It’s been on our minds for a while now that video search is going to be huge. Not just for music videos, film clips or even ‘dog saying sausage,’ but for the useful stuff - ‘remove wine stain from carpet’ or ‘London hotels.’ Some of our clients have switched on to this, with Haven and The May Fair hotel in particular using YouTube to provide experiential footage of the product experience. Brands can also consider targetted display advertising against identified keywords and concepts.
Of course, with lower traffic volumes, YouTube can’t hope to replace Google as the search option of choice. Yet.
As this Read Write Web article, ‘Is YouTube the next Google?’ points out, the younger generation of surfers have grown up receiving their information less from books and newspapers and more from multi-channel TV and film. This sees a switch from text based searches to video searches. Already, the artice claims, YouTube is the web’s second largest seach engine.
Who needs an advertising industry when consumers are perfectly capable of creating noise for a brand by themselves? It’s an inevitable question now that video website and satellite broadcaster Current TV is asking viewers/users to create their own advertising on behalf of brands. All submitted ideas are voted on by the community and the winner then gets real airtime, sponsored by the brand in question. The results are pretty impressive, as you can see from this example:
Should agencies and advertisiers be worried? Of course not, as advertising is as much about communication strategy as it is about the final execution. What we actually have here is an exciting new channel for brands to engage with their audience on a more meaningful level. There may be a few creative stars of the future to be discovered too.
New figures from a report by Forrester indicate that not only is social media being used by more people, the age profile is increasing too. As expected in the shift to consumption by advocacy, more people are using social media tools to connect with each other and with brands. Interestingly, the big increase in usage is among 34-44 year olds with a significant rise too in 45-54 users. Overall 75% of people online in the US now use social media tools on a regular basis, up from 56% in 2007.
Hands up all those people who have a facebook, myspace, linkedin or another social network profile? I suspect that an extremely high proportion of you. How many of you have noticed advertising on the site and then clicked on it? If like me you feel that advertising in my social space is one of the most intrusive form of marketing then this research you may find quite interesting.
The research has been conducted by Ball State University in the US and summizes that advertising in peoples social space can be seen ‘as offensive’. The research also found that in the 18-24 age bracket the respondants remain more responsive to email and direct marketing.
It will be interesting to see how this develops in the future as social networks develop their advertising platforms. Facebook particularly is innovating with their ability to target based on keywords from their members interests. Our experience of using their platform has shown some really interesting results over and above the response from Google adwords.
I think the old right message, at the right time in the right place continues to prevail.
To read the Ball State University white paper click here
Understandably, many brands are wary of social media, believing there is too much scope for brand damage from negative content. Not giving the audience cause to be negative towards your product or service would be the answer but that’s not really the issue here.
Dell have realised that social media can be used not just to position positive messages about the brand but to plug the public directly into it’s business model. Dell Idea Storm is a site where anyone with a good idea or suggestion can come along and post it for both Dell and other users to chew on.
This is a pure example of the changing face of marketing towards product honesty and openess with the audience, a recognition that the internet has given consumers a very powerful voice whether you like it or not. The wise brands embrace this new way of thinking.
Very cleverly it’s a way for Dell to hugely increase it’s R&D opportunities by gathering new business ideas and toe-testing potential new products with a focused audience.
The value of deep targetting is soon to be shown in full effect as TV show Scrubs is promoted directly to its fanbase via Facebook:
“Paramount Comedy has become the first UK broadcaster to use Facebook’s Engagement Ads platform, for its first social media campaign.The campaign is in support of cult comedy show Scrubs’ new Moments season and will target the 500,000 Facebook users that have identified themselves as Scrubs fans.
They’ll be targeted with video ads featuring clips from the show, with users able to comment on them. These will also appear in friends’ news feeds.”
Unilever’s Global Communication Planning Director, Asad Rehman summarises his view of communications in the digital era:
“Unilever — like many global FMCG brands — are in a rapidly changing world where advertising will never be the same again and where repositioning is a drawn out, considered and cerebral process that is going to involve mixing new media with the old rather than rejecting traditional communication tools. TV will be here to stay, the interruptive process will still exist — but it will exist in a way that delivers relevance to consumers and makes them feel comfortable with what they are being communicated about. Many trends such as social sites are yet to be fully appreciated and it may time more time to figure out how best to utilise these types of utility, whereas gaming has a great deal of immediate potential and is an area to be explored further in the immediate future.”
Read the full interview on iMedia Connection (opens in a new window).
Discussions at the recent AdTech conference suggest that online can actually learn a lot from traditional advertising techniques and that the digital platforms work better when used in tandem with sit back experiences.
It’s not always advertising that drives traffic to your online presence. While bumbling round Waterstones last week we picked up a wonderful little book called Little People in the City by Slinkachu. It’s a photo essay on the miniature street scenes he creates, photographs then leaves for mankind’s greater benefit. We were happy enough to have discovered the book, but the experience was increased by finding within it a link to the artists blog: Little People - A Tiny Street Art Project.
We can’t help thinking there’s a campaign in this somewhere…
“Google is preparing to launch a UK trial to put branded search calls to action in TV ads, in a bid to drive search volume and revenues.”
Source: NMA 18.09.08
Seems like a rational step. We know that consumers are highly likely to start their online relationship with your brand via Google anyway, as many people simply type URLs into the Google search box when they have the search giant as their home page.
However, the big question for advertisers is whether they will wish to provide a possible distraction, even a route through to other brands, in their own advertising. The fact is that, even if the embedded call to action is ‘Google Haven Holidays’ the search result will inevitably also deliver competitive brands via paid for and possibly organic listings.
On the 14th August this year an article appeared in the Guardian in response to a piece of Ofcom research into TV viewing habits. The research explodes the myth that families religiously sit glued to the television giving it their undivided attention. While TV viewing is not in meltdown it now competes with mobile phones, laptops and even personal games consoles like PSP and Nintendo DS.
About a month ago I watched the film Miss Potter starring Renee Zellweger with my wife. It was a great film to watch on a sunday evening. It’s not too intellectual but is a beautifully shot and an entertaining film. Our two young daughters had managed to exhaust us throughout the day so the film was just what we needed.
What was interesting (if you are a people watcher like me) was my wife’s reaction after the film. The first thing she said was “why haven’t we got any Beatrix Potter books for the girls they would love them” she promptly got up off the sofa, picked up the laptop, hit google and started searching for Beatrix Potter books. She began clicking, searching for the best deals on various sites to a point where the book collection and the price suited and promptly spent my next weeks beer tokens. Still they were for the kids or at least so she said. (more…)
In case you missed the Thinkbox and IAB joint research earlier this year. It is really worth a read. The sceptics amongst you may feel that the research is inevitably biased but when I read it I thought I must have covertly been one of the guinea pigs in the research.
I am writing this blog post while sitting in front of the TV watching the BBC news at 10. Sad I know but I really can believe that in the sample 61% of people do just that on a weekly basis.
Key findings from the study include:
Using TV and online together results in 47% more positivity about a brand than using either in isolation
The likelihood of buying or using a product increases by more than 50% when TV and online are used together
48% of the sample group watched broadcast TV while online, most days
Two thirds of this group have watched TV via online providers, primarily as a way to catch-up with broadcast TV and mainly from TV broadcasters’ websites
Both TV and the internet are used for entertainment (TV, 80%; online 56%) and both have a significant influence on driving purchase (75% and 52%)
The findings reinforce the need to ensure creative synergy between TV and online advertising and identify best practice for better effectiveness, which requires more than simply putting TV ads online
