzle, it is not the whole puzzle.
The YouTube audience is invested in brand stories, ready to engage (even with ads), and considers the channel to be an important source for discovery and social proof.
According to Google, 88% of people say YouTube has helped them expand their perspectives or ways of thinking. So if you are a brand looking to break misconceptions and myths, this is the place for you.
Brands can also pull in a huge audience by working with YouTube creators. “People feel comfortable turning to YouTube for educational and informative content because it is coming from someone who looks like their neighbor, who looks and sounds like them,” Jonathan Daly, Group Communications Strategy Director, Droga5.
The audience needs to see themselves in the video content, or they will stop watching.
What about paid content? The debate between TV ads and YouTube ads has been going on for a long time, but the verdict is here. YouTube was the top choice for streaming video on the Android platform in Jan 2021. Brands are also seeing bigger success by running ads on YouTube instead of on TV. Specifically, in the APAC region, brands can reach audiences with YouTube that they cannot with TV. And the difference in incremental numbers varies from 30% in Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand and goes up to 50% in Vietnam, Korea, and India.
One of the main reasons that people are smitten with video content is that it needs very little effort to connect with it. So to enhance your video marketing strategies, tap into themes that already have an underlying connection with your audience. This way you see positive results sooner than you expect. A favorite theme across generations and geographical boundaries has been the use of Pop Culture. Mentions of comic book characters, movie characters, and other Pop Culture elements are pretty mainstream already. But what about subcultures?
Kleenex Viva Taiwan launched a “Dear! Throw it Away” campaign modeled on popular Korean Dramas. The brand used an original K-Drama soundtrack and deployed techniques like slow motion and soft movements to mimic the popular sitcoms in the culture. This YouTube Trueview in-stream ad launched in late 2020 and generated over 2.5 million views in three weeks along with 1.5x sales in the first quarter of 2021.
One can argue by niching down on the choice of Pop Culture reference, Kleenex Viva Taiwan could reach a highly engaged audience, resulting in their success. And they would not be wrong.
Video is very popular, and you can take two insights from this statement:
Most holiday ads follow a template, and it is easy for your brand to drown in a sea of sameness. Cadbury faced a similar problem for their 2021 Diwali advertisement in India. So the brand got creative and used AI and YouTube’s contextual targeting to get ahead. They reached a wider audience and helped them produce thousands of custom ads for local businesses.
With AI, local businesses could generate an ad where the Indian Cinema Superstar Shah Rukh Khan advocated for them. The result? 20 million unique views on the original advertisement and a spike of 32% in business growth for Cadbury.
Storytelling is an important pillar of any content marketing strategy. It makes it easy to form connections and evokes emotions in consumers while taking them on a journey. Turns out, that is what customers love in video marketing as well.
Combine storytelling, emotions, and Pop Culture references in your videos, and the clicks will come pouring in. It is quite challenging to incorporate all these elements within a video, but when you look at the gains, it is worth it.
According to Google, one technique that worked for brands has been sequential storytelling. Yes, just like how shows keep us hooked episode after episode, you can do it too, and with great success. A case in point is The Zero Hunger campaign, which brought out different scenarios with a common theme for the audience to fully take in the message.
The creators feel breaking down a rich story and choosing to premier different facets avoids losing the audience’s interest in the video itself. Now, the audience can pick what resonates with them without impacting the overall engagement levels.
If you are a brand with a diverse audience base spanning generations and cultures, employ sequential storytelling. It can help you speak to each of them individually without losing the bigger picture.
If you are an avid consumer of YouTube content, then the genre of “soothing videos” and “ASMR voiceovers” is nothing new for you. What may be new is that brands jumping on this trend train have reaped huge benefits via YouTube. Brands have been actively incorporating this idea into their video marketing strategies.
We all know the popular brand BlendJet has one of the wackiest campaigns ever – blending unusual items to show the power of its blender. Their recent 2021 video campaign on YouTube took a different tone, incorporating the styles of satisfying visuals and ASMR voiceovers. Look at this video from BlendJet and pay attention to the comment section.
BlendJet initially aired this video as an ad, and it was so good that people decided to look it up to find the original video. Some even expressed intent on purchasing the product. Now, isn’t that cool? This video from BlendJet improved their return on ad spend by 569%, and their target revenue overshot by 413%.
This campaign is the best case to show that when you know your demographic well, anything is possible.
The last piece of insight or advice for your video marketing strategies based on Google Insights is to make your brand identity shine throughout the video. This is something everyone says, but we told you that this blog is all about the “how” and Google recommends that you:
Knowing what works on the biggest video ad platform does come in handy when it is time to execute for your brand. And seeing examples from the biggest brands gives you a framework to go by.
How has your experience with video ads been? If they have not been as per your expectations, use these insights to rework your video marketing strategies. Have a strong plan of action for creating your videos as well. After all, the quality of your videos and their aesthetics play as big as role as the quality of your content. This plan includes working with a video designer or a video design service.
