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Television Commercials or Ads on YouTube-What do you choose?

Tuesday, August 4th, 2015

Are brands relying more on YouTube for their advertisements than stereotyped television commercials for their branding?

When was the last time you watched a television commercial without cursing the show you are watching for making you go through it? Cannot recall? We guessed so. Now, let’s take YouTube. For short videos on YouTube, it is easier to anticipate when exactly an ad is getting over and whether or not it would pop up again. Things like this influence people’s choice of the platform they want to watch your ads at. The platform of broadcasting your video advertisements is important, but a perfect combination of timing and content is the key here.

Sometimes, the ads are better watched on YouTube first when multiple viewers have already watched it, liked it and shared it. You may even watch an advertisement intentionally, thinking it’s an interesting short video. Deepika Padukone’s Mother’s Day special video for Tanishq was a hit on YouTube before it was telecasted on television. Alia-Siddharth’s Coke advertisement gained enough loyal viewers through YouTube before the ad hit the television.

Can you recall Google’s ‘Help your mother get online’ advertisement that got viral on social media? Given that people have mastered in skipping channels to avoid the television commercials, sharing and circulation of advertisements across social media platforms by them is a revolution in itself.

It all comes down to the timing and content of the advertisements. Once you have uploaded your advertisement on YouTube, you can sit back and relax to see it getting circulated. It’s all about building a beautiful and strong story, and giving people sufficient time, not too much, not too less, to watch and appreciate it. When you force your advertisements on the viewers, you force them to repel it. Online shopping websites, which bank a lot on social media, are also focusing on online ads. The ad titled as ‘The Visit’, by Myntra gained more than 2 Lakh hits within 10 days.

The media industry is now shifting from the television commercials to online advertisements. The platform is interactive and viewers can have fun with various ad formats. It also gives them the liberty to share their thoughts about the videos. The cost is also quite less as compared to television commercials, as Google Adwords relies on Pay Per Click and Pay per View themes. Technology is taking over the traditional media and hence, video ads have an average click-through rate (CTR) of 1.84%, the highest click-through rate of all digital ad formats.

The ‘Skip Ad’ option could be a minor hiccup in this, but the overall demand for online video is too high, and it has increased the number of video advertisements that are being uploaded on YouTube.

Tags:Advertisement, Adwords, Commercials, Digital Ads, Latest TVC, New Ad, Online Ads, Online Advertisements, Skip Ad, Skip Advertisement, Social Media, Television Commercials, TVC Industry, TVS, YouTube, YouTube Ads
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Blogs, Brand Promotion, Digital Media, Online Videos, Social Media Marketing, Traditional Media, Windchimes Comm | No Comments »

Mobile Marketing: The Next Big Thing to Capitalize On!

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2014

As the days are passing by, more and more innovations are happening. And these innovations bring along, an array of opportunities for all the mediums that brands can integrate into their marketing strategy. Among these, one of the most evolving mediums now is ‘Mobile’. Most of you would agree on this as Mobile advertising now, is not only considered as the second screen by most brand evangelists, but is also being looked upon for capitalization.

As mentioned earlier, mobile is one of the fastest growing platforms for commerce and keeps the consumers informed at all times, even when they are on the go. It helps consumers to stay in touch with brands and businesses, informed about purchases and also the deals and offers at that time.

Today, everybody has a mobile device, be it a smartphone or a tablet. And undoubtedly the number of mobile device owners is growing year by year making the brand managers, advertisers and marketers re-think their marketing strategy and see how they can capitalize on this.

Having a mobile enabled and ready site really helps in terms of portability and reach. Hence, marketers should capitalize on these changes in the technology and craft their strategies in a more effective way. Mobile Marketing is here to stay and all set to reach its target audience in the most engaging ways.

Well, its about time too. Considering the way digital innovations are happening, mobile marketing is soon to catch the pace and will not only be a competitive advantage for brands, but a survival strategy too. What do you think?

Talking about survival, one has to keep in mind the essentials of creativity in mobile marketing. Creativity is indeed the soul of any type of marketing or advertising as it makes a difference to brands in a lot of ways.

Well, creativity is not the only thing required for fitting everything into a mobile screen. The challenge lies in conveying your brand message in a way that only a mobile phone can, leading to an interactive experience and consumer engagement.

Build a responsive site and benefit from a fully reactive website design. With a responsive site one will not have to create two separate sites. Also, the design adjusts itself to the screen various sizes according to the devices. There is no need to re-direct links to let the mobile users view the correct version of the website. Most importantly, the SEO rankings shoot up

Bill Rogers, Ekton CEO, on these innovations happening said at Internet World, this is “the future of web design.”

One should ensure the images should resize automatically else it can ruin the mobile experience for users. Also there should be n compromise in the quality of images used. Websites, campaigns, e-mails etc. shared by brand should be made mobile friendly.

Using Geo-location and Targeting can be really helpful in delivering a great service. Doing this can help the brands to prompt the closest location of a store etc. to the user. Latest offers, discount coupons and information about deals sent on a mobile device can lead the consumer towards the brand too.

Another method is to use the phone’s information to personalize the complete experience. But this may seem a little tricky due to privacy issues. However, by using the web cookies you can tailor your site or mobile app to be responsive to what customers are searching for.

Check out this image that clearly displays the effectiveness of mobile marketing based on a few important statistical studies:

Source: mobile-marketing-blog.net

The transitions happening in the strategizing by brands are immense. With mobile technology on the rise, disconnect between the brands and consumers is unlikely. Brand managers are gearing up to mobile and bridging the gap between strategy and implementation. Though mobile marketing is comparatively a very new medium, brands that can crack it, stand to gain. Have you ever imagined the profit a brand can gain on reaching out to the target audience through a mobile that he/she carries along all times of the day? One cannot just ignore the real-time connect, context-based advertising and interactions that can be generated from mobile marketing. Do share your thoughts in the comments below!

Tags:Brands & Mobile Marketing, Mobile, Mobile Marketing, Mobile Revolution
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Blogs, Digital Media, Mobile Marketing, Online Videos, Social Media | No Comments »

Brands Personalize With YouTube Customization

Friday, August 16th, 2013

The explosions in the video content strategies have occurred because of the ever growing YouTube channel which is now the second largest search engine. Adding to this YouTube receives billions of views every month which is indeed the great potential for brands to be active on this medium. Not just upload the video, but brands can actually connect with their target audience on a global level. One cannot miss thinking about a custom YouTube channel!

Before we move on, let us clearly understand that there are three types of YouTube channels.

Courtesy: Periscope

Lately have you noticed any brand or brands having cooler YouTube pages as compared to the others? If yes, then you might have also noticed they have super designs, amazing content, user friendly approach, shorter URLs, bold graphics etc. Well, these are none other than customized or branded YouTube channels.

Brand channels basically allow the marketers and brand managers to come out of the standard YouTube channel and customize their current channel by creating a true destination page. What you find in the end with this approach will truly be extravagant!

Customized channels are a sort of perk for the YouTube advertisers wherein later you have the benefits of using the channel for some advertising campaign as well. If, at some point you want to show Youtube icon on your advertising resources, you will need permission, which costs money of course. Furthermore, custom branded channels can also host contests once sanctioned by YouTube.

Viewer behaviours can be tracked through enhance metrics and tracking. You come to know the featres of your video which are good, bad, hot or cold, you can check the viewer increase or decrease. The best thing is that Google Analytics can be integrated for in-depth analysis and reports. Even third party tools for tracking can be integrated.

Get all the whistles and applauds for your brand with a customized YouTube channel and check the difference it makes to your overall brand performance.

Once you have thought of getting started with a custom branded YouTube channel, you can browse though this manual which has instructions on how to customize YouTube brand channels.

Here are examples of two beauty brands on YouTube doing well as customized channels. From thumbnails to tags, descriptions and design everything is up to the mark. Following this there are other brand categories like music, gaming, travel, fashion etc.

Be Beautiful gives an ultimate experience to its viewers and consumers.

Tresemme offering hair & salon products and styles from professional hair stylists has an amazing customized YouTube channel.

What is it all about YouTube custom brand channels?

Though content still remains the priority and something which cannot be avoided, with a YouTube custom brand channel every aspect of the brand’s page is customizable virtually. The complete brand look and feel can be integrated with coding and editing etc.

Now, you must be wondering ‘my brand already owns a YouTube brand channel’. Kudos to that! And of course the regular brand channel must be offering everything, from large header, to a background image, impression tags and last but not the least metrics and tracking. This is good! But, wouldn’t you want something best for your brand?

A customized YouTube brand channel can uplift your brand to new heights. You will not only engage users, but engage them in an interesting way.

YouTube Channels created for brands should be attractive enough to showcase the look & feel of the brand. A brand channel makes it easy for the clients to land to your brand’s page. Try combining these with other social media channels such as Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter for getting higher leads.

Now there is something that is very essential for brands to put all their efforts into. Brands are:

Creating content that the audience wants, like: product reviews, how-to-videos etc.

Optimizing Videos, important keywords, description and adding tags, titles, description in a properly categorized way.

Amplifying their brand’s link building capability by linking Facebook, Twitter, blog to their YouTube video page as it will foster to & fro of traffic thus, optimizing your search results.

Sharing, yes, sharing the video with as many people as they can as simply posting a video will be of no help. Share the link with people in your circle, if they like the link they will click & share. A great word of mouth marketing this is.

Click here to check out how YouTube’s top 500 brands are pushing creativity, bite-sized videos.

A report from Outrigger Media has used OpenSlate‘s data to exhaustively research the top 500 brand channels on YouTube.

Brands that have a customized YouTube channel are a premium value-added source and can uplift the brand identity in a great way.

Customized YouTube brand channels still hold the uniqueness in terms of

Demographic Targeting wherein custom branded YouTube channels can restrict users according to the age, location or gender.

Design is always on the top when it comes to customized YouTube channel. All the elements can be customized according the marketing design of the brand.

Gadgets & HTML feature in branded & customized YouTube channels helps brands, for some extra functionality, add widgets to their channels and can also plan to embed their channel into their website as well.

Analytics can be viewed by both branded and personal YouTube channels. Still, branded & customized channels have an advantage to add third-party analytics if required.

Brands can also work towards personalizing their channel by handling the new changes and optimizing the new options available:

Create a Welcome Video

· In order to optimize the options available for YouTube’s brand channels, brands should take note of the below points:

· Create a welcome video that is geared towards viewers who do not subscribe to the page

· Keep the videos very short and compelling

Personalize your channel

· If brands are looking for ways to drive their traffic to their YouTube brand channel to other social media platforms they can personalize it.

· They can do so by adding a large header image called as ‘Channel Art’, a great way for brands to present their brand picture in a well sorted manner.

Organize your content

· In order to make your brand YouTube page looking neat, fresh and well structured & updated; it is very essential to categorize and organize the content that is available on your YouTube channel.

· YouTube enables its users to re-organize their content.

· Businesses can optimize their content on YouTube in such a way that users generate interest for browsing through your videos etc.

Check out an amazing Infographic on how one can optimize their brand/business YouTube channel. Click on the image to view.

Courtesy: http://www.brafton.com/infographics/top-10-ways-to-optimize-your-business-youtube-channel

In a nutshell, a customized YouTube channel

· Can make your branded video seen by billions
· Will show up on Google search instantly and attract a lot of potential customers
· Easily links to your websites or social media platforms etc.
· Provides a backlink to the website your brand has, thereby boosting your SEO

Honestly, YouTube’s new look and design is turning out to be an interesting step towards the right direction. YouTube has very nicely managed to add a well sorted layer of user experience & brand factor, which eventually gets better day by day. An evolution like this will soon prove extremely valuable to YouTube channel owners.

Brand marketers have already begun to embrace a constant, pervasive video content strategy for their brands. What their brands do on other social platforms like Twitter, Facebook etc. will always help them build engagement and identity. But the brands which make an active presence on YouTube have a great potential to branch out to success? Do you agree with the same? Share your thoughts.

Tags:Brands and YouTube, Brands leveraging Custom YouTube, You Tube, YouTube Custom Channels for Brands
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Blogs, Brand Promotion, Online Videos, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Research, Target Audience | 1 Comment »

Box of Surprises

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

World’s largest video sharing site and the second largest search engine, YouTube, launched its Hindi movie sharing site, YouTube Box Office where movie buffs can watch premium Hindi super hits every month, without having to pay anything. The service was launched with the surprise hit of last year, "Band Baaja Baaraat."

Click on the Image to play the video

Now Showing

YouTube Box Office allows Indian viewers to watch the new and popular Bollywood movies in full HD (1080p) for free, and all you need is a decent internet connection. YouTube will collaborate with its partners in India on a revenue share basis. Intel will be the exclusive presenting sponsor for the channel.

YouTube hopes the initiative will help draw more viewers for their premium and exclusive content. Apart from the expanding its popularity, the video sharing network also aims to create opportunities for marketers.

IPL helped YouTube generate major revenue

The video giant made inroads in the country with the web telecast of the IPL tournament in 2010. The cricket crazy nation lapped up the dosage in full scoop. This has galvanized the YouTube think tank to foray into the other passion of the country, movies.

A recent screening of the hit movie Dabangg garnered 1.3 million hits on YouTube, highlighting that the platform has hit a golden formula in the country. With the Indian market ripe for the picking, the site wants to gain as much as it can through Indian films.

Super Hit Formula

The service will be ad-supported. With film makers looking to recover maximum cost even before releasing the film through selling the rights, this is just another medium for them to get as much as their product has to offer. This gives brands another opportunity to ride the success train of a film and put their ads during the airing of the film.

As many viewers are cautious about the level of advertising in the ad-sponsored Box-Office, YouTube has assured that the sponsoring companies would get their chance to showcase their YouTube videos and promote contests/campaigns tactically without much interrupting the movies.

Contest and Promotions administered through YouTube Box Office

This not only gives them the chance to link their YouTube channel to the Box Office channel but also insert captions that would run throughout the length of the film, giving enough exposure to the brand, unlike ads on television where only specific time slots are allowed for ads.

Impact

Many believe the move is certainly going to stiffen the competition in the online movie streaming business in India. Considering the growth in broadband penetration and improving internet connectivity speed in the country, online video browsing is going to be more fun and lively. It is expected that several more prominent names in the business are going to enter the Indian market in near future. This will create bigger and more engaging platform for brands to advertise through their channels on YouTube and other such platforms.

Tags:Band Baaja Baaraat, Box Office, Dabangg, Marketing, Movies, Online Videos, Streaming, YouTube
Posted in Online Videos, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | 1 Comment »

Getting the best out of your online video

Monday, April 6th, 2009

I love YouTube. I think it is a brilliant concept and has given an avenue for self expression like no other. A random search on YouTube will reveal videos ranging from the truly useful to the sincerely bizarre. Some of my all time fave videos on YouTube include Where is Matt, everything from Common Craft and Bridal Skincare (what can I say… I am partial!). Infact Where is Matt with hits to the tune of 20,057,638, has got so big that Visa used it for their traditional TV campaign! Three cheers to the power of online video…

In India too one can see companies making the shift, with brands like Fevicryl owning a vault of over 50 DIY videos, each serving the purpose of helping a consumer understand how to use the product.

Now that marketers are increasingly planning to invest on online videos to reach out to their consumers, they also need to understand how to get more people to watch these videos.

There is many a fantastic video out there, with the creators asking themselves…why the hell aren’t people watching it? The answer my friend… your video needs a crucial ingredient called ‘virality’. It is like any movie or book. It might be brilliant but it needs to be seen, shared and talked about to become truly fantastic.

One needs to remember that just because you have made it and put it up, people will not automatically come to view it. A good amount of hard marketing work needs to be put in to make a video a viral hit. Here are a few tips on how to make your video deliver for you online:

Really really really good creative: There is no escaping that. A great idea is a good starting point to make your video go viral. Ask yourself… if you were the target consumer would you watch it?

Plan well: Figure out where your target consumer for the video is online and chalk out a detailed plan to reach out to him or her

Seed wisely: Make sure your videos are seen in places where your target consumers are. So if it is a skincare video make sure it is in the video library of skin care communities on Orkut or Facebook, where it is more likely to be viewed and shared by skincare enthusiasts.

Engage with Influencers: Identify the influencers for the category your brand is present it. Get in touch with those bloggers and community owners to view the video and share it if they wish to. Their circle of influence is big enough to help the video spread wider.

Choose smartly: Choose a video site that appeals to the targetted consumers of your video. So if it is an entertainment video meant for young men a Bigadda with a largely male audience skew might be the way to go.

Use Your Social Presence: Lastly share it with your online social network. Status updates are a great way to put your video out there.

How do you measure success of your online video?

Well honestly there is no set measure. If it is a generic youth category like jeans and if there was an interesting online video built around it, chances are it would have gathered a million plus videos if not more. However if it is something of a specialist nature like CAD software, it would garner views only from a limited audience with a maximum number of hits of say 10,000.

So would you term the CAD video an online disaster? I don’t think so. It has done the job it was meant to. Reached out to the limited audience that exists online for it and communicated the key messages. So mere numbers might not be an indication of success after all. Would love to hear your views on how would you measure the success of an online video…

The true mark of success can sometimes be, when an online video that you have created makes it back to you! Till that happens keep at it my friend.

Tags:Online Videos, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media tools, video promotion, Windchimes Comm, Windchimes communication
Posted in Brand Promotion, Online Videos, Social Media | 10 Comments »

Social Media Reinventing itself in 2009

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

I am sure you must have read my first five predictions on the socio-economic changes that the world will see with use of social media. The next set of five predictions that I have written are relevant in the realm of social media medium per se.

First time use of social media through Mobile:

Majority of people world over will surf the Internet and social media for the first time in their lives using mobile phones. Mobile phone penetration is increasing rapidly in most countries and along with the its value added features like streaming. In India, close to 10 million subscribers are being added every month. These small towns will skip landlines and opt for cell phones directly. These towns will take technology leap in a manner of speaking. Simultaneously, several companies are in the process of launching social networking sites for mobile. Put these two together and you could see this prediction come true.

I predict that in 2009 itself, several small towns and rural areas will experience Internet & social media for the first time through cell phones and not through computers.

2. Online reputation management:

As our conversations move online, it will be imperative for brands and corporate to participate in them. Not only that, they will have to track those conversations to understand how their brands stand with the consumers. Are their brands in the consideration set or if they are they being spoken about in positive tone? These are very important questions for companies to get answers to as their marketing spends will be determined accordingly. There will be specialized agencies that will provide these services to the companies.

I predict that in 2009 online reputation management will be big business and most corporates will turn to it in a big way.

3. Facebook will become a paid site:

So will any social networking site that wishes to survive the next year. There have been enough and more articles written on SNS not being able to monetize on the huge subscribers that they have got for themselves. Venture capital funds can’t sustain them forever. Also purely by advertisements alone, they will not be able to break even or advance on their business plans.

I predict that in 2009, Facebook will turn a paid site. Facebook can charge $10 (Rs. 500) from every user for a year-long membership. Even if out of the 150 million users that Facebook boasts of, 2/3rd drop out, we talking of $500 mn (50m users X $10 per user) of revenue that it can generate in one year.

4. Twitter will become a verb i.e ‘To Tweet’:

Unofficially it already has. But in 2009, the importance of Twitter will grow so dramatically, that Oxford will be forced to accept it as part of our normal parlance. The role that micro blogging has played was fairly evident from the recent Mumbai terror attacks.

I predict that in 2009 twitter will become so important that at least one Indian company will use it to tweet important announcements being made in their Annual General Meeting (AGM)

5. Online videos will be most important marketing tool:

In the social media sphere, online videos will gain prominence over other marketing ploys. I had written in my earlier post that online videos will gain popularity even more in times of economic slowdown. In fact some brands like Kaya have already started using it. Other companies will soon follow and attempt to reach out to their potential consumers and collaborate with them to produce user generated content.

I predict that in 2009, social media agencies and production houses like Common Craft will have to specialize in providing online video solutions for corporates.

My friend, Gaurav Mishra who genteelly pushed me into writing these predictions has his written his seven predictions on social media. Peter Kim has compiled his predictions along with 13 other social media gurus that really makes a good reading.

I hope my predictions have given you some food for thought to start off your own set of predictions for the next year. Do mention them and comment on this post.

Tags:2009, cell phone, Facebook, Kaya, mobile phones, Online Reputation Management, Online Videos, Predictions, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter
Posted in Facebook, Online Videos, Predictions, Social Media, Twitter | 28 Comments »

Indian Case Study of online Videos: Kaya Skin Clinic

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

In one of our earlier blog post, we had explained the use of online videos for the brand. The post explained the distinct benefits this medium provides for each brand. We shall illustrate that with a case study of an Indian Client – Kaya Skin Clinic.

Indian Case Study:

Kaya Skin Clinic offers specialized and customized skin solutions (products & Services) to its consumers. They were pioneers in their field as they introduced scientific approach towards skin care treatments. Today, Kaya skin clinics are present all across India and in key Middle East markets.

One of their service offerings is Kaya Bridal. We had decided as part of social media strategy to engage with its consumers by creating visual content. It was important for the customers to understand the process and benefits of it especially during their special occasion of marriage.

Do have a look at the video that was created for Kaya Bridal service

[youtube=http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=YEYKv7fZ8Gg]

Kaya decided to create videos only for online medium as it was a perfect fit with its target group. The video was then uploaded on several Indian and International video sharing sites for user viewing.

On conducting research, following aspects stood out distinctly:

1. The viewers were able to recall most of the steps involved in the Bridal Glow process and that too with just one viewing.

2. They were able to relate better to the terms like ‘microabrasion’ that they hear from dermatologists but were not able to visualize it.

3. The video helped Kaya in building the brand value of ‘skin expert’. Kaya is about scientific processes, trained professionals and detailed understanding.

4. A lot of respondents cited that they saw value for the price that they were paying for Kaya bridal service thereby helping Kaya in overcoming one of it’s key barrier – expensive place to visit.

Is that it?

Just creating the video and uploading is not the answer. The video has be a part of the over all social media strategy. The next important steps are people aware about it and reach out to the relevant people. This is the most critical stage. There have been several times even in the case with most websites that are made beautifully but besides the clients and agency no one really visits it!!

Social Media Marketing plan helps in planning the other social media platforms that the brand has to be present in. It helps in creating content relevant to that medium and help reach out to the influencial bloggers of that category. All these help in increasing visibility.

In Conclusion:

Experiment with the online videos as they provide business solutions for the corporate. But ensure that you have got a complete social media marketing plan in place for that.

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