Commercials, as we’ve traditionally called them, are evolving. A commercial is what you watch on TV. It’s the ad between the show, but who’s still watching traditional television these days? Sponsored Brand Video Content is the new thing!
Hardly anyone.
To keep ads alive, businesses must meet consumers where they’re already at. Those that used to be at the TV are now at their computer. Commercials are now social media video ads that you have to position to run. This is why sponsored brand video content matters.
An ECG Case Study – The Cornwalls Are Gone
James Patterson writes books, those paper things you most likely remember holding to read before bed. His success comes not only from excellent writing and the fast-paced, action-packed stories he tells, but also because he knows how to advertise.
Working with ECG Productions, Patterson incorporates book trailers. They’re just like a movie trailer, giving you a taste of the story in a way that makes you want more. But, they don’t run on TV, they run online, where he knows his audience is waiting.
The book trailer for his thriller, The Cornwalls Are Gone, is less than two minutes long. It sets the scene for the book perfectly, and does a great job teasing the story. The metrics prove it too.
This particular video received one million views in just three days. Pre-sales for the title were up over 75 percent over the last Patterson book that ran without a sponsored brand video. These ads have an impact.
Ads with real evidence
Seeing the evidence that this strategy works is only possible because of where the ‘commercials’ live. We can see that a sponsored brand video gets a certain number of hits in a specific time period because that data gets collected in real time. We can insert a link into the description of the video that helps us track engagement and click throughs. There’s a real return on investment (ROI) when it comes to this type of content. In fact, 73 percent of marketers believe social media marketing, like this, has already been very or somewhat effective for business.
TV commercials can try to gather data, but it’s not the same. It doesn’t happen in real time, and can’t tell you how many of the thousands of viewers stayed on the couch and actually saw your content. I bet quite a few of them got up at that exact moment to grab a snack and use the restroom.
Being able to see the effect your ad has on your viewing audience is crucial to planning future strategies. You’re learning what works, so the faster you can get results, the better.
Sponsored Brand Video that works
Ready to get in the game and start thinking about social media ads and not TV commercials? ECG Productions can help from conceptualization to creation, but first you need to know the key elements that make this type of ad work.
- Grabbing attention — video naturally holds attention more than five times better than still images, but you’re fighting for bandwidth. To do this, don’t start slow with your video; knock views out in that first second to make sure they stick around for the entire thing.
- Targeting right — another benefit to posting your ads on social media is that many of the apps let you target an audience. You can select where the sponsored brand video will pop up based on demographics, but also sometimes based on how far they got watching your last video.
You also want to remember to focus on one specific message to keep your content easy to process and remember. If you have a lot to say, or plenty of products to promote, make a video series. It not only helps you share the message but it furthers your brand. You become, “the company with those great videos,” in the eyes of consumers.
Work with the best to stay on trend
Keeping up with the latest developments in video whether it be how to use it effectively or tricks to achieve special effects, ECG Productions remains on the cusp of what viewers want to see. Not only that, we understand how to craft the content to fit the medium where it gets viewed.
To make compelling sponsored brand videos that will get you views and conversions, contact ECG today.