How to Make Video Marketing More "Do-able"

Digital video is a new and intriguing opportunity for many advertisers. However, the first obvious roadblock in a video marketing campaign is the cost of production. Common sense tells us that creating a video is more expensive and time consuming than creating an image, however I’m here to tell you to not mark it off your list of opportunities just yet.

Forbes recently published an article titled, “How To Master Video Marketing On a Budget” and listed several tips to get the job done.

First, do your research. With any marketing campaign, you want to make sure you’ll stand out, be noticed, and be successful. Make sure to nail down the purpose of the video. Are you trying to get people to purchase a product, visit a new place, or simply become aware of your brand? Once you’ve figured out your goals, make sure you research your competitors to avoid creating a look-alike ad causing consumers to get déjà vu when they view.

The next suggestion is to ask your audience. Consider using user generated content to increase engagement and authenticity.

Third is to cut back on actors. Let’s face it, actors are expensive. If budget is an issue, try going for animation or only using a few faces to get your message across.

Which leads me to the next recommendation, get to the point. Think about a child telling you a story, you know how it takes forever for them to build to the climax? Well, we don’t want that (usually). On average, “your audience’s attention span is just eight seconds” so we want to deliver the message before they get distracted.

Promote Promote Promote! Put some targeting behind your message. Use tags and keywords to give your video higher rankings. Make sure it’s on YouTube! YouTube is the second largest search engine by volume only falling behind Google, so make sure you’re where the audience is.

Also, feel free to repurpose your video content across a multitude of platforms. Share it on social, send it in your email marketing, post it with a blog, etc.

Lastly, be sure to keep quality high. Never sacrifice the quality of your content. If budgets are tight, look for other ways to make due. Lowering the quality of your content will only lower the viewers opinions of your brand.

Mothers Mindfully Manage Their Role as Household CFO

Take a minute to think about who holds the spending power in your household, your friends’ households, or the household you lived in while growing up. While no family operates in the exact same way, it wouldn’t surprise me if most of the money spenders were the mothers.

Consider this, who is the person that buys groceries, goes back to school shopping with the kids, and purchases the household necessities like shampoo and laundry detergent? Chances are it’s the mother who is often referred to as the “chief financial officer” for their household by marketers.

It’s important for marketers to define their target audience but more importantly they need to know their behaviors. eMarketer released a study claiming that mothers tend to be bargain hunters. There are more single mothers in today’s society than in the past which means more women are living in a one paycheck household. For these women especially, good deals are important.

This chart shows that mothers are more likely to shop around, wait for sales, and cut coupons than women without children.

In order to reach mothers, marketers must know their priorities, and for most moms out there, price is at the top of the list. 

Software Updates Shine New Light for Mobile Video

Recently, iPhone and Android users have been able to update their smartphones to the newest software iOS10 and Chrome 53. Typically, these updates simply improve user experience and keep customers interested. However, this recent update might be a huge step for advertisers as well.

iOS10 and Chrome 53 lift strict guidelines that restricted auto play and inline video on their devices. Now, video can play automatically on a mobile web browser without any interaction by the user. The only catch is that video cannot have sound that plays unless the user interacts.

Video can also be “inline” or weaved throughout content. Formerly, video had to be played with the software’s native video player whereas now, video can stream seamlessly wherever it is placed.

Facebook and Snapchat have already benefitted from these changes as they continue to explore options with full screen vertical video and automatically played content.

Previously, advertisers aimed to get around the restrictions by creating GIFs with heavy movement to resemble a video ad. With a substantial amount of animation, the GIF files were huge and ultimately, slow to load. Now, heavy GIFs can be replaced with light video and run automatically and quickly without slow load times.

Thanks to iOS10 and Chrome 53, vendors will surely begin to fiddle with new ad sizes, elements, and varieties to excite their advertisers. 

Social: Saying 'See Ya' to Social

What if I told you there would be no more social media? Chances are you wouldn’t believe me, but recent news implies that saying see ya to social is exactly the direction we’re headed in… kind of.

Companies like Snap Inc., Twitter, and Facebook have ditched the term “social media” for more sophisticated terminology.

Snap Inc. after recently changing from Snapchat, now classifies itself as a camera company. Twitter has removed their app from the “social” section in Apple’s App Store to the “news” section. Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg, says, “There are so many jokes to crack about that…” in response to the idea that Facebook is a social media platform. Sandberg says, “It’s certainly not even a term I think we’ve used in a while.”

So why are companies treating the term “social” like it’s the black plague by running in the opposite direction? Well, by ditching the “social” label, companies are able to offer brands a bigger “media” concept resulting in more ad dollars. 

It might seem crazy at first, but these companies evolving from social media into more sophisticated niches might not be such a bad thing. Nick Cicero, CEO of Snapchat-focused agency Delmondo, says, “When you compare Twitter as a news app to any one individual news organization’s app, Twitter wins, hands down”.

The term “social media” has always had a ring to it that’s attractive to the younger demographics; your millennials and generation z crowd.  Now, with a more buttoned up category, advertisements associated with these media platforms will be able to spend their ad dollars with a more prestigious feel.

Instead of advertising on a place where kids go to talk about their lives, post pictures from their weekend, and share memes (social media), marketers can advertise on a place where people go to get direct news, forecasts, and reliable information (media network).

Snapchat: Growth Charts, Name Changes, and Recording Glasses

Snapchat has experienced substantial growth in the social world and it doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon. In fact, Snapchat is moving up the ranks in terms of users, popularity, and time spent on the app.

Snapchat made an announcement last week regarding their branding change and the new name of their company, Snap Inc.

This name change is for the company as a whole, as the app will still be referred to as Snapchat. The new name was rolled out alongside a new product that eliminates the “chat” feature.

Snap’s new product is video recording sunglasses which let customer’s record experiences from a first person viewpoint. The glasses record 10 second videos with a simple finger tap. Videos are then sent to the app via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection.

Snap Inc., while slowly rolling out more advertisements within their app, are also opening doors for new opportunities within their new product.