Tag: social video

Media Trial: The Art Of The Takeover

Posted on by Lab Team

MAGNA, the intelligence, investment and innovation unit within IPG Mediabrands, and IPG Media Lab, the creative technology arm of IPG Mediabrands, in partnership with Twitter today announced the results of a scientific media trial examining the location of video ads within a social environment. The resulting report, The Art of the Takeover: Optimizing What Consumers See First, reveals best practices for in-feed advertising as well as guidelines for utilizing takeovers across in-feed video and website platforms.

As websites and media properties’ offerings become more uniform, an advertiser’s ROI becomes more important to achieve sales figures. The report breaks down key differences in effectiveness between First View (Promoted Video at the top of the timeline) and “standard view” (Promoted Video throughout the timeline). Additionally, the study details how in-feed video ads located strategically at the top of the feed are twice as likely to be retained compared to similarly placed takeover ads on a website.

Key Highlights Include:

  • In a social environment, takeovers (ads at top of the feed) work harder than ads lower down.
    • With its premium location, takeovers excel at building brand awareness, likely because they are on screen an average of 50% more than ads lower in the feed.
  • Takeovers outperform in social environments.
    • Social takeovers are two times more memorable than similarly placed ads in a website takeover, likely because ads in a social environment feel more relevant and less intrusive to the user.
  • While shorter ads (GIFs and :06 seconds) feel most appropriate in a social environment, use :15+ second takeover ads to increase awareness of new products.

 

Download the Full Report Here

 

Facebook Adds Mid-Roll Ads To Non-Live Videos & Instagram Stories

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Facebook’s first order of ad business in the new year is to ramp up its in-stream video ads. The social media giant has started testing 15-second-long mid-roll ads inserted in between videos select publishers posted on Facebook. The ads would only appear after those videos have played for at least 20 seconds. Advertisers will have similar targeting options for those new in-stream ads, as they will be able to pick content categories in which they want their ads to run, such as sports or humor, and specify categories they want to avoid.

Similarly, Facebook has also started testing inserting short-form video ads in Instagram Stories, the Snapchat Story clone feature it added five months ago, The ads will work similarly to Snap ads, as full-screen, skippable videos that pop up in between Stories. Nike, Airbnb, and Buick are among brands that are testing this new ad product. According to Facebook, Instagram Stories are now used by 150 million users on a daily basis.

What Brands Should Do
When Facebook first started testing mid-roll ads in Live video in August, it was anticipated that such efforts would soon come to non-live videos as well. Facebook claims that its users watch 100 million hours of video every day, and has recently made some tweaks in its apps to simplify video discovery. As Facebook continues to add new video ad products to its increasingly video-heavy social platforms, brands may consider adjusting their video budgets accordingly to reach today’s mobile consumers in a more targeted, effective way.

 

Source: AdWeek & Marketing Land

 

Ford Buys Pre-Roll Spots On CW Network’s Twitter Videos

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Ford is teaming up with the CW network to target young Millennial audiences on Twitter. The automaker is committing to pre-roll ad spots on select videos posted by CW’s official Twitter account in a first-ever Twitter Amplify upfront deal. CW is creating a variety of social video content such as weekly recaps, episode highlights, and sneak peeks, which will run with Ford ads. Twitter will also promote the videos in front of targeted users based on its data.

What Brands Should Do
This partnership deal shows that Ford is eager to reach fans of CW shows who are not necessarily watching the shows on linear TV. A media trial we recently conducted found that social videos generate better recall than standard pre-roll ads because of the feed environment. Brands looking to reach an audience on digital channels should consider social video ads and make use of the targeting capabilities they offer.

 

Source: AdWeek

 

Instagram Debuts Live Event-Based Video Channel

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Instagram today launched a live event-based video channel that calls to mind Snapchat’s Live Stories. Appearing in the Explore tab in the Instagram app, the new feature uses an algorithm to curate user-generated videos from concerts, sports games, and other types of live events as they happen. Each user will see videos from different events based on their interests, just like the rest of the content recommended in Explore. This new video channel is only available in the U.S. at the moment but Instagram says it will roll out to global markets soon.

Why Brands Should Care
As Instagram continues to “borrow” from Snapchat and build out its video products, it is not only aiming to better compete with Snapchat for user attention, but also making the necessary preparations for more video ads. As a new study indicates, brand marketers prefer social media sites over ad networks when it comes to digital video ads.

Although Instagram has not specified whether it will insert ads into the new video features, it seems like a matter of time given that it has been ramping up its ad efforts in recent months with its ad sales expected to jump to $1.5 billion this year. For brands looking to reach mobile consumers, this new feature marks an interesting development that brands need to be aware of.

Source: AdWeek

Instagram To Ramp Up Video Views With Recommended Video Feeds

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
In its latest update released on Thursday, Instagram overhauled its Explore tab with a slew of new video channels. Among them is a personalized “Videos You Might Like” feed that draws recommended video posts from across the network based on user data. There are also staff-curated, themed channels, for example one for Coachella, and feature spotlights on content creators and Instagram communities, all in hopes of attracting more users to its growing video content.

What Brands Need To Do
Facebook has been making a strong play for video for the past few years, and Instagram has recently started following its parent company’s steps in ramping up its video efforts as well. Just two weeks ago, Instagram extended its maximum video length from 15 seconds to 60 seconds for all users, hoping to encourage more video posts. With video quickly becoming a preferred format for brands to engage consumers across social platforms, it is imperative that brands and ad buyers be aware of the social video channels and use them to reach their growing audiences.

 

Source: AdWeek

YouTube/Simon Cowell Launch Social Talent Competition

Posted on by Lab Team

YouTube is betting big on its original programming investing 200 million dollars to produce over 100 channels, including a recent talent competition called The You Generation. The Simon Cowell/YouTube collaboration asks users from over 26 countries to upload talent auditions with the chance to win an undisclosed grand prize. The new initiative does a nice job incorporating user’s video to engage the YouTube community.

“TV of Tomorrow” gains traction

Posted on by Lab Team

TV of tomorrow fast approaching (iStock) Last week Tracy Swedlow’s  annual “TV of Tomorrow” Conference was held in San Francisco where the “who’s who” of Interactive television gathered to discuss the future of television from broadcast to broadband including tru2way and TV Anywhere.

In past years’ conferences, you would have found the the few, the proud, the clinically-depressed-die-hards of advanced television platforms, geekgirls like myself , who have been trying for years to advance the cause of TV with social features, commerce solutions and true targeting capabilities.  And in the past, the legacy systems of the US cable infrastructure, the limitations of satellite’s two-way capabilities and the lack of scale in broadband hindered advancement in the space.  But this year, the conference came into its own as the industry showed market growth in a number of ongoing initiatives.   There is movement happening, money being spent and real players involved in the marketplace.

To set the stage for what’s happening in the interactive video space, here are some relevant statistics:

57% of Americans use their TV and PC simultaneously at least 1x a month (Nielsen)
20% of all tv viewers are simultaneously on their pc or mobile device (MRG)
78% of Teens and Tweens are online while watching tv and 66% are sending text messages while watching tv (ypulse/Pangea)

Of all the solutions bubbling up, here are a few that marketers can immediately take advantage of to leverage the power of video to accomplish a number of marketing goals:  Continue reading ““TV of Tomorrow” gains traction”