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Spirit Brands Drinking The Social Video “Kool-Aid”

In Social Media on 02/04/2012 at 5:35 pm

Consumers are bombarded with messages every day. To cut through the clutter, marketers need to shift online engagement from interruption to engagement—in the digital world it‘s about entering the conversation. With the shift in control from marketers to consumers, choice-based video (also known as social video) becomes even more important—consumers no longer want to be forced to watch a commercial, they want to decide how, when, and what they want to watch.

According to YouTube, 70% of viewers would abandon a video if it were to carry pre-roll, as opposed to a social video campaign in which viewers are encouraged by trusted sources to watch. In the past year, spirit brands like Heineken and Calsberg have recognized the importance of choice-based video and are investing more and more heavily in this fast-growing space. So how much is social video growing? Well, in 2010, users shared the top 20 video ads 5.3 million times. In 2011, the figure spiked to 24.5 million.

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Unruly media reports that the average social video ad spend for US spirit brand media buys has been between $100K and $500K over the course of 30-60 days. Currently, Heineken is dominating the choice-based video space, increasing its choice-based video ad spend by 25% in less than a year (between Q4 2010 and Q3 2011). According to Unruly Media, one of Heineken‘s primary social video distribution partners, Heineken tests their creative online and applies learnings from their social video campaigns to create the TV spot.

Spirit brands in general are seeing improved performance of online video when it is based on choice vs. forced, and generates earned media impressions and shares that translate into additional free views. Choice-based social video ads typically see 300%to 450% brand lift to pre-roll ads. In addition, on average, the brand trust increases by 30% because of increased sharing and organic spread, greatly increasing brand engagement by 50%.

How is social video different than pre-roll video? 

  • Qualified views from your target audience: click-to-play, users are choosing to watch and engage with your content as opposed to a forced view
  • Contextually relevant environments: Social video is usually in-page or within editorials due to its relevancy among the site‘s audience where pre-roll is not seen as content
  • Sharing capabilities: Social video offers sharing in a variety of ways to all social platforms, where pre-roll offers none
  • Insights: Social Video offers transparency and reporting on earned/organic activity in addition to paid media
  • Viral uplift: Social seeding is used to build brand awareness and increase web traffic, engagement and, ultimately, sales where pre-roll is strictly awareness

With the Super Bowl and presidential election coming up, social video is inevitably going to grow even more. According to Unruly Media, the potential market opportunity for social videos could reach $100 billion in 10 years.

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2012 Social Media Marketing Predictions

In Social Media on 12/17/2011 at 2:02 pm

Data is the new black. Today, brands have access to vast amounts of consumer insight that would have seemed inconceivable as recently as a year ago.  Yet, brands have barely scratched the surface in terms of how they harness this data and effectively reach consumers over social media.  2012 will be the year of the social enlightenment, and we’ve identified a small list of emerging trends in the social media marketing space:

More Social and Local Mobile Marketing – “SoLoMo” is a new term being coined to describe the future of mobile marketing, which will be intertwined with social and location-based marketing.  SoLoMo will prevail in existing geo-social apps like Foursquare, Shopkick and Yelp.  Social buying (e.g., Groupon and LivingSocial) will become more app-focused and provide real-time alerts on local deals.  Brands will move beyond virtual badges and begin offering real-life rewards.  Messaging will become more relevant by exploiting location-based targeting and embedding social content/shareability.  With Facebook’s recent announcement that it will be testing mobile ads in spring of 2012 and the social giant’s acquisition of location-based social network, Gowalla, the likelihood of “SoLoMo” rings truer.    

Social Intelligence Becomes More Critical – Social media is now mainstream and brands finally no longer see it as an experiment—it is now an accepted and effective business strategy.  According to a report by Useful Social Media, 12% of the companies surveyed claimed that social media was under the direct control of the CEO.  With that said, there is certainly increased pressure on corporate social media practitioners to deliver on investment: There’s an ever more pressing need to demonstrate ROI, along with progress against other crucial KPIs.  In 2012, we will see more and more brands deploying social intelligence to inform their overall brand strategy, media planning, and ad creative across both online and offline projects. Insights will make a tremendous and lasting impact on marketing budget allocation throughout the year and into 2013.

Social TV Convergence – Today, television viewers are flocking to the digital water cooler to discuss their favorite shows and reality TV stars—and they are engaging in these conversations across multiple second screen devices.  In 2012, these social activities across smart phones, tablets, laptops, and gaming devices will converge and become integrated with our TV sets.  The future of interactive entertainment has three key attributes: It will be personal, connected, and social.  This convergence will lead to a more personal TV experience, providing viewers with recommendations on new content that they will love.  With companies like Samsung and LG developing new products featuring built-in Google TV, viewers’ experiences will also become more connected, as they’ll be able to enjoy TV shows anywhere, no matter where they are or what device or screen is in front of them.  Finally, the TV experience will become more social as an influx of TVs will have social design ‘baked in,’ giving consumers access to programming based on what their friends are watching, what their interest graphs indicate that they will find appealing, and even what mood they tend to be in at certain times of the day.  This will be an incredibly powerful capability for the media industry. 

Brand APIs  – In 2012, at least one brand will release an open API that will allow consumers to develop branded applications and games at scale with minimal investment.  With the growing application developer talent, the possibilities for brands will become limitless, and some of the smartest brands will start taking advantage and push for the creation of the most fascinating applications beyond our imagination.  This brand will create value in the form of content and utility and distribute it via platforms that extend in reach beyond proprietary channels.  For instance, a company like Safeway could use that API to create its own app tied to its grocery delivery service. Customers could have all of the ingredients in a selected recipe delivered to their front door.

Brands will continue to forge new ground in 2012, and the ones who will integrate social media into their media mix will rise to the top. 

 

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The Sky Is the Limit for Innovation

In Social Media on 11/19/2011 at 11:36 pm

Major airlines have increasingly adopted social media to keep up with younger, higher-income, and more tech-savvy consumers, who are the most frequent users of sites such as YouTube and Facebook, and the earliest adopters of new mobile location–based concepts.  Some of the most cutting-edge innovations in social media marketing have emerged from the smaller carriers that struggle most to be noticed.

Here are some of the most-innovative social media marketing campaigns in the airline industry:

Virgin Atlantic keeps its Facebook page fun and entertaining.  Last week, Virgin partnered with Facebook to launch its very first global social media marathon involving Virgin groups in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, engaging with millions of fans worldwide.  As part of the marathon initiative, Virgin launched a Facebook app called ‘First Times,’ which highlights Facebook “firsts” with friends, such as one’s first post, first tagged photo, first event, among many others.  The friend a user selected for their “firsts” will then be notified and a collage of information created via the app will be dropped in to the creator’s “Virgin First Times” photo album and the friend’s Facebook wall.  Virgin offered various prizes to fans through Facebook on every hour of the social marathon, ranging from flights and getaways to various Virgin merchandise.

Southwest’s strategy is to use social media to listen to its customers and then interact in a way that’s personal. Southwest instructs team members who post on Facebook to sign their names, effectively putting a real face on the brand. The airline encourages localization, with 20 different Facebook pages covering specific Southwest airport operations groups. Southwest also reaches out specifically to opinion leaders, including travel bloggers, brand fanatics, and avid travelers. To involve its own employees in the social media experience, Southwest sponsors an internal social media club. It also organized a social media conference in January 2011 that offered training on content creation for contributors throughout the organization.

In January 2011, Airlinetrends.com highlighted the creative use of social media by Air New Zealand, which allows users to upload their own videos to the airline’s YouTube channel, and then shows selected videos on flights. The company also leverages social location service FourSquare, offering passes to its elite lounge to users who become the “mayor” to certain airports and terminals.

The approach of larger major airlines toward social media has been more conventional, which is in line with what major corporations in other industries have done (eg, Facebook fan pages). However, in 2010, Delta became the first airline to allow travelers to book tickets entirely through Facebook. Without ever leaving the Facebook site, users can simply select “Book a trip” from a menu of options on Delta’s Facebook fan page.  From there, they are redirected to Delta’s Facebook application, creating a seamless experience for users who consider Facebook a home base for web surfing.

The sky is the limit for innovation in the airline industry.  Most recently, Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport announced that they will now allow passenger check in via Skype video call.  It is exciting to see how far the airline brands will fly in the social media space.

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