Author: Neha Mehta

Facebook Rolls Out Video Chat Messenger Rooms To Beat Zoom And The Likes

• Facebook announced 50-person video chat rooms called Messenger rooms.
• Regardless of whether participants have a Facebook account, they can participate in the calls.
• Messenger Rooms are an answer to Zoom and Houseparty for Pandemic.
• Messenger Rooms will roll out this week in a few countries and the rest of the world next week including the U.S.

 

Video calling services have seen a sharp rise during the coronavirus crisis and the use of video calling on Facebook Messenger has doubled in the coronavirus affected areas. On Friday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivered a live stream to announce the company’s retooled video products for users to connect while at home under quarantine. The video update perfectly fits Facebook advertising plans that focus on e-commerce.

As many countries issued stay-at-home orders, rival apps Zoom witnessed a drastic growth in the active users to 300 million in April, and Houseparty, owned by Fortnite-maker Epic Games, was downloaded more than 2 million times in the start of March. Facebook has seen the success of Zoom, the video conferencing sites popular among the companies that have sent employees to work-from-home. The biggest product launch ‘Rooms’ will be created via Facebook Messenger which allows 50 people to hang out at a time. The company plans to add the feature to Instagram, Whatsapp and it’s portal-video calling devices soon. 

Key features of Messenger Rooms:

1. People will be able to keep their room private, block unwanted participants, and invite people who are not on Facebook.
2. Participants can use AR filters and change the background real-time
3. Discoverable rooms will be listed at the top of the feed.

However, messenger rooms are not end-to-end encrypted like Group Facetime or  WhatsApp call. Stan Chudnovsky, VP of Messenger said on the blog,

Room calls are not end-to-end encrypted, but Facebook says it does not view or listen to calls. The creator of a room can remove participants at any time, and rooms where illicit behavior is taking place can be reported to Facebook. (WhatsApp video calls are end-to-end encrypted, offering an extra layer of protection to users.)

Summary of Other Updates from Facebook

• WhatsApp will accommodate from four to eight participants in the video group calls making it a suitable competitor to Zoom.
• Facebook Live and IGTV: Facebook is creating advertising that fits in this environment especially in the areas that are popular among consumers like home cooking, fitness, and others. It will be open for business and more e-commerce activities will take place. 800 million people watch live streaming on Facebook and Instagram.
• Donate Button on Live videos: This helps musicians, artists, people, and activists can raise funds for causes during the coronavirus outbreak.
• Live via Audio only: with more musicians doing live concerts on Facebook Live, you can listen in case you cannot watch it or want to save on data.
• Instagram Live On Web: You can watch live videos related to any activity or product from the desktop.
• Portal Live: One of Facebook’s hardware projects that have seen a slow adoption but with the COVID-19 crisis the sales increased tenfold. You can go to Live to the pages and Groups devices from Portal devices and can also create interactive content for customers and communities.
• Facebook Dating Video Chat: It is in the nascent dating service. Facebook dating is a virtual meet up and does a video chat with matches on Facebook first.

 

Facebook is going to report quarterly earnings next week and it has already said that the revenue has been negatively affected due to the coronavirus crisis as advertisers have pulled back on spending and online ad auction prices have been reduced. According to eMarketer Facebook ads and the amount it earns from each unit sold has decreased by nearly 50% in some categories.

Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst at eMarketer, in her note said,

“Those losses will be made up for by gains in categories that increased their use of Facebook advertising at the end of March, either to market products or services aimed at people staying at home, or to take advantage of drastically lower ad costs.”

Snap’s Q1 2020 Report: Users and Revenue Increases, Ad Spend Declines

Snap Inc. the parent company of the popular social media platform Snapchat reported in its Q1 2020 earnings – strong gains in both users and revenues but a dip in advertiser spend despite the growing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

No Coronavirus Negative Impact on Earnings-Yet

The stock was up nearly 20 percent after the company reported a 44 percent (Y-o-Y) increase in its first-quarter revenue to $462 million. That was a far better performance than expected. The ad spend growth grew 58% in January and February, and fell to roughly 25% in March (when the pandemic grew rapidly), the gains from the first two months helping to end the quarter positively.

CFO Derek Andersen said during Snap’s earnings call,

“The economic environment has become challenging for many of our advertising partners.”

The company didn’t provide guidance for Q2 citing uncertainty related to the worldwide economic crisis but in an unusual step, provided revenue growth figures for the first week of April.  The advertiser mix on Snapchat contributed to the Q1 performance and continues to help in Q2. Snapchat has a few small business advertisers unlike Facebook and Instagram, however many large advertisers are ready to commit on a regular basis.

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel said in a statement,

“We are grateful for the opportunity to serve our community and partners during this difficult time.” He added, “Snapchat is helping people stay close to their friends and family while they are separated physically, and I am proud of our team for overcoming the many challenges of working from home during this time while we continue to grow our business and support those who are impacted by COVID-19.”

Strong User Growth and increase in Engagement

Snapchat’s daily active user (DAV) base reached 229 million in the first quarter across all regions and on Android and iOS.This represents a 20 percent increase from last year.

There is some concern over the divergence of Snapchat’s users’ growth. Snapchat added 2 million more users in North America- the most lucrative market but the majority of the growth was from the ‘Rest of the World’ category. Snapchat has witnessed significant growth in the Indian market since it revamped its Android app, a key contributor to the ‘Rest of the World’ category.

However, the key area of opportunity that Snap would prefer to boost growth in the US as it will get more 3.5x more revenue per user.

Besides, the time spent on Snapchat has increased due to coronavirus. CEO Evan Spiegel reported that the average time spent in the last week of March vs. the last week of January was up more than 20%. On the other hand, markets like the U.K, France saw more than a 30% increase.

Mobile app tracker App Annie’s findings point out 54% growth in average time spent per user on Snapchat in South Korea from March1-14,2020, compared with Q4 2019. Italy marked a 36% increase and Japan was up 23%.

Additionally, this pandemic increased communication with friends and family on Snapchat, up more than 30% in the last week of march compared to the last week of January whereas in some other geographies there was an increase of more than 50%.

Games, TV, Chat, Calling are other highlighting points of group engagement.

Snapchatters watching Snap’s premium content hub ‘ Discover’ grew 35% Y-o-Y in Q1 2020 which represents the total time spent watching shows more than doubling this quarter. The company also mentioned hiring Hulu senior vice president of advertising sales Peter Naylor.

Chief business officer Jeremi Gorman said,

“As TV budgets migrate to digital, they move to places that carry the same advantages of linear, and we’ve been investing in those things for years. Peter is just the most recent investment in the strategy.”

Snap has also launched App Stories -brings its popular stories feature to the app. It also launched five new Snap games globally.  With the use of videoconferencing and live streaming to connect with friends and family, Snap has seen more than 30 times increase in the daily download of Snap camera, a desktop app that allows people to add lenses to whichever video service they use. Besides, it added more than 120 partner app integration with its Snap Kit,  and the numbers of Snapchatters using on a monthly basis is up 75% from the Q4 of 2019. 

Direct-Response advertising budgets make up half of the revenues.

Snap continues to double down on direct response advertisers especially in games, home entertainment, CPG, and eCommerce. Direct response advertising now accounts for more than half of Snap’s revenue.

Speigel noted,

“In the short-term, we’re shifting sales resources and pulling forward some investments in direct response to better serve the advertisers who are trying to reach our audience during this time. For example, we can help movie studios pivot to digital releases by supporting them with a suite of products designed to track titles over a dynamic and flexible release window. We’ve also seen many large brands doing a lot of important things to help their community and the broader world, and we’re helping these brands communicate their efforts to our audience in a thoughtful and approachable way that inspires others to make a positive impact.”

Snapchat recently worked with Universal on the promotion of the animated film ‘Trolls World Tour’ released digitally incorporating Trolls AR masks into Snap Camera add-on a feature that gained significant momentum as more people work from home. 

Snap has worked immensely hard over the past few years to build out measurement capabilities and ad products to interest the direct advertisers resulting in nearly double total ad revenues in two years.

So what has Snap done to get this?

Snap introduced conversion-optimized bidding- which allows advertisers to optimize toward their sales or app install gaols, conversion-tracking advertising pixels, and improved ad-targeting capabilities. This has attracted performance advertisers who already buy those types from other platforms.

Snap has focused on offering unique ad products like augmented reality platforms and easy self serve ad platform.

 Chief business officer Jeremi Gorman said,

“Advertisers are looking for a way to make a dollar go further. “We have efficient pricing, and we’re a great place to come to get ROAS for the audience they’re looking for.”

There is also something for Snap’s brand advertisers. The company has doubled the amount of money committed via upfronts in 2020 vs. 2019. Snap is using its creative services to help brands distribute their PSAs related to COVID-19, like the filter from Adidas encouraging people across the United Kingdom and Germany to stay at home that was viewed more than 14 million times.

Snap has a lot of potential and capacity to reach a young audience. Although things look gloomy for the remaining year of 2020, Snap appears more stable and an attractive platform for advertisers and partners. If Snap manages to expand its market appeal geographically, it will be well-positioned beyond COVID-19.

Rejoice Small Retailers: Selling Products is Now Free On Google Shopping

The retail sector has been facing difficult times over the years and it has intensified during the coronavirus pandemic. In the wake of the current challenging situation, Google announced from now the listings of products will be free in the Google Shopping Tab in search results. 

Explaining this decision, Bill Ready, President of Commerce at Google cites the fact that it is difficult for struggling businesses to pay for Google shopping listings at this time. 

“And as consumers increasingly shop online, they’re searching not just for essentials but also things like toys, apparel, and home goods.

While this presents an opportunity for struggling businesses to reconnect with consumers, many cannot afford to do so at scale.”

Before this announcement, the merchants used to pay Google whenever a customer visited their website through Google product listing but not anymore. Google made this attempt to expand in e-commerce to compete with Amazon Inc as it drives more consumers online due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Launching Free Listings initiative  

Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc will enable merchants to list on Google Shopping service free of cost. Google witnesses hundreds of millions of shopping searches on its platform every day.

This change will take effect in the U.S search results by the end of April and aim to expand globally by the end of the year. The rollout will begin next week where search results on the Google shopping tab will consist primarily of free product listings.

 

With physical stores temporary shut doors, digital e-commerce is the lifeline for small and struggling retailers. The company states that many retailers have the items in stock and ready to ship the products that people need but are not easily discoverable online. That is where Google is trying to bridge the gap and is looking to address with this move.

• What’s in it for Retailers?

Free exposure to reach millions of potential customers that visit Google every day for their shopping needs.

• What’s in it for Shoppers?

This will ensure the discovery of more products and more stores via Google’s Shopping Tab. Existing members of Merchant Center and Shopping ads can start directly with their free listing. For new users, Google is trying to streamline the onboarding pretty soon.

A Merchant Center account is compulsory to publish free product listing.

• What’s in it for Advertisers?

Paid campaigns can now be augmented with free listings.

New Partnership with PayPal

Google has kickstarted with new  PayPal to allow merchants to link their accounts and speed up the onboarding process.

PayPal joins the existing partners including, Spotify, Woo Commerce, and Big Commerce.

Other Key Changes

Google specifically states that Google Shopping will consist “primarily” of free listings. This means they are still accepting paid listings and will receive notable placement at the top of the Google shopping tab.

The attempt of free listing can affect advertising revenue but this decision is made from a long term perspective as more merchants will start using Google Shopping.      

Google free listing will show up in the less popular search tab,  compared to the Product ads that will appear on the main page.

Solutions in the time of crisis are not about easy or fast but how to provide relief to struggling businesses and lay groundwork for a better and healthier retail ecosystem.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Project Agora Co-founds the New EMEA Video Advertising Platform- Union

Union, the joint venture of five leading technology providers has now launched a new video advertising platform in London for Europe, Middle East and Africa(EMEA) to help local content providers access to video ad spend from global brands who want to support local media at a time when trusted content is the need of the hour for their readers. At the same time, it enables international advertisers to activate video campaigns on the sites that really matter to their local audiences. 

Union empowers local publishers to cater to the premium inventory demand by global brands. With a total of over 300employees located in 34 cities, Union and its founding members – regional technology providers PlayAD, Project Agora, ShowHeroes, Video Intelligence and Viralize enjoy strategic relationships with thousands of local market websites across EMEA region providing video content, monetization and technology to publishers.

This strategic partnership helps Union bring a blend of pre-roll and out-stream video formats to the market for advertisers to target. This is achieved using a powerful combination of programmatic and contextual targeting to reach nearly 300 million users on relevant, brand safe and trusted publishers. Union’s publisher partners involve global brands like Marie Claire, Elle, Vanity Fair, and CNN, as well as leading local publishers such as Aller Media, Axel Springer, Stryia, Libero and Funke Media Group.

Steven Filler has been announced as Managing Director for Union and will lead the launch across EMEA focusing on London, Paris and Amsterdam agency buying hubs.

With 20+ years of experience in the digital industry, Filler has held major commercial roles across a range of leading companies including The Guardian, AOL, and upon his appointment, he said:

“The current global crisis has highlighted the continued importance of local quality media in providing the truth and guidance to readers, so that they can be informed citizens.  At the same time, advertisers demand more quality, brand safe video inventory and Union makes this possible through a single-entry point while also allowing brands to support the publishers that really matter to their local audiences.”

Odysseas Ntotsikas, founder of Project Agora, said:

“The launch of the Union is further reinforcing and expanding the reach of Project Agora’s mission to Keep the Open Web Open. Local Publishers so far unable to attract advertising budgets from international advertisers and trading desks can now see an uplift in such revenues by working with Project Agora, Union’s founding partner in Central, SE Europe and MEA. For local advertisers looking to advertise out of their home market there is now a unique opportunity to see their brand in the top local sites of every European market that people trust for their news and entertainment”.

11 Global Brands Create Epic Ads Entirely From Home During Covid-19.

Just weeks into global lockdown, advertising production has changed. It is now confined to homes with shoots canceled or postponed for the foreseeable future. Out of adversity, now comes creativity as advertisers are overcoming the hurdle of not being able to venture out with ads made remotely or entirely from home.

Video advertising isn’t stopped amidst the pandemic but is showcasing creativity in lockdown. 

We have handpicked the best ads produced remotely in the COVID- era from around the world.

1. Apple: Creativity goes on

Apple is one of the top names of all brands creating ads from home. The tech giant has captured how consumers are creative amid the COVID outbreak and are using its products for drawing pictures on the iPad, produce video content on Macbook or Facetime with near ones. The film is produced  in over two weeks starring many celebrities from their homes and ends with a line reading “Creativity Goes On.”

2. Women’s Aid: The Lockdown by Engine

Engine and Knucklehead created a campaign ‘The Lockdown’ – uses video shot during the daily excursions in London to capture the empty roads and emphasize that domestic abusers are no longer on the streets and are locked inside with their families. Women’s aid has set up a coronavirus advice page to help victims of domestic abuse.

3. IKEA: Making Home Count 

An absolute delight to watch the video advertisement and beautiful creative ad in coronavirus outbreak. Ikea Singapore released ‘Making Home Content’ –  a short ad made remotely by a team of creatives from TBWA to give thanks to those abiding the lockdown rules. It covers simple ‘joys’ like pets, cooking, and playtime with children and family, using the footage shot by the team who captured their lockdown lives.

4. Vodafone Italy: Importance of Connectivity

Vodafone Italy launched an ad campaign made remotely by the crew to demonstrate the importance of connectivity and raise funds for the Italian Red Cross during the pandemic. The ad features the strapline “Even when we can’t be close, we can be together”.

5.Honda Civic: #StayHome

The 35-second spot is the latest video ad made from home entirely for the Dubai region with Memac Ogilvy Dubai. A classic example of creative video advertising where it started like any other sheet metal commercial but with a twist. Honda uses a full-scale miniature car and the camera shots managed to trick the viewers for some time and feel like watching a real car. The ad ended on a hopeful note reading” Until we drive again” with the hashtag #Stayhome.

6.Porsche: Let it Not Tempt you

Another automobile ads made remotely is Porsche for Poland which created a film overnight with a series of graphics to encourage viewers to stay home despite the beautiful weather. It inspires Porsche owners to share photos of the parked cars on social media and comply with safety recommendations.

7.Nike: Play for the World

 

Next on ads made remotely is Nike’s inspiring campaign where it is paying a tribute to all the athletes who are training indoors due to quarantine. 

8. Birds Eye: So, What’s For Tea?

https://youtu.be/Fy4OULzv8QM

This creative video advertising ad was made to help families cope with the coronavirus crisis presenting life hacks like entertaining families that include coloring pages and word searches. Families can download the life hacks on the brand’s website or social media page.  

9.Ad Council: #StayHome, Save Lives

The Ad Council has joined hands with Google, the ANA, and other advertising, media, marketing trade associations, on a wide movement that pleads to the people of America to #StayHome Save Lives in order to slow the spread of coronavirus.

10. The BMW: Contactless Experience

The highly affected sector due to these unprecedented times is automotive. A unique and creative corona ad introduces the BMW India Contactless experience with a digital-purchase experience that gives the feel and benefits of a brick and mortar dealership at a click of a button and from the comfort of the home.

11. Audi: The Drive

Audi is offering a pleasant and innovative experience to house-bound Australians through the freedom of open roads. Audi Australia created a 4 hour long long-slow TV film, a masterpiece of creativity in lockdown for the viewers to experience the soothing nature of the road trip from the comfort of their home.

The creative ads in coronavirus pandemic show that it has not put a damper on the creativity of the people and will inspire audiences to StayHome, StaySafe to win over these tough times.

26 Stellar Video (YouTube) Advertising Examples To Take Creative Inspiration From!

Stephan Vogel, Ogilvy & Mather Germany’s chief creative officer quotes,

“Nothing is more efficient than creative advertising. Creative advertising is more memorable, longer lasting, works with less media spending, and builds a fan community…faster.”

Creativity is the base of advertising and branding and what better medium to propel this creativity than video? Many businesses have started using video advertising creatives to create a buzz for their products and brand. Video tends to drive more engagement and the numbers below from a recent 2020 survey by Wyzowl says it all.

• 95% of marketers say that video has helped user understanding of product and services 
• 89% of marketers say that it gives good ROI. 
• 84% of consumers purchase a product or service by watching brands’ videos. 
• 92% of marketers believe video is an important part of digital strategy.

Brands are facing immense competition to make themselves heard and are opting for creative video marketing to rise. So what does it take to gain attention? Let’s say, choosing influencers for marketing, video advertising campaigns or teaming up with entertainment franchises like Game of Thrones to rise above the noise. 

We indeed see many ads per day but how many do we recall by night? The odds are you might not recall even four ads seen in the week. People don’t read or see ads of what the brand is selling. They are interested to read or see stories of people that have the same challenges as they do. This is why the visual guide below explains why video advertising is the best advertising choice and businesses should consider incorporating it.

Power of Video in Creative Advertising

The beginning of the age of video advertising has created a paradigm shift for marketers. As per Forbes, video ads account for more than 35% of total ad spending online.

Different types of websites – social media platforms, news organizations, company pages, all are employing video content for their voracious audience consumption. Social media platforms prioritize videos over other forms of content as videos help to build trust and engagement. Therefore, all these trends make it important to nail your online video presence. 

Snapchat leads to be one of the fastest-growing social media platforms based on its video stories and Instagram successfully introduced a similar feature ”Insta Stories”.

YouTube suggests users use over 1 billion hours of video on the site every day in 2017.

Online Video is predicted to make up 80% of all internet traffic by 2020.

Video Ads are not as Short always and connects through Creative, Personalized Video

Consumers prefer to watch a 15-sec video considering images than read a block with text. However, the most popular video ad length is 30 seconds, and data suggest people are willing to watch a bit longer videos.

For instance, OYO, one of the world’s largest hotel chains, released a series of ad ‘Raho Mast campaign’ inspired by real-life stories. 

Some are more than a minute long but all of them convey the same message that staying in a low-priced hotel room doesn’t require compromise on quality.

With this video ad campaign, the brand is striking a chord with consumers by providing the best hospitality solution with their standardized and comfortable stay at value for money. The advantage of an extended format is that advertisers get time to explain stories and pull consumers into it.

A digital video advertising strategy should involve mixing and matching different length pieces 

15-30 seconds is the optimal length for a video ad, as it allows you to strike a balance between creating a relevant narrative and providing a short attention span.

User-Generated Content Builds Brand awareness

Brands are building creative advertisements that give you real buyers experience and perspective and it blends with the marketing strategy as well. 

In an Adweek survey, 76% of respondents find UGC more influential than content created by the brand directly.

 To help you encourage your own video marketing efforts, here are 26 Crazy and Creative Video Advertisements Examples on social media

Facebook Ads: 

Facebook Ads are engaging and get views if they are well made and too good to be ignored. The best Facebook Ad helps brands connect with new consumers every day.

1. Hello Fresh: Orange Cashew Chicken-Stir Fry

Meal kit delivery service Hello Fresh regularly advertises cooking videos just like the above that walks through an Orange Cashew Chicken Stir-fry recipe. These recipes are impulsively watched by the audience and Facebook users are accustomed to seeing their feed.

https://www.facebook.com/HelloFreshus/videos/vl.1025847054221655/1940931509268024/?type=1

Takeaway: 

Native Facebook ad matches the style and tone of the platform and is primarily for Facebook users. Facebook users are watching more than 8 billion native video ads every day and these videos are longer than 30 mins giving users a feel of organic content than a mere ad. 

This proves the old adage true, People don’t watch ads, they watch things they are interested in.

Twitter research shows 43% of users would fully watch a video ad if it has interesting content.

2. Knorr: Love at First Taste

https://www.facebook.com/dnts2018/videos/1013912421977658/

The brand is passionate to inspire the new millennial foodies and How? By launching a  compelling ad campaign centered around people’s personal experiences about flavor, taste, and food. Knorr’s global research report stated that people are more attracted to people who enjoy a similar flavor profile. 

The brand conducted a social experiment by having strangers met for the first time over a mutually enjoyable meal .with a twist – they must feed each other and not themselves. In a way, the brand tried to tap the thirst on social media for videos including food, romance, and real-life circumstances.

The brand also partnered with a food community Tasty to spread the video. Also, people were directed to a mini-site that asks questions about your favorite type of food, before putting you to 12 flavor profiles

Takeaway:

In the first three weeks, the video received 100 million views. Creative marketing is at its finest where they building an emotional connection with their customer by trying to understand their personal flavor and setting up on date not because of the way they looked but because of their favorite flavors in common.

3. Always

 

The brand took a risk with this documentary-style video. The risk was well handled with the four-minute-long video which is a lifetime on the Facebook Newsfeed.

Takeaway: 

Advertisers need more time to explain a new or complex product in the following areas:

• The uniqueness of the product to solve the problem
• How different it is from other products
• Reasons and proof of why the new product would work.

The video gets a tick in all three areas and it does with irreverent humor that keeps the viewers entertained and hooked throughout. The video starts with a joke right away – a useful tactic to attract viewers early on.

5. Samsung

 

Samsung poked some fun at the dedicated fan following that Apple has gathered over the years by highlighting what they consider an unwarranted mentality of a certain sect of fans.

Takeaway:

The one-minute video is an apt length for Facebook, to hold the viewer’s attention. The video highlights competitor’s pain points, and their advantages in an effective way, all tied up with humor. A hard-core Apple fan who would never consider leaving Apple for  Samsung can also appreciate the boldness of the video ad is making.

Instagram Ads: 

Seeing the best Instagram video ads, it will inspire you to create or boost your own campaign.

6. Underarmour

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpFQ7OrAO4A/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

]Two athletes hanging from hot-air balloons, doing tricks with a soccer ball is creative and crazy. The brand partnered with GoPro for this ad is a win-win situation for both. It is filmed with a GoPro and you can feel the thrill and excitement.

Takeaway:

The ad is a great and adventurous concept that grabs your attention.

7. Feetup

https://www.instagram.com/p/BojfmbODE3s/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

This video is simple and shows their product in action. There is nothing fancy about the advertisement but innovatively showing their product by targeting a passionate yoga learning audience.

Takeaway:

The ad shows what the consumer is interested to see about the product and might be facing a similar challenge. For instance, the video shows the visual demonstration by the FeetUp trainer. Many yogis can recognize the headstands and identify how the product will be helpful to improve the practice.

8. Get Freshly

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrtOLs-DApR/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

The caption of the video ad is so apt and everyone can relate “Too busy to eat healthy?” The ad is effective and quickly shows videos on how easy it is to eat smart with Freshly.

Takeaway: 

The ad gives a glimpse of all the meal options which are helpful and easy for consumers and ends up with a Call to Action(CTA) of an attractive promo code.

9. Wolf and Shepherd

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmKRFonjqO3/?utm_source=ig_embed

The brand owner had put their dress shoes to a test by wearing the pair of shoes and running with the bulls. This sounds crazy but creative marketing is at its best.

Takeaway:

The brand uses its product to an extreme level to give a reality check about their product to the audience with a  dramatic demonstration. This surely won hearts and helped the brand to be above the pack.

10. Eczema Honey

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl-_jvED8E1/?utm_source=ig_embed

 

The bright colors that pop up in the background are eye-catchy and stand out. It has followed a 2step advertising strategy: – on one hand, the color in the background will grab attention and using 5-starred customer reviews builds credibility.

YouTube Ads:

YouTube ads are best for branding and engagement. It is one of the best options for cost-effective campaigns. 

With 2 million users, the platform has immense capacity to help brands find new audiences and establish a following. Soon, Google is soon going to launch Youtube Shorts an answer to Tik Tok. Tough competition lying ahead.

11. Grammarly: Words to Travel the World

Grammarly has built its social strategy around YouTube video ads. They are a chrome extension that scans your writing and rectifies your grammatical error and suggests how to make it better.

Their majority of traffic comes from video ads and is a user of Trueview ads.

Takeaway:

Google claims brands that run TrueView ads see a 500% engagement boost compared to their other YouTube content. True View ads a brand is paying for are from a more interested audience who is likely to get converted.

However, recently Google announced to stop serving unskippable 30 seconds ad to users and instead push 6-second bumpers and 20-second ad units.

12.GoPro: Fireman Saves Kitten

 

This isn’t a typical GoPro’s user-generated ad but shows its brand as adventurous and extreme. They repurpose many of their user-generated videos and put up on their channel that shows stuff like surfing or jumping out of planes. However, this video is different and deserves a round of applause where a firefighter is saving a kitten from a fire. This ad is beyond the athlete persona and helps to reach a wider audience keeping the heroism theme intact.

Takeaway:

Don’t hesitate to push the boundaries of your brand’s image. Experiment with different ad formats and topics to reach a wider audience and build your brand’s personality.

13. Code.org.: What Most Schools Don’t Teach

The faces in the marketing video are known and famous. The piece opens with a quote from Steve Jobs followed by an introduction by Bill Gates

Code.org is a non-profit organization that promotes computer science in schools across the country. It is a great example of influencer marketing and faces made the piece popular. The faces are the owners of renowned software companies and are sharing stories of their humble beginnings in the field.

Takeaway:

Sometimes, the field you are working in can be intimidating to the people from outside. world’s However, to grow your audience, you need to level it. 

14. American’s Greetings: World’s Toughest Job

https://youtu.be/HB3xM93rXbY

An excellent example of emotion-driven marketing created by Mullen and Cardstore by American Greetings. The content is free of sales and product placements. A creative advertisement using the faux interview to throw some light on the day-to-day mom’s routine everywhere, it is difficult for the viewers to walk away from the video without appreciation. At the close of the video, small witty talk to get your mom a Mother’s day card.

Takeaway: 

Remember to show the plot with unexpected twists and turns to keep your audience engaged throughout the content.

15. Alibaba: To the Greatness of Small

The multinational e-commerce platform is based in China. The global footprint of the brand is similar to Amazon’s. it made a heartfelt and emotional statement of Loyalty to Team Kenya during the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.

The message at the end of the video is the creative marketing finest of all. It shows greatness comes from small places and the comparison is drawn here is just like a young athlete having Olympic goals, all amazing brands start with an ambitious founder.

Takeaway:

Sometimes the inspiring and powerful messages are more relatable to the smallest audiences.  Be around and vigilant about your actions and you will impress everyone else.

Linkedin Ads

Video advertising is one of the most famous ad formats on LinkedIn. According to LinkedIn, the most successful video ad campaigns are less than 15 seconds.

16. Salesforce

This corporate ad is a 30-second clip that gives a brief introduction about their products and services. The interaction between the animated characters and the human being is in sync and harmonious. Salesforce has done a great job with this advertising piece.

17. WeWork

One of the best video advertising ads on LinkedIn. This corporate ad is powerful in its visual content and is below the recommended time span of 15 seconds. A simple, appealing, and short ad. It is easy to process and engaging.

18. Slack

A great example of creative marketing. The ad is impressive because of its creative way to offer a job position. It shows a couple of interviews with its existing employees and the way they bring the most out of their job. The company expresses its values in a great manner and shows the electrifying work atmosphere and happy employees which gives you an instant desire to work at Slack. 

Though the advertisement is fun but a bit longer.

19. Adecco:

Two words to describe the corporate ad- hilarious and funny. In this creative advertisement, the recruiting company Adecco have compiled the best and worst CV’s received by their client and is worth the minute to watch it. In fact, it can leave you craving for the video to be longer.

The brand should have had a better CTA but its creativity is at its peak generating brand awareness and engagement.

20. Amazon Web Services

Another great simple, straight, and short video by Amazon Web Services. The best part of the video ad shows the audience’s real-life application of the technology ‘AWS’ for EDM artists. It is easy to comprehend, practical, and less technical which makes it easy to process. The CTA is also clear.

TikTok Ad Campaigns

According to HubSpot’s social media team, the video-based social app TikTok is “leaking” with brand opportunities. Recently it launched an advertising process for brands. 

21. Chipotle:

Chipotle, a popular Mexican restaurant chain has over 55,000 TikTok fans. They publish an array of posts using music, memes, and other references to highlight their menu.

The above video marks the one-year celebration of TikTok using hashtag #oneyearofTikTok  showing tortilla chips set around a bowl of guac with the Adele song, “Someone Like You”. As the sound bite features Adele’s audience singing back to her, it feels as if the chips are actually singing to the guac –  a perfect blend of creativity and video marketing.

22. San Diego Zoo: 

San Diego Zoo’s TikTok account is a treat to all animal lovers. The zoo has over 50,000 fans who are enjoying the zoo’s simple strategy to post videos of animals with fun music.

Like this one -How would one not enjoy and follow them after seeing the video of lounging meerkat?

If this is not enough to fall in love with these cute animals, check this duet created by the zoo with other friendly animal accounts, like the Monterey Aquarium.

This is a perfect example of a cross-promotion of two similar brands using TikTok features. Because of the zoo’s tagging strategy, this video ad would be seen by zoo and aquarium followers. 

23. NBC’s Stay Tuned 

After the success of Stay tuned originally for Snapchat News Show,  produced by NBC to target Gen Z, the network started making content for TikTok. The account has nearly one million followers and offers a mix of behind-the-scenes videos, quick news bites on pop culture, and weird events.

In the following example, the reporter surveys on top fast-food chains.

In the next example, the host explains complicated AI news in a short amount of time and in a funny way. 

Stay Tuned has had huge success on Snapchat and is not repurposing the content or putting the same content for Tik Tok. It creates specific content for each platform which proves that it can give you big wins for brand awareness and engagement. This strategy can help publishers, bloggers, academics or others who post about news, interesting topics, or studies on different platforms.

Snapchat Ads

Don’t believe the press- Snapchat has a big fan following and is blowing up. They have highly engaged and over 210 million Daily users. Snapchat is rising quickly in creative marketing as the Snaps are fun, engaging, and creative.

24. Shein

 

A global fashion brand operating in 224 countries delivers stylish and in vogue apparel to women and men. They partnered for clothing advertisements with Snapchat to create an immersive full-screen ad experience to target Gen Z and millennials.

Takeaway:

They created a short-form video to showcase their products front and center to attract Snapchatters to swipe up. The brand also used Snapchat ads to highlight their product lines to engage the audiences with fashion interest. The clever headline, creative images drove curiosity among Snapchatters to tap Story in Discovery feed.

They also used Snapchat’s optimization tools- Audience Insights and Goal-based bidding. This helped them reach the relevant audience who were likely to convert and achieve a 50% lower cost per purchase compared to other platforms. This video marketing strategy is highly effective and achieves a 20% ROI.

 25. FitBod

This mobile app uses machine learning to customize your workout goal and guides you to reach your fitness goals. The aim is to create Snapchat ads to reach a new audience that would not only download the app but spend time on the platform.

Takeaway:

To achieve the goal of acquiring new users at the lowest CPC and CAC, it ran APP-install campaigns. It also used a combination of predefined and lookalike audience targeting to reach Snapchatters who are most likely to engage. Each snap ad followed a creative practice of CTA to prompt Snapchatters to Swipe up and download.

This resulted in a 54% lower CPA than other platforms and a 31% lower CPA than their average CPA goal.

26. BMW

This is an excellent example of creative video advertising where the launch of BMW X2 wanted to change the way people discover cars by turning the world into a showroom. BMW’s AR Trial lens helps Snapchatters to take X2 for a ride from their phones. A unique experience, isn’t it?

Takeaway:

One of the first advertisers to use Snap Ads that deeply connected to a World Lens in order to swipe up by users to unlock the lens.

The lens provides a different feel to experience the car. This creative video marketing campaign was running in 7 countries worldwide. The BMW X2 lens witnessed an average of 54 seconds of playtime.

To create excitement for x2 and maintain the levels, Snapchatters Gold color feature was turned on to drive awareness of the car color. This allowed lenses to change the color of the face to gold. There were 1 in 4 shared or saved x2 lens and 40 million impressions of the face lens.

Where is Video going in 2019?

This infographic by Hubspot with uscreen, a VOD platform will explain:

Summing Up:

These stellar examples of video advertising grab the audience’s attention and keep them engaged. If you want to see the increase in audience engagement and ad-click through, you need to invest in an integrated video advertising campaign.

An excellent video ad campaign is within your reach and can be a driver for increased traffic and sales. It is a great way of storytelling and drives your performance. The visual content is here to stay. Buckle up to fully embrace the effectiveness of video ads. Social media platforms are the perfect place to meet prospects who can see engaging video content. 

Do you have any questions or wish to know more about video advertising trends and practices? Leave a comment below as we are happy to serve you.

 

 

 

 

Google Withhold Programmatic Data, Advertisers Pulls Back Ad Spend

Advertisers around the world are looking for more transparency and data into their programmatic buys from their ad tech vendors. However, one hold out is Google in the negotiation, a dominant player in the ad tech world. 

Recently, a US-based retailer decided to not buy ads from the world’s largest online ad Digimarketplace Google Ad Exchange. They wanted granular log-level data about the bids won or lost by them over a festive period last year however Google refused. So, the advertiser spent dollars on the other programmatic platforms who were willing to share data and offer discounts.

As quoted by Digiday, the Head of Display at the U.S based retailer said,

“Google’s ad exchange didn’t make the list primarily because they’re not willing to give us any transparency or data around not only their take rates on our media sped but also anything we could already pull from our demand-side platform.”

Advertisers are unaware of how much money is Google making from the bids. Google shares aggregated information rather than impression-level data CPMs (Cost Per 1000 Impressions). Therefore, many advertisers are now looking for an alternative that gives them better CPMs and complete transparency over the data. 

Some of the US-based advertisers are reducing, if not completely, stopping their spending on Google’s platform. Procter and Gamble’s marketers are one of them who are in the process of reducing the amount of money they spend on Google’s Ad Exchange, as explained by ad tech executives to DigiDay. He further expanded on the point, that it is unlikely that P&G will pull of the media dollars from Google’ s Ad Exchange. After all, Google holds power over auctions which means it can keep prices lower for advertisers and can perform better than other marketplaces.

For now, a handful of the larger programmatic advertisers are weighing their options on how much money to pull off from the Google marketplace. However, companies that have achieved better CPMs with other publishers have stopped buying ads completely from Google. On the other hand, some big programmatic spenders are pushing Google to share more granular data or else they will seek other ad exchanges.

“We’re seeing Google’s ad exchange become slightly less of the total pie,” said Jay Friedman, president at programmatic agency Goodway Group to DigiDay.

”I don’t have a percentage but it’s less but not significant.”, he further added.

However, it seems clear that Google would rather loose a few smart programmatic advertisers to protect the share of a multitude of other advertisers that buy Ads regardless of the price that they are paying.

Over the last decade, Google’s auction model has media buyers in a bind as on one hand, Google gave advertisers audience targeting specific data and a better chance of winning the Ads auction on its own platform rather than on the rival platform. Whereas, on the other hand, those benefits were only for those advertisers who used Google’s ad tech products to buy its inventory. Some advertisers stopped short over the setup but many believed that working on Google’s platform has more advantages and limited downsides.

The rival ad tech vendors, also known as Supply-side platforms soon turned the tide in their favor using header bidding to bid every impression. They started the first-price auction where the advertiser could bid exactly what he is willing to pay unlike in Google’s ad exchange where the price an advertiser pay is slightly higher than the bid they made.

Eventually, Google caved in and changed its policy in 2019 and introducing unified auction that would put Google in the level playing field with the rival platforms like Pubmatic and Rubicon Project that give advertisers access to granular data as per their need. Data from rival platforms is helping advertisers to chart the best course for a low-fee route to CPMs in this highly competitive market. In these auctions, there are chances of the same publisher inventory is made available through multiple ad tech vendors at the same time leading to advertisers paying more for inventory. To avoid this, advertisers are using the supply-path optimization technique to broker better programmatic deals, many of which are dependant on the data they receive from the vendors.

 

IAB GCC Report: Ramadan Budgets Shift Towards Performance based Ad Spends

Advertisers are changing their digital ad spend due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis affecting the businesses and the economy. The Dubai based Interactive Agency Bureau(IAB) that empowers GCC based media and marketing industries surveyed the marketing teams of nearly 30 Agencies and Clients between April 6 to  April 12, 2020, for the impact of COVID-19 on Advertising. 

Here are some  main points from the report:

The findings suggest a huge downturn with 48% of respondents expect less than 30% of budget cuts in April and 41% of respondents see a decline in ad-spending or paused post-June.

With the Holy month of Ramadan expected to begin within weeks, there are still 34% of respondents who are yet to take decisions on Ramadan budgets while 51% are unsure about the directions of second-half budgets in this unprecedented period. This suggests that the majority of marketers are in ‘wait-and-see’ mode.

The report also states that 59% of respondents are suggesting that they will significantly increase the ‘Performance-based’ ad spend. This indicates marketers are in favour of Performance media in the second half. 

Even though advertisers might be working on leaner budgets but are opportunistic to see 17% growth in Digital display in the second half. They also expect a rise in the audience and programmatic buying.

Lastly, 77% of respondents see COVID-19 will have a significant impact on the MENA advertising market than the 08/09 financial crisis.

Take a look at the pictorial images of findings and methodology from the report.

 

There is a wave of optimism about the second half right now and are looking ahead of a post-pandemic world whenever it is possible. Definitely,  there is a pendulum swing in the minds of advertisers whether to decrease ad spend or pause it entirely to what we hope for a clear picture very soon.

 

Google pledges $800 million to coronavirus relief, including Ad credits

Google announced in a blog post that it will be offering $340 million as free ad credits to small and medium businesses that have an account with them. It is committing more than $800 million which will be used towards a range of charities and to support initiatives to help those affected by the global pandemic.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai explained:

“As the coronavirus outbreak continues to worsen around the world, it’s taking a devastating toll on lives and communities. To help address some of these challenges, today we’re announcing a new $800+ million commitment to support small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), health organizations and governments, and health workers on the frontline of this global pandemic.”

Google’s commitment includes the following key areas:

• A $250 million in ad grants will be used to help the World Health Organization and other more than 100 government agencies globally to provide information about the pandemic.
• A $200 million investment fund will be set up that will support NGOs and financial institutions to provide small businesses with capital. This is in addition to the  $15 million in cash grants Google.org provides to non-profits to help bridge gaps for SMB’s.
• A $340 million in Google Ad credits to small and midsize business owners with active Google ad account over the past year. Credit notifications will appear in their Google Ads accounts and can be used at any point until the end of 2020 across our advertising platforms”, as mentioned on the blog.
• $20 million in Google Cloud Credits for academic institutions and researchers as they leverage Google’s computing capabilities and infrastructure as they study potential therapies, vaccines and identify new ways to combat COVID-19.
• Financial support and expertise to help increase production capacity for lifesaving equipment which includes masks and ventilators.

In addition to this, Google has increased the gift matching support program for its employees who donate to charities. Pichai said that employees from across Alphabet including Google, Verily and X, are

“bringing engineering, supply chain, and healthcare expertise to facilitate increased production of ventilators, working with equipment manufacturers, distributors and the government in this effort.”

Earlier this month, Verily, Google’s sister company launched a coronavirus testing screening website with 1,000 Google volunteers to test people with symptoms. It’s a significant commitment from the tech giant and growing contributions towards a social cause.

Over the past few weeks, we have seen major contributions for COVID-19 from Silicon giants like Apple, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Salesforce has also funded to relieve the economic stress amidst the global pandemic.

YouTube Shorts: Will it be Able to Capture TikTok’s Audience?

• TikTok is incredibly popular for lip-syncing and dancing videos.
• TikTok had nearly 1.7 billion downloads as of February 2020.
• Many have tried to imitate Tik Tok’s features but none could reproduce the success.
• YouTube is reportedly soon launching a short video sharing feature ‘Shorts’ which aims to rival TikTok but not as a standalone product.

 

YouTube was always the cool kid on the block with little real competition since inception. There are plenty of other video platforms like Dailymotion, Vimeo,  and Veoh that aren’t a threat to YouTube until TikTok came in. TikTok is a wildly popular app with over a billion downloads with Gen Z and recently witnessed a surge in its popularity during coronavirus quarantines especially with kids and young adults who are bored at home.  

Can YouTube overtake TikTok Audience and Popularity?

YouTube, a Google-owned company has been the most widely used video-sharing platform in the world for 15 years with 2 billion monthly users. Even though 81% of 15-25 years old using YouTube, it doesn’t have the short-form content. Therefore, it is eager to capture the younger audience segment who are crazy about short-form videos around music that makes Tik Tok a hit. As a result, YouTube is reportedly working on a new feature ‘Shorts’ that it hopes will make a dent on the surging popularity of Tik Tok and keep more people on the platform.

The website The Information reported that YT is working on its own short video feature ‘Shorts’ similar to TikTok operation within the YouTube app. According to the site:

“Shorts will include a feed of brief videos posted by users inside the Google-owned app and will take advantage of the video service’s catalog of licensed music, songs from which will be available to use as soundtracks for the videos created by users.”

MSNBC’s Dylan Byers additionally confirmed on Twitter shortly after The Information’s report was live. 

YouTube’s new features can have advantages over TikTok. For instance, it has extensive music licensing agreement in place which implies that there would be an array of music options to choose from short clips. It has a larger audience base, so influencers will find an advantage to stay over the platform as they would get access to reach more potential viewers. And lastly, YouTube has better monetization policies and systems in place which is a huge advantage for the influencers. 

If the service is easily monetized by the content creators, the associated advertising revenue could fund high-quality content in a short video, which can attract more viewers- a win-win situation for all. On the contrary, TikTok doesn’t offer a way to monetize videos for content creators and ad offering is in pipeline. 

Is YouTube Shorts different from other TikTok competitors?

Many established tech companies in Silicon Valley have tried to replicate the success of TikTok but in vain. Facebook tried Lasso in South America, a teen focused short video format app which has yet to gain traction. Instagram and Snapchat attempted to adopt some of TikTok’s features. Byte, launched by the founder of Vine witnessed some early success but is still young. However, none of the’ newly inspired TikTok apps’ have taken off the original.

YouTube has also previously replicated the feature that resembled Instagram stories in 2018 which was successful for creators increasing the subscriber base on average by 8% over those who didn’t use the feature.

The YouTube Shorts app release date is expected to be the end of the year. It would be interesting to see whether TikTok users migrate to YouTube Shorts and YouTube can capture some thunder from the rival. It will be exciting to see how things develop and as a result, TikTok develops a monetization system and comes up with ad offering.