Online Movie
Marketers are groping to understand and incorporate Internet video into B2C campaigns. The problem is we aren't sure who we're really talking to, how to craft and present the content so that it motivates buyers or how to connect a great video with a brand in ways that resonate with our customers.
Mark Hans Richer, the guy who gave away all those Ponitacs on Oprah a couple of years ago, was quoted in Ad Age as finally recognizing our central dilemma -- buzz doesn't necessarily translate into business. Sounds funny from an ad guy but its finally beginning to dawn on a few of us that the messaging has to motivate someone to buy something and that campaigns have to yield cash.
Did you know that the YouTube video of the whacko bride cutting her hair and cursing was actually a viral campaign produced for Unilever's Sunsilk brand? I certainly didn't. It turns out that the idea was to orchestrate a typical bad hair day and then turn the corner to position SunSilk as the alternative to such experiences. But the connection never got made. So Unilever was out the dough and had nothing to show for it. Imagine the brand manager who authorized this move trying to simultaneously explain the objectionable content and the lack of brand recognition or sell-through to his or her straight-laced SKU-counting manager.
It seems like all of a sudden there are zillions of people making, uploading, watching and forwarding videos on an array of sights. According to Frank N Magid Associates 44 percent of Americans online, aged 12-64, use online video weekly. The biggest watchers are Men 25-34 -- the porn demo -- two-thirds of whom watch a video online at least once a week. Where were these guys before and what we they doing with this time and these impulses? And what are they thinking and watching now?
The emerging wisdom seems to be that brands can be online "friends" and can credibly intersect prospective customers on video sites by producing clever or amusing content that is loosely connected to the brand or to the consumer need or pain the brand responds to. But for many of us marketers, its like being invited to party where you don't know how to dress, don't get the music or are obviously not in the core demographic. Our big question becomes; how do we package and present ourselves in ways that are genuine, online movie and engaging to people we want to meet, greet and persuade?
And yet the number one video content watched is news followed by weather and movie previews. Other popular videos are bloopers, music videos, TV show and sports clips, video game excerpts and TV previews. This suggests that traditional media is flooding the Internet with new, old and derivative stuff as a way to amortize costs, merchandise programming or spawn loyalty.
Consumer generated video --the stuff people actually make themselves -- and the subject of endless hype is the least viewed content, probably because it is so idiosyncratic and poorly produced.
So you can see why we are scratching our heads. Old guys are watching old stuff on the Internet. Younger people -- the savvier online segments -- are not watching as much or producing as much as we've been led to believe maybe because they're trolling for 'friends" dates and music downloads.
Mark Hans Richer, the guy who gave away all those Ponitacs on Oprah a couple of years ago, was quoted in Ad Age as finally recognizing our central dilemma -- buzz doesn't necessarily translate into business. Sounds funny from an ad guy but its finally beginning to dawn on a few of us that the messaging has to motivate someone to buy something and that campaigns have to yield cash.
Did you know that the YouTube video of the whacko bride cutting her hair and cursing was actually a viral campaign produced for Unilever's Sunsilk brand? I certainly didn't. It turns out that the idea was to orchestrate a typical bad hair day and then turn the corner to position SunSilk as the alternative to such experiences. But the connection never got made. So Unilever was out the dough and had nothing to show for it. Imagine the brand manager who authorized this move trying to simultaneously explain the objectionable content and the lack of brand recognition or sell-through to his or her straight-laced SKU-counting manager.
It seems like all of a sudden there are zillions of people making, uploading, watching and forwarding videos on an array of sights. According to Frank N Magid Associates 44 percent of Americans online, aged 12-64, use online video weekly. The biggest watchers are Men 25-34 -- the porn demo -- two-thirds of whom watch a video online at least once a week. Where were these guys before and what we they doing with this time and these impulses? And what are they thinking and watching now?
The emerging wisdom seems to be that brands can be online "friends" and can credibly intersect prospective customers on video sites by producing clever or amusing content that is loosely connected to the brand or to the consumer need or pain the brand responds to. But for many of us marketers, its like being invited to party where you don't know how to dress, don't get the music or are obviously not in the core demographic. Our big question becomes; how do we package and present ourselves in ways that are genuine, online movie and engaging to people we want to meet, greet and persuade?
And yet the number one video content watched is news followed by weather and movie previews. Other popular videos are bloopers, music videos, TV show and sports clips, video game excerpts and TV previews. This suggests that traditional media is flooding the Internet with new, old and derivative stuff as a way to amortize costs, merchandise programming or spawn loyalty.
Consumer generated video --the stuff people actually make themselves -- and the subject of endless hype is the least viewed content, probably because it is so idiosyncratic and poorly produced.
So you can see why we are scratching our heads. Old guys are watching old stuff on the Internet. Younger people -- the savvier online segments -- are not watching as much or producing as much as we've been led to believe maybe because they're trolling for 'friends" dates and music downloads.
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