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Consumers Want Entertaining Brand Videos

funny catVideo marketing and brand storytelling are two of the hottest trends in marketing today, but most brands are still missing the mark when it comes to creating brand video content that consumers actually want to watch and share with their family and friends.

New research from the New York Times Consumer Insights Group revealed that 78% of video viewers watch videos to be entertained and 71% watch videos to laugh.

These are the top two reasons that respondents to a research survey provided to explain why they watch videos, but how many brand videos are actually entertaining?

Specifically, video viewers watch videos for the following reasons:

  • To be entertained = 78%
  • To laugh = 71%
  • To learn something new = 64%
  • To fill downtime = 58%
  • To do something by myself = 57%
  • To relax = 51%
  • To do something with other people = 32%

Looking at the data from a different perspective, entertainment still prevails. When asked what the top video topics are, the survey respondents listed ten topics, and seven of them are related to entertainment, including funny videos, movies, music, television programs, sports, live-streaming content, and cultural content. Non-entertainment content, including news and current events, instructional and how-to, and weather, ranked in fourth, fifth, and eighth place, respectively.

For brand marketers, video can be an effective marketing tactic, but it’s an opportunity lost if your videos aren’t entertaining. Of course, that doesn’t mean every brand video that you publish needs to be incredibly entertaining or include a funny cat. However, you should make an effort to produce more entertaining video content than non-entertaining video content.

The NY Times Consumer Insights Group also found that video length matters. Shorter videos are more popular among viewers in all of the top 10 online video topics except movies, television programs, sports, and live-streaming content where length doesn’t matter to viewers. Funny clips should be fewer than two minutes while news, music videos, and instructional/how-to content should be fewer than five minutes. Those are the sweet spots to make the audience happy.

If you want to increase brand video views and motivate viewers to share your videos, keep your videos short and entertaining. Brand storytelling rules!

Image: S. W. Yang

Is Flipagram the Hot New App for Brand Marketers?

Flipagram App smallFlipagram is a simple mobile app that enables users to choose images in their Instagram or Facebook accounts or the photo albums on their Apple or Android devices, add some music from iTunes radio or the Flipagram music library, and create a 15-second to 30-second video, which can be uploaded to their social media accounts. It’s quick, easy to use, and has become the number one free app in Apple’s app store.

So far, the app is most popular among younger mobile users who want something a bit different than what YouTube and Vine provide. However, there is a lot of brand marketing potential with Flipagram.

Consider this—at the end of 2013, large numbers of people were downloading Flipagram and creating 2013-recap slideshows. After creating the videos, they shared them on Twitter, Facebook, and more. A number of these videos were shared on the Flipagram Facebook page.

Now, imagine how Flipagram can be used for brand marketing. Brand storytelling is so important in marketing today, and Flipagram provides another way to create and tell brand stories. Those stories can be about anything that helps to deepen the emotional connection between your brand and consumers. According to the Flipagram blog, brands like Victoria’s Secret, Billabong, Universal Studios, and ESPN Sportscenter have already published Flipagram videos.

Following are some ideas for how you can use Flipagram for brand marketing:

  1. Recaps of trade shows, conferences, and other events
  2. Highlights from webinars, lectures, etc.
  3. Customer review compilations
  4. Images of people using your products in unique, fun, or other ways
  5. Product demonstrations
  6. Answers to customer questions
  7. Teasers for upcoming marketing campaigns
  8. Contests
  9. Crowdsourced videos
  10. Peaks behind the scenes into your company, office, warehouses, etc.

Get creative. Think about opportunities where and when you can take pictures and use those pictures to create short videos. Just be careful about the music you choose to accompany your videos, and don’t forget to follow copyright laws.

Flipagram is still very new, and usage is going to increase quickly. Start thinking about how you can integrate it into your social media marketing campaigns now. It’s January, so consider crowdsourcing images of people using your brand in their new year’s resolutions, in winter weather, and so on. Kick things off by creating your own Flipagram videos based on those themes. You can turn it into a contest to increase participation and shareability. The opportunities are wide open since so few brands are using Flipagram but its growth potential is huge.

Image: Flipagram

Mozilla Celebrates Brand Promise with 15 Years of a Better Web

Mozilla Firefox browser iconsOn March 31, 1998, the Mozilla Project launched at Netscape with a mission to, “offer choice to users and drive innovation on the web.” That’s according to Mozilla’s list of 15 facts about what the organization has been doing over the past 15 years to achieve its goals of promoting “openness, opportunity, and opportunity on the internet.”

Mozilla is a non-profit that relies on volunteers and open innovation to deliver products like Firefox. Contributors and donors are located on every continent and have helped to translate Firefox into 89 languages. That means more than 95% of the world’s population can use Firefox. Clearly, Mozilla’s mission is working.

Ten years after The Mozilla Project launched, Mozilla set a Guinness World Record for the most downloads of a software program in a single day. On June 7, 2008, which was promoted as Firefox 3 Download Day, 8,002,530 downloads of Firefox 3 were recorded establishing Firefox’s popularity and strength as a relationship brand.

Here are some highlights from the list of facts about Mozilla to show you how far this organization and its efforts have grown since 1998:

  • More than 10,000 contributors supported Mozilla when it launched Firefox 1.0 in 2004 by paying for a full-page ad in The New York Times.
  • Over 3 million Firefox Add-ons have been downloaded by users so far.
  • More than 2 million visitors use the Mozilla Developer Network community each month to access online documentation, tutorials, tools, and more.
  • Firefox OS will launch in 2013 for smartphone users.

Mozilla and its Firefox product grew because the company set brand expectations and consistently met those expectations again and again. Today, Firefox is still the second most popular web browser based on market share (behind Internet Explorer 10 and ahead of Google Chrome).

It’s been 15 years since The Mozilla Project launched, and the organization’s mission to keep the web open and accessible to all is just as relevant today as it was in 1998. As long as the brand continues to consistently meet consumers’ expectations based on its first 15 years of shaping consumer perceptions, the organization should continue to grow and thrive. With all of those thousands of volunteers, contributors, and donors, combined with millions of users around the world, the future is bright for Mozilla.

Image: Philippe Ramakers

Yes, Your Customers Are Using Social Networking

social networking mobile iconsUnless your target consumer audience is over the age of 64, the majority of them are using social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. In fact, 67% of online adults use social networking sites according to a December 2012 study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, so there are few (if any) businesses, brands, or industries that can claim their customers aren’t online and active in social media.

Brands need to follow consumers. When consumers shifted from listening to the radio to watching television, brands had to follow them by shifting marketing budgets away from radio and toward television. The same thing is happening now, and budgets need to shift from television and other media to online advertising and social media marketing.

Research shows that shifting 15% of the marketing budget to online drives significant results in terms of brand awareness, recall, and reach. Couple those statistics with the data from Pew Internet, and it’s hard to justify not prioritizing social media ad spending. Take a look at the breakdown of social media penetration by age below:

  • 18-29 = 83%
  • 30-49 = 77%
  • 50-64 = 52%
  • 65+ = 32%

It also doesn’t matter how much education a person has. The likelihood that they use social networking sites is similar across the board:

  • Less than high school graduate = 66%
  • Some college = 69%
  • College+ = 65%

Furthermore, household income makes little difference in social networking usage:

  • Less than $30,000 per year = 72%
  • $30,000-$49,000 = 65%
  • $50,000-$74,999 = 66%
  • $75,000+ = 66%

The only demographic characteristics that showed a significant difference in social networking penetration were urbanity where 70% of people who live in urban areas and 67% of people who live in suburban areas use social networking sites versus just 61% in rural areas. Of course, rural areas have less internet connectivity, so this statistic really isn’t surprising. The one area that might surprise you is gender. According to the Pew Internet research report, 71% of women use social networking sites but only 62% of men use social networking sites.

A few more interesting statistics from the Pew Internet study follow:

  • 40% of cell phone owners use social networking sites on their phones.
  • 67% of online adults use Facebook.
  • 20% of online adults use LinkedIn.
  • 16% of online adults use Twitter.
  • 15% of online adults use Pinterest.
  • 13% of online adults use Instagram.
  • 6% of online adults use Tumblr.

It’s hard to believe in 2013 that some brand marketers still have to fight to gain social media marketing budget dollars against executives who claim, “Our customers aren’t using social networking sites.” Next time you face that road block, cite some of these statistics. The question in 2013 shouldn’t be, “Who is using social networking sites,” but rather, “Who isn’t using social networking sites?” Unless your target audience is part of that 33% minority, your customers are using social networking sites, and your brand should be there, too.

Image: Social Media HQ

Livestrong Rebrands as Livestrong Foundation without Lance Armstrong

livestrong foundation logo old newWhat happens when the face of your non-profit organization is publicly disgraced?

That’s what Livestrong faced when cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted to using illegal substances throughout his career. He was stripped of his Tour de France titles and his affiliation with the organization that he helped to start. Call in the crisis team because like so many celebrity brand endorsements before, the man’s revelation brought the brand under a negative spotlight, too.

With the non-profit organization separated from Lance Armstrong, Livestrong has rebranded as Livestrong Foundation with a new logo and a new focus on the foundation, not the man who was once the face of the foundation. The old and new logos are shown above, and most people probably won’t even remember that “Foundation” wasn’t part of the logo in its previous version. However, the redesign does better position the brand away from Lance Armstrong. It’s subtle and simple, but it works.

In a speech (you can follow the link to read the transcript) from Executive VP of Operations from Livestrong Foundation, Andy Miller, which was delivered at the annual Livestrong “State of the Foundation” address on February 28, 2013, the point was made that  the rebranding is part of the foundation’s efforts, “towards becoming more us, more clear, and doing more work.” In other words, Livestrong Foundation wants to become “more us” and “less Lance.” Andy said:

“We accepted the apology he made to us in order to move on and we remain grateful for what he decided to create and helped build. As the world poses the questions, “Is the LIVESTRONG Foundation bigger than its founder? Will it survive?” The answer is a resounding yes. Our success has never been based on one person — it’s based on the patients and survivors we serve every day, who approach a cancer diagnosis with hope, courage and perseverance.”

Livestrong Foundation is taking the rights steps to move past its affiliation with Lance Armstrong, but finding new ways to recoup earnings from merchandise sales will be a tough battle. The “cool” factor that many people felt when they wore a bracelet, jacket, or other item with the Livestrong logo on it has disappeared with the fall of Lance Armstrong’s celebrity status.

The Livestrong Foundation has a tough road ahead of it and changes will need to be made internally to get through this time, but at the end of the day, the organization’s mission is an important one. Hopefully, it will continue to navigate through the negative publicity it’s facing right now and come out on the other side with a stronger brand than before.

I think Andy summed up why this brand can survive a celebrity disaster quite well in his speech when he said:

“The real reason the Foundation took root is that it touched a chord deep in all of us. It inspired us to take action! But we didn’t do it for Lance. We did it for our loved ones. Our husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. We did for our children. We did it for our friends and neighbors. We did it for ourselves. Because we believe in life! We believe living every minute of it with every ounce of our being. And that you must not let cancer take control of it!”

Repositioning the brand away from “the Lance Armstrong charity” and toward “the charity that helps people with cancer” should be the Livestrong Foundation’s top priority. And of course, avoiding dependencies on celebrity endorsements and spokespeople should be at the top of the list of things not to do again.

Content Marketing Investments Increase for U.K. Brands

computer keyboardIt has been proven in recent years that content marketing builds brands, and in 2013, U.K. brand marketers are giving content marketing the attention, resources, and budget it deserves.

According to a November 2012 survey of U.K. marketers by Econsultancy and Responsys, 80% of respondents reported that they would increase content marketing spending in 2013. Just 17% said they would maintain the status quo in 2013 and make no changes to content marketing investments.

In 2012, 78% of respondents to the survey were already spending budget dollars on content marketing. Most of them (55%) created content in-house, but 40% were working with external content creators in 2012. The focus has been on publishing news and blogs which more than half of U.K. marketers who responded to the Econsultancy and Responsys survey have found to be the most shareable content. Other types of content that they report is shared frequently include videos (27%), infographics (18%), and white papers (4%).

Online content consumption shows no signs of slowing down, so U.K. marketers are smart to increase content marketing budgets. The trick is creating useful and meaningful content that engages consumers, increases trust in the brand, and leads to purchases, loyalty, and word-of-mouth marketing. All of these outcomes are at a brand marketers’ fingertips, and those who learn how to create content that their target audiences want and need and deliver it to them where and when they need it will thrive in 2013 and beyond.

Have you made content marketing a strategic marketing priority yet? If not, you’re already falling behind. Content is a catalyst to conversation and is needed to open the doors for social media marketing. It’s just one more piece of a well-integrated marketing plan, but it’s importance in 2013 should not be undervalued.

Use the five essential ingredients of content marketing success, and the returns you receive from your content marketing efforts and investments will grow. In short, segmentation, focus, shareworthiness, integration, and branding should be at the heart of all content you create. Make an effort to marry marketing with publishing and you’ll be on your way to truly connecting with consumers on an emotional level, engaging them, and making them believe in your brand. Once they believe, they’re more likely to buy.

Image: Sureash Kumar