By Devin Monds, Commercial Director, EMEA, KERV Interactive
Video has become a permanent fixture in the marketing mix, providing the ultimate solution combining visuals, sound and graphics to communicate your brand promise to prospective customers. The explosive growth of video marketing speaks to its success – almost 5 billion hours of videos are watched every day on YouTube and it has now replaced Facebook as the #1 platform for driving consumer behaviour. TikTok, meanwhile, is the fastest-growing social media platform, growing over 18% per year. The success of video marketing is validated by the 88% of marketers who say they are satisfied with their return on video investment.
So the question is no longer “is video an effective marketing channel,” but rather “how can I optimize the ROI on our video marketing efforts.” While the growth and opportunity presented by all this seem limitless, there are ways to move the viewer further down the marketing funnel and actually drive measurable conversions. In fact, there are solutions available right now that can deliver this to brands today. Through the use of AI and machine learning techniques, videos can be transformed into a fully interactive and trackable experience that can help seal the deal and make a sale.
User Participation
Video has always done a great job of storytelling and creating an emotional response from the viewer. But now, marketers are able to invite the user to participate in the video experience, by clicking on a tile in the video or on the side of the content. This interaction compresses the user journey from within the video, directing the viewer to where the brand wants them to go online.
It may sound far-fetched, but it’s as easy as handing off a raw video file. Brands can use assets they’ve already created, such as a 15- or 30-second ad spot. Using AI, unique objects are dynamically identified in each scene and paired with customizable titles, descriptions and link-out URLs.
Let’s use an example of what this might look like for a brand, such as a high-end automobile. It may show the interior of the cabin. It could display new LED lights. Within that video, a user can click on a carousel to the left of the video, and they can actually explore these particular elements. For instance, what are these new LED lights about? That’s an action where the consumer is brought into the experience of it.
Totally Scalable
Brands can bring that consumer further down the marketing funnel by having them engage with something they’re seeing within that video. It’s marketing that is totally scaleable, with reach across a whole host of publishers.
With this engagement comes the ability to measure user behaviour using the data within the video. Marketers can measure exactly what that user behaviour. What are they hovering on? Is it the new kind of alloy wheels? Is it the new kind of windshield? Is it the side mirror?
There are also demographic data to help you to better identify your target audience. So let’s say you think your target is people ages 18 to 49. By digging deeper, you may find that it’s actually 45-year-olds to 49-year-olds who seem to really be engaged in this new car. Because they’re interacting with video and clicking to learn more, you can also trigger some really impactful retargeting tactics as well.
The Right Direction
It’s all about targeting the right message at the right time across the right publishers. With a nice piece of video content, a user can actually come into it authentically and then take action within that video. It can get them closer to a test drive at the local dealership, wherever it may be. You’ll never purchase a car from your laptop because you tangibly want to go touch that vehicle and drive it. But marketers can at least help put some rear ends in that dealership! It’s down the path of continually making the consumer experience even easier.
Too often brands and marketers fall into complacency when it comes to their video marketing campaigns. It’s easy to dismiss video as strictly a “top of funnel” effort created to build awareness but not conversions. But today, brands looking to use video as a “bottom-of-funnel” tactic can find a solution that can tap artificial intelligence to bring significant improvements to your marketing ROI.
