Launch a successful video campaign by tailoring it to your specific campaign objectives. American Airlines and others demonstrate how it's done.
There continues to be a lot of confusion among the generalists of the industry about the optimal use of video in online ads. That's because every ad online is unique, and every campaign has different objectives and goals, which drastically affect the rich media implementations recommended to deliver those results.
Based on EyeWonder's eight years of experience, here are some insights into how to generate desired results.
Set your goals
The prerequisite in any successful ad campaign -- video or non video -- is to clearly identify the primary objective of the campaign, and how to measure your level of success in achieving this objective. When agencies and their clients stay true to this they can't help but succeed; when they get distracted by "all the bells and whistles" they have the ability to use, they usually fail.
Don't get me wrong, I like "bells and whistles" better than most, but you need to make sure it is the right whistle for the job -- you wouldn't use one of those whistles only dogs can hear to direct traffic, would you?
Ad awareness
So that covered, let's talk about creating an environment for success. First and foremost is getting users to notice your video ad on the page. If they overlook it, they obviously are not going to interact with it. And that won't serve your goals, no matter what those goals are.
Video ad units that play the video upon a user's arrival on a page work well for this. Because they start instantly without requiring any input from users, the videos automatically attract users' eyes and draw them to explore the ad further. These types of videos don't have to be long -- eight to 10 seconds is sufficient. (We've found that if a user hasn't noticed the ad on the page by then, he usually won't.)
If your campaign wants to go beyond mere awareness, it needs to be complemented with a strong "invitation" to users to interact in the way you as the marketer want them to. As I like to say, if you don't tell them, how are they supposed to know what you want them to do?
Brand interaction
Once the user is aware of the ad, there are two equally important paths to choose from. The first is brand interaction, which encourages users to interact with the ad (and therefore the brand) as long as possible. With this objective, video in expanded panels is a great tactic. Long-form video that can keep users engaged for not just seconds, but minutes (and sometimes hours!) is a great tactic for accomplishing this. Once audiences have opted in to the experience, there is no reason to constrain their choices with five, 15 or even 30 seconds of video. Creating a branded "dialogue" with users is one of the interactive advertising industries' key differentiators and value propositions -- so take advantage of it to achieve your objective.
Here is a recent movie promo campaign that leverages the use of a video that plays upon arrival to lure viewers in, and then features eight more user-initiated videos that generate high interaction rates and times.