Six-Second Videos
Let’s be honest with ourselves – no one likes looking at ads online. And, much to the dismay of brands everywhere, we now have the power to skip them at will. It’s become harder than ever to hold people’s attention online, so brands need to find new ways to get through to users. YouTube says its six-second ads result in “significant” lift in 70% of cases. This offers an excellent opportunity to increase your brand’s awareness while making sure you deliver your intended messaged before views have a chance to skip. These short videos need to be thumb-stopping in nature — JustPixl achieves this by using a unique formula.
Most branded video content follows a classic narrative:
- Lead in
- Build excitement
- Climax
- Offer
- Branding
We aim to use a new story arc when employing six-second video adverts:
- Visual hook
- Subtle branding cues
- Big Reveal
- Quick Cuts
Video Sequencing
Many brands have products or services that pertain to a broad audience. These sort of organization tend to run into a common problem when planning their video content strategies —how do they use a video to grab the attention of such a wide range of people? It’s no easy task, as every audience they need to target needs to be spoken to in different ways, or else the message won’t get through the way it is meant to. So how do they get around this?
By using video sequencing. This term refers to creating a series of consistent videos rather that can be used to extend the life of your campaign. The first step would be to create one single “Anthem Piece” that is a culmination of the campaign’s individual stories. After this video is released at the launch of the campaign you have the opportunity to break it down into individual stories. These shorter videos are highly targeted to specific demographics and can be used to tell stories over a longer period of time, increase the efficiency of a brand’s media buys, and create more value out of your investment.
Video Tailoring for Specific Platforms
Think about all the different ways you look at videos every day – There’s Instagram, Facebook, YouTube ads, pre-roll ads, actual video content, and so much more. What do all these formats have in common? Their different attributes. No matter where you plan on running your videos, you need to be aware of the fact that the dimensions, lengths, and average runtimes vary between platforms.
It’s critical that you tailor your content to each platform you plan on using. For instance, widescreen video on Instagram is not the ideal format as most users video the site via the mobile app. A vertical style video will better fill their mobile screen maximizing engagement. With YouTube, ads viewership is not solely based on mobile. It’s also likely that viewers could be using their laptop or TV so a horizontal (or widescreen) format would work better. Likewise, you probably wouldn’t want to watch a five-minute video on Facebook, but you would almost definitely watch it on Vimeo. Also, try to think about where people watch specific platforms – for example, if you’re scrolling through Facebook in a busy waiting room, chances are your sound is off. So in this case, you’d like the video you come across to feature text on it. That way, you’d actually know what’s going on without needing the sound.
Keeping these tips in mind while developing the rollout of your campaign is important so that you can maximize your engagement across all platforms
Using the Conversion Funnel
Videos are without a doubt becoming one of the most powerful methods in our age for
engaging customers with content and services. A recent study by Unbounce concluded that having a video on a landing page can increase conversion rates by 80%. Creating videos with a clear call to action tells the audience exactly what to do next, whether that’s clicking on a link to another video or product or registering as a volunteer on a hiring platform, video helps to direct more consumers along the ‘conversion funnel.’ You have the opportunity to build trust, create an emotional connection and start to sell your product before you actually have a conversation with a potential customer. Whatever the call to action is, having them in your content will always equate to a higher return and a happy client.
Branded Films
Beyond the standard videos that advertise your business and/or services, there’s also an increasing amount of brands that are deploying branded series to really hit the pain points of their audience and connect with their consumer base. Branded Content is all about creating an emotional connection to a viewer. It doesn’t necessarily sell a product or a service, but sells the lifestyle associated with the brand. It uses recurring themes and graphics that make it easy for viewers to relate and remember a brand. Have you ever seen a road trip video and then the “FORD” logo pops up at the very end? Or a video about a guitar maker who prides herself on precision but it turns out to be a watch commercial because she’s wearing a watch? This is branded content. Sometimes the connections to the brand itself can be a little bit of a stretch and you’ll want to watch it again and try to form a better connection in your head. But at its core, branded content is storytelling telling.
Branded films are one of our specialties here at JustPixl. If you’d like to see some of our work, go ahead and click on this link.
Contact us today to learn about how we can help you create content that engages and inspires your audience.