This morning, a new report fresh off the presses from e-marketer indicates blistering growth in online video advertising over the next 5 years. Driven by a proliferation of ad networks, demand-side-platforms and scalable, social video production solution-providers, e-marketer sees online video ad spending nearly doubling in only four years from $4.14 billion dollars in 2013 to $8.04 billion by 2016, a 25% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). With the online video advertising industry’s market size and revenue pool set to double over the next five years, the digital video space is also expected to mature to achieve more standardization in video ad format, a larger shift to cost-per-action ad pricing and a rise in native branding on publisher sites.
Meanwhile, TV and digital video advertising revenue pools continue to blur and converge, as multi-platform and multi-screen video advertising is increasingly become an integrated norm. “We’re pretty much approaching all of our major broadcast partnerships in concert with our digital programs,” says David Matathia, director of marketing communications at Hyundai Motor America. “When we’re working with network partners, it’s now rare to see a standalone TV or a standalone digital deal. It’s almost become standard practice to package digital and broadcast together.”
With digital marketers more than ever looking to social video as a key tool to convey rich, sharable brand experiences, e-marketers projections hardly come as a surprise. However, according to e-marketer and Credit Suisse, this growth will be accompanied by stable-to-rising CPMs for marketers (as well as higher RPMs to content creators) on networks like YouTube and mid-tier blog and media placement sites.
US Online Video CPM, by Inventory Tier, 2010-2017
Source: Credit Suisse, e-marketer. Excludes mobile display ad impressions.
Although the report doesn’t touch on social video and branded entertainment advertising, growth in that sub-class is also expected to be strong, driven by the reality that consumers increasingly have (1) more freedom over how, when and where they consume video (and by extension, to skip or ignore ads), (2) more devices to navigate between, (3) more social media activity informing their online identity and (4) less patience for content that isn’t contextually relevant, entertaining and/or informative.
Overall, with marketers, agencies and media companies set to double spending on online video in only a few short years, the future certainly looks bright for standardization, consolidation, innovation and maturity in the digital video advertising space. Let’s hope the quality of the ad content keeps up (or, better yet, improves) with the big expected boost in spending.
Content-loving customers had better take note, because you just leap-frogged blogging and slide deck-styling all the way making a video for your brand. “Video? Isn’t that the future of marketing and like 60% of all internet traffic?” You’re damn right it is, and now your content marketing prowess is on full display to all your customers and social media followers, not to mention a billion monthly YouTube users. WIN. That’s right internet – we’re uploaded, we’re discoverable and we’re in the game with a titanic 88 views in week one. And people, 88 views is just the beginning, because by week two we’ll be making waves with triple digit viewership, am I right?
It saddens me to say that in ZoomTilt’s line of work, I seem to have this exact same conversation on a weekly basis:
Brand: We want a viral video. None of our videos are getting good viewership and we’re spending a lot of time and money on them.
Me: Well, what kind of videos are you making right now?
Brand: Pretty much all documentary-style testimonial interviews and really slick, artsy, color-corrected videos of beautiful, waif-ish people walking down dim hallways showcasing our product.
Me: Would you consider experimenting and cross-testing different types of video creative? Maybe something more relevant to your target demo that’s funny, or edgy, or surprising? Perhaps with memorable, strongly-defined characters? We can define success metrics and perform deep data-gathering and predictive A/B testing on each one.
Brand: Oh no, no, no. We could never do that. Characters? We’re not GEICO, we don’t have a Gecko… the brand IS the personality. Besides, we can’t be a funny brand or an edgy brand, we’re an elegant, sophisticated, reliable, precision-engineered brand whose experience must translate like a haiku told upon the shore of a placid lake. So what can we do like that that’s going to go pretty viral..?
Stop. Video marketers, 95% of you need to re-think your approach right now, because that one competitor who gets it is smoking your PR and inbound marketing efforts. So let’s cut the small talk and get you started with our field-guide of key video marketing pitfalls to avoid. If you’re making videos for your brand and no one is watching them, here are the ten (10) reasons why:
1. You don’t really know your audience. Knowing who your audience is (say age 35+ working mothers) isn’t the same as knowing their media consumption habits and what content resonates with them – you need to understand both.
Let’s start with a typical customer video from a mainstream, mom-oriented consumer brand:
Ok, darling and highly likable Mom? Check. Solid brand that knows how to do fun video creative? Check (*ahem* Old Spice Guy *ahem*). Video that will inspire anyone to share your message or watch more? Complete miss. Don’t get us wrong, there are great opportunities out there in user-generated content, but why would a mom watch dozens of nearly identical informational testimonials for the same product? And why does Pampers, a globally-recognized diaper brand, feel the need to flood its YouTube channel and crowd out its more premium content with so many different iterations of the same bland, product credibility-builder video that doesn’t create informational or emotional value for their customers? Why would a diaper-buyer watch multiple minutes of this type of video content rather than simply executing a 15 second Google search to quickly skim a credible blog review on the same product? Your customers’ time, convenience and content consumption autonomy are highly relevant to your digital content strategy – respect them.
Now let’s take a look at some of their professional creative:
Strong start here too – who doesn’t love cute, happy babies with bed-head? But ouch, only 6 likes and 3 dislike? What gives?
Well, to summarize the entire campaign message: “if your baby pees or poops itself and doesn’t get changed, it won’t be happy (or have great, disheveled hair) like these happy babies.” What’s new, insightful or interesting about that message, one that more or less restates the same biological principle mothers have known for decades, if not centuries? Sorry Pampers, we already know your diapers are probably a little bit better (and a little bit more expensive) than some of the other brands sitting next to you on the shelf, your single layer of additional protection isn’t boosting brand lift or getting anyone to retweet this.
Want to know who gets motherhood? Fiat gets motherhood:
2. Your content doesn’t create value.
A lot of marketers think successful branded video content needs to have professional, $10,000-per-minute-and-up production quality. It doesn’t. Nor does it even necessarily have to be funny or shocking, although that usually helps. But one thing your content MUST accomplish is value creation for the viewer, which can be either informational value, emotional value or both, like these:
3. Your content generates a low-valence emotional response.
72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, so if you make something average it will get skipped and ignored. If you create something on the far end of the spectrum that generates high viewer emotional arousal, audiences will engage with and share your video.
Right (creative) way to make a marketing video for your pizza business:
Wrong (traditional, uncreative) way to make a marketing video for your pizza business:
4. Your video content doesn’t have hooks early and often.
Again, when you create content, your content is competing for attention against an ocean of entertaining video, great music and informative blog articles. You don’t need to perform an epic jump from space like RedBull, but be sure to hook viewers’ attention early and often to avoid drop-off and defection to other content. Nice job Pepsi:
5. Your content has no story arc.
Both of these videos feature heavy men’s business apparel product placements. Which do you think had the better digital campaign return on investment (ROI) and repeat viewer engagement because viewers wanted to know what happens next?
Story:
No story:
6. No one found your great video.
Unfortunately, successful video content marketing isn’t just creating great content, then putting it up on your YouTube page, blog and facebook feed and moving on to the next thing. Videos live and die by discovery, and you need to get a broad audience (and, for that matter, the right audience) looking at your work. I wrote a pretty comprehensive introductory explainer to getting more views on your video here on Quora. Check it out and feel free to leave comments or feedback if it was helpful or you disagree with any of my core points. Whatever you do, don’t make the same mistakes as Cybergeddon.
7. You didn’t test your video(s).
Traditional video content marketing – particularly branded entertainment – can be high-reward, but also moderate risk. Even with significant investment in seeding and paid media, big branded content efforts can crash and burn because the creators missed their audience or couldn’t quite pull it together on execution. At ZoomTilt, our branded entertainment media buying process is closely-integrated with video A/B-testing, so that not only do advertisers get to compare multiple creative variations based on the same brief or campaign objective, but they can also make data-driven predictions about targeted audience engagement and content virality prior to committing their full production spend. Test your videos, don’t just pull the trigger on a $300,000 media buy because your 24 year old intern down the hall who wears skinny jeans thinks they’re epic.
8. You’re not amplifying or complementing the conversation.
During prime time, up to 60% of the conversation happening on Twitter can be related to TV. Yes, successful TV shows can create global hashtags in real time. While digital isn’t at that scale and more fragmented, it’s also not as ephemeral here-and-gone as a TV ad, and that’s a big opportunity for marketers to capitalize on. Create companion content, connect your videos to product promotions or product launches, integrate hashtags and then measure it all. Entertaining storytelling is a huge catalyst for social media activity and engagement, so don’t silo your videos from your overall social media marketing efforts.
9. You’re missing the long tail.
Just like search engine optimization (SEO), strategically targeting the long tail (and long tail keywords in your video title, text description and metadata) can pay off big, particularly when your video has little relevant competition but really strikes a chord with a spirited niche. Get it right, and next thing you know your content gets picked up on Mashable and your sales go through the roof. Just ask the OraBrush guys:
10. You’re the 1,000th brand to hop on a content-competitive trend.
Don’t go head-to-head on replica content with Fortune 500 marketing giants (unless you yourself are a Fortune 500 marketing giant) if you can’t bring something really new, fresh and novel to the table:
This wins (#JeffGordonisonFire):
This doesn’t (#sorryHubspot):
The difference a little creativity and the scale of your audience reach [a solid celebrity cameo that doesn't bust your budget usually doesn't hurt either] collectively make on the success of your content cannot be understated.
Now let’s go out there and make successful branded videos people love.
Every year the CES conference showcases new technologies and campaigns from the biggest names in technology. Video, TV and transmedia integration were high on everyone’s minds this year, spanning two-screen advertising to smart TVS to cloud-driven video recording. With thousands of attendees, three expo halls (plus tents and a few food trucks), the CES was, at times, overwhelming, so we’ve broken down a selection of important media innovation developments from this major tech gathering as part of ZoomTilt’s 2013 CES recap:
1. Cisco: Videoscape Unity
Videoscape Unity is a new and expanded video services delivery platform which will allow companies to provide a synchronized multiscreen video experiences. It will also provide unified search, discovery, and viewing functions to allow consumers to watch premium live and on-demand content on any (service provider managed or unmanaged) connected device regardless of location.
2. Audible Magic: Content Recognition
Audible Magic will bring an advanced television advertising solutions including interactive and addressable advertising across smart televisions, set-top boxes and second screen devices. This will provide an interactive advertising solution which will use the company’s SmartID ACR technology to identify ads in real-time watched by users and will then display supplemental, promotional and additional informational options.
3. Google TV: 3rd Generation Streamers
In its race to reverse second-screen the TV into the “new monitor,” Google TV debuted its latest generation streaming device, the ASUS Qube with Google TV media streamer, alongside OEM partner Marvell. The team watched a few ZoomTilt web series episodes at the Marvell both, and, needless to say, Google TV’s new boxes are hands-down the most convenient and enjoyable way to watch ZoomTilt shows in big-screen HD.
4. Accedo: TV Everywhere
Accedo’s T.V.E Solution will provide an integrated solution, which connects content distribution and management platforms with attractive Pay TV applications on any connected device. Additionally, social networking integration through TVE app will allow for an enhanced user experience.
5. YuMe: Click-to-Ngage
The Click-to-Ngage icon located on an advertisement will allow users to see more information and options from that brand. Although it remains to be seen if this type of feature will catch on (clearly the quality of the content alongside it will be of critical importance), YuMe’s approach is clearly looking to combines the big screen, couch-based TV viewing experience with the interactivity and measurability of online video.
6. AT&T Enters Online Video Streaming Fray
A telecom heavyweight is wading into the streaming TV space? It would certainly seem so. The phone company’s upcoming U-Verse television service will start offering an online video streaming service called “U-Verse Screen Pack” for an $5 a month, available to U-Verse television subscribers. The bundled offering appears likely to offer a content library similar to Netflix at a slightly lower price point, although it remains to be seen if AT&T intends to win customers based on a differentiated experience (and/or content), or simply hopes to entice its existing telecom subscriber base to pick up streamed TV at a slight discount.
See anything else new and noteworthy at the 2013 CES? If so drop us a note in the comments section.
In December, YouTube launched a new redesign which focuses on channels and subscriptions, while tightening its integration with Google+. The reviews from the platforms lovers and marketers have been mixed. It nixed a lot of features that daily users loved but channel managers like the shift towards higher engagement. We’ve listed a few of the major changes and ways to optimize your YouTube channel with them.
Avatar Importance: The image you choose for your channel is now appearing whenever you leave a comment, in the sidebar when your channel is showing, on channel recommendations and more.
Descriptions Can Make or Break It: While channel descriptions can be quite long, only the first 45 characters will show up alongside your avatar and channel title, so make sure its impactful and keyword-optimized.
Make sure to include your keywords in your channel description so that your channel will come up in viewer search results. Be sure they are in your tags as well. Additionally, video descriptions should be inserted before any external website links, as they will increase the likelihood on a viewer clicking on it to watch.
Features Removed: There are noticeable elements that have been removed including “view count”, “relevance” and the “sort by” option.
Links: Make sure to link your Facebook & Twitter accounts to YouTube through account sharing settings and get these to be displayed on your channel sidebar. Additionally, the new design allows you to put multiple links on the sidebar. To optimize this feature include as many links as you want and you can link to a specific section of your website using this.
Learn About the Featured Tab: If you enable the Featured tab on your channel page make sure to use it wisely. Make sure your avatar and playlists correctly represents its. Also, if you have multiple channels, you can display them using Network or Everything template from Edit Channel option.
In short, make sure you get familiar with this new design quickly to make sure you channel is up to date and ready for viewers. For more information, refer to YouTube’s recently published best practices guide.
Starting at 10pm ET / 7pm PT, many YouTube features will be unavailable as the world’s largest video hosting platform undergoes scheduled maintenance.
According to YouTube, multiple site features will be unavailable during maintenance, including:
Commenting and liking
Subscribing
Creating new playlists
Starting a new livestream or Hangout on Air
CMS
Partners with Dropbox access will be able to drop videos in, but they won’t be processed until after maintenance is complete.
As a result, we encourage all creators in the YouTube ecosystem to delay uploading videos this afternoon and evening until the maintenance process is complete and full site functionality and audience engagement features are restored.
Christophor Rick is a well-accomplished individual. He holds a B.S. degree in molecular science, he served in the U.S. Navy, he’s taught in Europe and he’s interned with NASA (whoa), but what he is most known for is his career as a freelance writer. With his third book launching this December, Christophor Rick has made a career out of analyzing and reporting on online video content. It’s no surprise to us that he is the brains behind one of our finalist pilots for the TV Reset Project with his original concept and story: “Not So Super.”
In development since 2007, “Not So Super” is the story of Vince, a superhero currently undergoing a mid-life crisis who must set aside his insecurities and fight off the new super villain, Scandal, who threatens his home, Prime City.
“I have been a fan of comics for a long time and the thing that often struck me was that they were all overblown, artificial, larger-than-life personas and personalities, hard to relate to at times,’ says Rick. ‘Many common human issues were not addressed a lot of the time, so I wanted to make a more human hero who has real world problems that makes him easy to relate to and somewhat of an underdog at this point in his career.”
Since he is no stranger to the online video community we also asked Rick what he’s paying attention to out there in the webisode world and his picks are “Leap Year” from Geek & Sundry and Hulu’s “Battleground”, which takes place in Rick’s home state of Wisconsin.
Although this will be Rick’s first major video production he’s assembled a team of skilled, veteran entertainment professionals that will help guide the production while Rick concentrates on directing and seeing his story vision through.
“Having been around online video for the last five years, I know what I like and what I want, [less exactly] how to get there,” Rick admits.
We over here at ZoomTilt think that Christophor Rick has quite a future ahead of him as a creator and director. He is already well on his way and has an arsenal of other projects outside of “Not So Super” on the horizons.
Thriller web series The Others is the brainchild of Douglas Stark. That his writing made it to ZoomTilt’s finals is no surprise given his background — Doug has written for Law & Order, Falcone (CBS), NBC/Universal and Bruckheimer, as well as written screenplays for hire. He’s been writing for about 25 years now, sometimes for Hollywood and sometimes for independent projects.
But writing is not his only work in the film world — he also worked as a producer for shows like E! and True Hollywood, as well as a director for his own shorts. He wrote and directed the short “Do Not Disturb” (a psychological thriller), which was named 2005′s best short by Fade In magazine.
“I feel like I’m working full-time as a writer and part-time as everything else,” Doug says. “I have the ability to create my own schedule, so my day is a revolving schedule of textbook business, writing work, and family (I have two kids). If you want to know ‘when do you find time to write’, the real answer is I don’t sleep (certainly not enough).”
Doug recommends that other writers “write what you must”, but also focus on finding ways to get those scripts produced. “Even if it’s DIY. At the end of the day, you’ll learn a lot more about what works and what doesn’t and you’ll have something to show.”
Editor’s note: The Others is a thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Each episode is a page turner. I’ve read the whole first season and am dying to know what happens after that! We can’t wait to see the pilot.
With a seamless script-to-screen production cycle, Travis Tyler and James Poirier joke, “People want to see our content and we can’t produce it fast enough!” Still, even in a post-production haze after their recently-premiered short film, The End of December, the mantra of the independent filmmaker persists: “We enjoy it. Otherwise we wouldn’t do it.”
Comedy is a new venture for this team, though, and it comes in the form of a web series about students in spy training school. Spycology, they say, is perfect for the next big thing: web entertainment.
Spycology is James Bond meets Harry Potter meets Scrubs, states James with a grin. They describe script writing as a scattered, creative asset. “The trick is pulling it all together.” Tenth Gate Production’s smooth-functioning production manager Nancy Pratheepmanowong explains that the appeal of a web series is that they are ongoing and allow for a true story arc. “From a writing standpoint,” says James, “it’s watching a character evolve naturally. You can’t achieve that the same way with short films. “ While James is more writing and detail-oriented, Travis is the big picture guy, drawn to the re-watchability factor, which is exclusive to web series.
Tenth Gate Productions was set in motion when Travis and James decided on a name for their future production company in 4th grade. “Growing up in rural Maine, there aren’t too many draws on your time. We’d film something nearly every day,” James explains. James and Travis butt heads, and they say it’s better and more constructive that way, especially with new addition Nancy, who balances out the team. Travis explains, “a long standing friendship is hard to emulate, but we have this keen understanding.”
They define themselves as storytellers, rather than filmmakers, sharing the mentality, “I need to tell your story and I need to tell it right.” James points to the rarity of seeing “Written, produced, and edited by:” in credits. “This really maintains artistic integrity efficiently from script to screen.”
But even though they’ve been in the business for 15 years, they still learn something every day. “You can’t be in this industry if you thought you knew it all,” explains James, who sees editing as the new art form. “If you stop learning, you become complacent,” Travis expands, noting the challenge of finding the best solutions for each new creative endeavor. While they feel Hollywood has reached a wall in terms of originality, the independent film community evolves in ways unmatched by major film studios, and they’re taking the web by storm.
Be sure to follow Tenth Gate on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TenthGate for the latest updates on Spycology and their other projects.
Actors and filmmakers Todd Rulapaugh and Brian Groh are in the runnings with their webseries pitch, Cool Justice, inspired by stylized cop shows of the 70′s. Todd, who created the premise, points to characters like Detective Mick Belker in Hill Street Blues – “This guy would actually growl at the bad guys!” The soil is fertile for this action-packed comedy webseries. Picture Starsky and Hutch meets Comedy Central’s Reno 911, where anything can and does happen.
In Cool Justice, two cryogenically frozen undercover cops from the 70’s are thawed out in present day Los Angeles to help a hottie heiress claim her missing millions. Together the unlikely threesome bust up bad guys old-school-style while following cryptic-clues left by her eccentric billionaire-scientist-grandfather, in a perfect world, played by Will Ferrell.
The team had a field day dreaming up what these comedic cops could get caught up in after being dormant for 40 years. Todd and Brian draw from their own adventures in “the mean streets of L.A.” With the space shuttle Endeavor landing at LAX a couple of weeks ago to be driven through the streets to the California Science Center, they imagined a scene with the confused cops. They pictured them waiting out on the streets like everyone else, only they brought their binoculars and a telescope pointed up into the sky, eventually having a revelation: “Oh my God, they drive it to the moon now!”
When Brian isn’t improvising with Upright Citizens Brigade and when Todd takes a break from L.A. standup at The Comedy Store and Flappers Comedy Club, the two hash out ideas for their new ventures. The script for their action feature, “Hell Divers Rodeo,” is currently optioned by “Cinema Revival,” and they are looking ahead to the world of webseries.
The team is excited by opportunities to take their talent to the web, and Brian explains that “a lot of these projects, once you start them, they don’t die.” Especially not when your clip receives the highest rating of “immortal” on Funny or Die. Check out Brian’s clip, First Date Blow Job, for a taste of what kind of humor to expect from Cool Justice!
With Jeff Hodsden on board as director, Todd and Brian say they are stoked to take Cool Justice to the small screen, anticipating the freedom and control that comes into play when working on a webseries. Todd and Brian are firm believers in the power of comedy to trump short attention spans. “The idea for Cool Justice is that anyone can drop in on any episode and still be entertained,” they explain, noting the charisma of the over-the-top cops.
Todd Rulapaugh– Writing and Acting An actor living in Los Angles where he has worked on pilots as a series regular for Brillstein-Grey, ABC, independent television, lead guest spots for CBS and feature films including the Grand Jury indie hit “In Memory of My Father”. Most recently he has been performing stand up at various comedy clubs in L.A.
Brian Groh – Writing and Acting A writer/performer from the famed Upright Citizens Brigade. His sketches have achieved the highest rating on Funny-or-Die and have appeared on TV. He is also a frequent contributor to well-known Hollywood sketch and scene nights including UCB’s Not Too Shabby, Slap and Tickle, Saturn and Vine, Serial Killers and Tongue and Groove.
Jeff Hodsden – Directing An Emmy nominated writer who has written over thirty episodes for hit shows on the Disney Channel, including The Suit Life of Zack and Cody and currently The A.N.T. Farm. Prior to that, he wrote for the hit WB comedy, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment. He continues to write and direct for all types of media, commercial and independents.
