The year’s coming to an end, but 2011 proved to be eventful for brands, thanks to online video. There was the battle of the Old Spice guys. The eTrade baby reacted to the financial meltdown. Everyone got a front-row seat to the Victoria’s Secret runway show. Looking back on the year, these were some of the most interesting trends we saw with branded videos.
Going mobile
Consumers' mobile video usage grew 75 percent within the last year. Marketers have realized that developing a mobile strategy is key to increasing brand recall. Our Video Index report showed 53.3 percent of non-desktop plays were on tablets, followed by smartphones at 45.7 percent. Further, in developing countries like India where mobile phones outnumber the number of toilets, a mobile strategy can help brands enter new markets. Ooyala's data science team pulled numbers from May to November and found online video consumption grew 90 percent faster in developing countries than in developed ones.
Web series
More brands have decided to explore the new frontier of Web series. Sometimes the bill is footed by a brand that also takes the director’s chair. (For the Web series "First Day," K-Mart had a say in product placement, wardrobes, character names and story elements.) Other times, the corporate sponsor takes a back seat, giving the production team full control, or even turning to the viewers for user-generated content.
Live broadcast
TV isn’t the only destination for live content. Big events got the live broadcast treatment, including town hall forums and speeches from the American President himself. Likewise, brands have followed suit. For both Fashion's Night Out in New York City and its iconic runway show, the Angels of Victoria’s Secret reported live from behind the scenes, giving exclusive content to fans watching online.
Live streaming is a smart move to drum up excitement for sporting events, concerts, fashion shows and celebrity interviews. The average live-streamed video view is 7 percent longer than the average on-demand view, according to a 2010 comScore report. The medium lets consumers feel intimately involved with the brand. In addition, an Adobe survey found 93 percent of respondents said live streaming was an effective feature of mobile commerce strategy.
Social
Who isn't on social media these days? Parents and even grandparents have made the leap, so it's no surprise marketers have realized this is an important channel to focus efforts on. Brands are combining their online videos with conservations on social platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter. In addition to broadcasting live from its pink carpet pre-show runway event, Victoria's Secret also created a centralized location to have conversations online with fans. Meanwhile, Whole Foods, for instance, transformed its Facebook page into a portal to view new Webisodes and partake in conversations.
Great storytelling
This isn’t a trend specific to 2011 per se, but it’s worth re-emphasizing. When it comes to branded videos, the ones that do best are those that tell authentic, compelling stories. That could mean anything from inspirational profiles of adventurers for an outdoor gear company to the best brush techniques for a makeup company. Analytics give insight into what works, and brands can learn accordingly and tweak their video strategies.
With that in mind, here is the most popular branded video on YouTube (assuming you don’t count Rebecca Black as a brand, but that’s debatable).
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