Retail Marketing - Shopping Center Marketing

“Viral” video marketing is a low-cost, high-value complement to traditional online marketing for ad agencies and brands. It gives agencies and clients a chance to experiment with more adventurous creative that doesn’t fit on TV or in a pre- and post-roll format.

It can also be thought of as the ROI that keeps on giving. Popular videos keep getting views, sometimes months after they’re seeded online.

For many agencies and brands, questions of strategy and execution persist for what is still a relatively new marketing practice. Here are tips for planning a brand web video seeding campaign:

Online video isn’t right for every brand.

Not every product campaign is suitable for a web-based video seeding program. If you sell a product like laundry detergent, which demands more of an attribute-based sales approach, you might want to stick with traditional TV, print, or newspaper inserts.

There are, of course, exceptions. In 2006 blender company Blendtec drew viral figures with its “Will It Blend?” campaign, where a man in a white lab coat blended all kinds of unlikely objects. The effort’s still running; see him blend an iPhone 3G:

In general, though, video seeding is ideal for a “lifestyle brand” with a strong online user base.Video seeding isn’t right for every piece of creative.

When considering seeding a video online, make sure the work is good enough to get audiences to do some of the heavy lifting for you. Ask yourself: would I share this video with friends?

If the answer is no, long form or pre- or post-roll video ads might be a better way to go (if you don’t scrap the idea altogether).

If the answer is yes, a well-executed video seeding program ensures your video will get to the tipping point. Your creative will determine how far it goes from there.

Should you go it alone – or use a video seeding vendor?

The viral success of a branded video depends in great part on how well it’s seeded. Using internal resources, like interns, to seed your video is a good option for when budgets are tight. But professional seeding companies guarantee views — starting at 100,000 views and up — for what they seed online. They’re pros at reaching users on YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and other web sites, blogs, and newsgroups where video is typically shared and discussed.

This guarantee — coupled with reach, engagement and the reporting they provide — is why many advertisers prefer professional seeders to a more grassroots approach.

Match the campaign to the vendor.

Video seeding companies have different engagement models and strengths. Pick one that’s right for your client and campaign.

NMS offers buzz generation and is known for its social media reporting. 7th Chamber, part of Kontraband, distributes its videos within a network of owned and operated sites. Feed Company targets users and influencers across a network of sites, blogs and social destinations, based on the type of video you have.

Any model can be effective; your choice should depend on your creative and your goals.

Be transparent!

Ensure your video seeding company is accountable and transparent in their marketing and reporting process. Know what to expect: who are they marketing your video to? How do they communicate with users on YouTube, via email and on other sites? Will they conduct damage control (and how)? Do they disclose who they are and their connection to your campaign? (Make sure they’re honest! If they pretend to be fanboys, bloggers will trash your work out of principle.)

A professional video seeding company should have answers and a POV on these topics, but remember: transparency works best. Bloggers and site editors are most responsive when you’re clear about your intentions and about who you are. Incidentally, clients are like that too.

Keep it almost real.

Many of the best brand viral videos are ones you can imagine yourself or your friends doing:

“Guys Backflip into Jeans” (for Levi’s)

“Ball Girl” (for Gatorade) The videos above fit into the ordinary-people-doing-extraordinary-things category. These “faux” virals have a “How’d they do that?” element that spurs conversation and gets passed along — which can result in millions of views.Don’t make believability too much of a stretch, or your audience will lost interest. The recent Wendy’s brand viral video fits into this latter category:

See how it fared on YouTube. (I’ll give you a hint: not well.)Use more than tricks to find your audience.

“Faux” viral videos can be successful, but you don’t have to fool people to win them over. Let creativity reign – when else can you on this small a budget?

Check out “Bee-Boy dance crew drops dead,” by Feed Company for Haagen-Dazs:

In the short time it’s been live, EA’s catchy Red Alert 3 Remix has also generated high ratings and viral-caliber views: If you have a story to tell, there’s an audience for it someplace. Feel free to go out on a limb. You should be okay as long as users can draw a reasonable connection between your work, the brand, and their lives.Subtly reveal your brand link.

Make the brand apparent to users in subtle ways. Put the brand name in the video tags, include a brand element on your YouTube user account, and link back to your microsite. (The microsite should also be consistent with your video’s content or tone.)

A video we seeded for Parrot, a Bluetooth technology provider, is a good example of this subtle strategy: the YouTube user account is “itsparrot,” and Parrot’s microsite URL is featured at the end of the video.

For our Levi’s web video campaign, conducted in tandem with Cutwater, the YouTube user account was “unbuttonedfilms.”

Don’t be afraid to incorporate the brand experience in the video when relevant. For web video “Super Mario Rescues the Princess,” animator Seth MacFarlane incorporated sponsor Burger King as a kind of opening feature:

Move beyond the view.Views are a key metric for judging the success of video seeding campaigns. But it’s not the only one. Measure engagement by discussion sessions, comments, blog mentions, search results, and on social networks. (Facebook Lexicon may prove helpful for that particular network.) The quality of conversations around your video must also be considered.

Mainstream media — ABC, CNN, MSNBC, and others — occasionally also broadcast successful videos on air and online.

By moving beyond the view and establishing additional metrics for branded web video, the practice – and the industry – will be able to evolve in variation and sophistication without losing mainstream appeal.

[Story Found at Marketing Vox]