Four Common Mistakes When Using Video Online
Media Post

Providing tips to fellow marketers on using video online is what I love to do, but sometimes, telling marketers what not to do can be just as important. To that end, this article will present four very common mistakes made in using video online.

Going long for the sake of it. There's always a temptation to make your online video ad longer than a standard commercial length because with online, there aren't the limitations you have with TV and other media. If you really want people to see you entire message or video, don't do it! In fact, if anything, you should try shorter versions of your message wherever possible. If pure length-of-engagement is your only goal, some studies suggest that a minute to a minute-and-a-half might be viable, but for our purposes today, we'll focus on completion.

Having overzealous quality concerns. Many marketers insist on having the highest production values applied to every piece of video they produce, regardless of where it is going to be used. Don't do this, either! If your video is intended for online use only, it is absolutely OK to take some shortcuts. Remember, you're usually talking about a tiny little screen, compared to a 46-inch flat-screen TV. And if your viewer happens to blow it up to full-screen size, it would rarely look great on a computer screen anyway.

Banking on viral. I've written about this before, but it bears repeating: Don't bank on any posted video going viral to get you the exposure you seek. It won't happen! If it's a strong enough message, buy some views and get it out there in front of consumers.

Repurposing a worn-out TV spot for online. Let's be honest. Most of us hate these repurposed spots, don't we? Taking a classic 60-second spot and slicing and dicing it down to a 30-second; or worse yet, taking that 30-second and squeezing it down to a 15-second execution just doesn't work. You've already seen the spot on TV a gazillion times. You know the scene and the punchline by heart already.

These remain heady times for the world of online video. Periodically it's worthwhile to reflect not just on best practices, but also some common mistakes to avoid in the process of engaging your consumers with the combined power of sight, sound and motion.

Suffering — The New Ad Medium. Is Tragedy Really the Right Place To Build Brand Equity?
Forbes

There are few corners of society and everyday life where brands have not jostled for our attention. Media placement for brands is increasingly ingenious and even in the most unlikely locations we may now see an ad for some product or other.

No wonder the world is numb to marketing. And no wonder people are not listening. They are closing our online pop-up boxes, changing channels on our TV ads, skimming our print ads.

The recent events around the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 prompted me to wonder: Are tragedies a place for brand building?

Many millions would have seen the Budweiser and State Farm TV ads on September 11th. Both spots sought to commemorate the tragedy but provoked very different responses. The State Farm ad was received warmly, but the Budweiser ad was perceived by some as insincere and out of place (it was an old ad that had previously aired directly after 9/11).

Advertising as commemoration has polarized people online, most believing it is still about promoting the company more than honoring victims.

With this viewpoint in mind, as the world becomes more frequently politically and environmentally unstable, will we see more brands marketing around uprisings, riots, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and even barbarous terrorist attacks?

Social Draws Big Ad Dollars, but Does It Really Work?
AdWeek

Social media has outgrown its experimental play-money stage. With marketers sinking up to $6 billion into social campaigns this year (according to eMarketer), the category has officially become a legitimate form of advertising. But with newfound legitimacy comes a whole new problem: How do we know it’s working?

Thus far, there’s no standardized best practice for measuring social media performance. And that’s not for a lack of options. The past year has seen a flood of new analytics tools hoping to definitively crack the social ROI code: Do customer conversions matter? What about cold, hard sales? Or maybe it skews more intangible with metrics like “buzz,” “engagement,” and “impressions.” Terminology notwithstanding, it’s in the industry’s best interest to prove its own effectiveness.

Today marks the launch of two new social analytics services.

DataXu, a three-year-old ad management platform, unveiled DX Social, its effectiveness tool for Facebook campaigns. The product applies insights gleaned from DataXu’s display and video ad platforms to Facebook campaigns. It’s part of the company’s goal to help marketers integrate their once-disparate silos of digital marketing.

Linking performance data from Facebook and display ads allows marketers to “decrease the randomness of throwing money at all of these things that are disconnected,” said Mike Baker, CEO of DataXu. Trial campaigns have produced some arbitrary, but useful facts. An insurance client found its most interested prospects were older, had higher household incomes, tended to own pets, and worked in the software and business services industries.

Zenga’s Not Playing Games With It Comes to Branding

AdAge

Jeff Karp, the former exec VP at gaming giant Electronic Arts, jumped to Zynga at the beginning of August, a sign that the closely watched startup, which recently filed to go public, is serious about branding.

As Zynga's head of marketing and revenue, Mr. Karp is charged with developing the company's branding and advertising efforts, a unique circumstance at the gaming company, which has grown at a virulent rate within Facebook's quickly expanding universe. And as to which company fueled the other remains a perennial debate; it's nonetheless clear that Zynga hopes to define itself beyond one venue.

As part of that effort, the 4-year-old company now features more than 19 games on four different platforms, including, most recently, Google+, the search titan's latest foray into social media and surest answer to Facebook yet. San Francisco-based Zynga is in an SEC-mandated quiet period prior to its public offering and declined to disclose its forward-looking ad budgets, but one indication of the company's brand ambitions can be found in Mr. Karp's previous duties at EA.

As head of revenue for EA's Games label, he managed a $1 billion business overseeing all product marketing, branding, public relations and finance for various titles, including "Bulletstorm" (from producer Epic), "Crysis" (Crytek), and the ever popular "Rock Band" (MTV/Harmonix).

The upstate New York native responded to some of Ad Age's questions via email about the company's direction.

Brands look to long-copy to boost resonance of ad campaigns
MarketingWeek

Leading brands such as British Airways, Volkswagen, London 2012 and Sainsbury’s have opted to run text-heavy ads in the press and outdoor, in a bid to gain better traction with consumers.

According to Mark Goodwin creative director at advertising agency M&C Saatchi, the format is no longer considered old fashioned because of its ability to engage.

“There’s been a reluctance to use long-copy over the years, as the perception from both clients and agencies has been that it’s an old fashioned technique,” says Goodwin. “Brands want to try something different to engage consumers, especially young people. Long-copy feels like the radical solution to achieving this.”

Sainsbury’s supported its new strapline, “Live Well For less”, with a press ad to help convey the new concept to consumers in print. The decision to use the ad format is one that Daren Kay, executive creative director at integrated agency Tullo Marshall Warren, says ties into the supermarket chain’s bid to be taken more seriously.

“Long-copy ads only work when they convey the seriousness of a brand, which is what happens with the Sainsbury’s new ’Live Well For Less’ ads”, he explains.

The expansion of the digital sphere over the last two years, particularly in mobile, email and social media has meant that brands are being encouraged to write more long copy, according to Kay.

“Brands should be trying to encourage advocates to write more about them in social media, which along with emails and blogs, is a better fit for long-copy promotions than newspapers,” he says. “For the Lynx Rise campaign we created for Lynx we’re encouraging bloggers, who have reputations within our core audience, to write about our campaigns.”

General Motors’ GMC Takes NFL Sponsorship On the Road
Marketing Daily News

GMC is the official vehicle of the NFL, but the General Motors division is not filling that bucket with TV ads, and will not have vehicles at stadium parking lots during games.

But it has something that might be better: A road show called the "GMC Monday Night Football Tour" that targets important game markets the weekend before games, and gets a media boost from NFL players themselves.

The tour will visit Dallas, Tampa Bay, Detroit, New York City, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Boston, New Orleans and Seattle. The effort also involves a cause-marketing element via a partnership with the United Way.

The tour centers on an experiential program at high-traffic areas in the above markets the weekend before Monday Night Football games that mixes football-skills challenges with test drives, with GMC getting consumer data via bar code lanyards worn by participants.

Chris Hornberger, GMC national sales promotion manager, says the physical skills competition mirrors the NFL Combine program that tests athletes on skills like long and high jumping, with prizes like Monday Night Football game tickets, NFLship.com gift cars and signed memorabilia.

"When Monday Night Football comes to town it's like the circus rolling in, so we'll be at heavily trafficked areas, like malls. We are also targeting conquests and those in the GM family with specific invites," says Hornberger, adding that local dealers are also involved.

Current and former NFL players including Miles Austin, DeSean Jackson, Mike Alstott and Tony Dorsett, as well as ESPN Monday Night Football announcer Mike Tirico are also involved and will make appearances. "They are using their own social media pages to promote their appearances; some will be doing radio interviews to promote it as well," Hornberger says.