A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO BRANDED VIDEO KEY SOLUTIONS TO TOP BRANDED VIDEO CHALLENGES EVERY ADVERTISER NEEDS TO KNOW

A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO BRANDED VIDEO KEY SOLUTIONS TO TOP BRANDED VIDEO CHALLENGES EVERY ADVERTISER NEEDS TO KNOW

Branded video is already over a third of brands digital video budgets and is expected to grow 10% in 2016 based on findings from AOL s 6th annual State of the Video Industry Report. Though advertisers see branded video as a key tactic to develop emotional connections with audiences through sight, sound and motion, research reveals they do face tough challenges. While the obstacles range from cost to scale, it is clear that connecting emotion and technology is key to overcoming each. To make the most of branded video s potential, brands must tell their stories as part of an engagement continuum an immersive content cycle built on meaningful insights and powered by leading ad technology. Learn how to solve the top challenges in branded video with the key solutions every advertiser needs to know in this guide. A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO BRANDED VIDEO 02

CHALLENGE #1 PRICE/COST OF ADVERTISERS BELIEVE THAT PRICE/COST IS A CHALLENGE.

SOLUTION: CUSTOMIZED CONTENT PACKAGES DON T HAVE TO COME AT A CUSTOM CONTENT PRICE As it stands today, branded video can be an expensive investment for advertisers. With custom creative for each campaign, brands often invest high budgets for human resources, talent deals, production costs in addition to longer timelines to market. While big custom programs with top name talent and producers create deep engagement with audiences with high impact, there are other ways for brands to create emotional connections through content without such high barriers to entry. Content solutions like curation and packaging help all brands communicate their stories in a way that is less resource intensive by aligning with publisher content. Brands without deep pockets can use these content solutions to align their brand story with publisher content in a way that feels authentic to the brand, while brands with big custom programs can also use them to supplement their campaigns and extend their message even further. CONTENT SOLUTIONS LIKE CURATION AND PACKAGING HELP ALL BRANDS COMMUNICATE THEIR STORIES IN A WAY THAT IS LESS RESOURCE INTENSIVE BY ALIGNING WITH PUBLISHER CONTENT. A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO BRANDED VIDEO 04

CHALLENGE #2 ROI VS OTHER MEDIA OF ADVERTISERS BELIEVE THAT ROI VS OTHER MEDIA IS A CHALLENGE.

S O L U T I O N : E M O T I O N D R I V E S T R A N S A C T I O N Advertisers know that some tactics are meant to drive efficient acquisition while others prime your audience by developing a connection with them that ultimately leads to buying. Branded video falls into the latter category: communicating your brand story through valuable, engaging content that connects with audiences to leave them with a better impression of your brand. In fact, 66% of consumer online shopping moments have an emotional component, and are not intent based. 1 Emotions play a powerful role in building brand certainty before consumers are in market to buy and greatly influence their purchase decisions. 66% OF CONSUMER ONLINE SHOPPING MOMENTS HAVE AN EMOTIONAL COMPONENT, AND ARE NOT INTENT BASED. However, advertisers often need to prove the ROI that ultimately is driven by branded video to their CFOs in order to validate funds spent and sustain those resources or risk shifting to other channels. Custom content effectiveness research helps advertisers prove the impact of branded video campaigns on the emotional connections with consumers and shift in perception, including affinity, interest and consideration. When comparing to other media, like TV, advertisers must also consider attention in addition to reach and frequency metrics to measure the true impact of branded video on consumer attitudes. A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO BRANDED VIDEO 06

CHALLENGE #3 QUALITY OF CONTENT OF ADVERTISERS BELIEVE THAT THE QUALITY OF CONTENT IS A CHALLENGE.

61% OF CONSUMERS DON T CARE IF CONTENT IS CREATED BY A BRAND AS LONG AS IT S GOOD. SOLUTION: INSIGHTS DONE RIGHT Quality is a main challenge for advertisers and rightfully so quality makes or breaks your branded video efforts. In fact, 61% of consumers don t care if content is created by a brand as long as it s good. 2 So how do brands create good content? Quality of production is important, but quality of the story itself it critical to its success. Content itself must be fully consumer centric: the goal is to add value for consumers in some way rather than exclusively promoting what brand wants to communicate. To accomplish this, brands need a complete understanding of audiences including their motivations and expectations for viewing video. With this information, brands can adjust their video topics and messaging to provide value to consumers in an authentic way. For example, entertainment is a major influence for why people watch video, but other motivations also exist including to feel good or stay updated socially. 3 Brands should develop a portfolio of video content to provide value to consumers in multiple mindset to resonate with a larger portion of their audience. With an understanding of human insights combined with pre-testing techniques and media analytics, advertisers can create video that is strategically programmed to resonate with their audience rather than shooting in the dark. Branded video rooted in insights enables advertisers to connect deeper with audiences in a way that s more relevant for them. A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO BRANDED VIDEO 08

CHALLENGE #4 AUDIENCE & CAMPAIGN MEASUREMENT OF ADVERTISERS BELIEVE THAT AUDIENCE & CAMPAIGN MEASUREMENT IS A CHALLENGE.

SOLUTION: BY THE NUMBERS Not only do you need audience insights at the start of your branded video campaign to develop effective content ideas, advertisers also need audience and campaign reporting throughout the duration of the campaign. Today, many media vendors provide social analytics through an easy access dashboard that media planners and clients can view in real time. This sounds exciting, but the social journey of a piece of content is only a snapshot of its true performance. Promotion heavily influences how viral a piece of content is. Was this content shared on the publisher or brand s social media accounts when others were not? Was it promoted on the home page? Reporting based on social reach exclusively doesn t show advertisers the true impact of their content on consumers. TRULY USEFUL CUSTOM CONTENT DASHBOARDS MUST PROVIDE AN ALL-INCLUSIVE LOOK AT HOW THE CAMPAIGN IS PERFORMING USING ACTIONABLE DIGITAL ANALYTICS. Truly useful custom content dashboards must provide an all-inclusive look at how the campaign is performing using actionable digital analytics, including metrics like traffic, social efficiency scores, video completion rates, and engaged time. These are used as intermediate sign posts to determine if advertisers are on the right track to a successful brand building effort, which should be paired with custom content effectiveness reporting to measure the brand impact of the campaign. This measurement helps advertisers understand how the campaign performed against their KPIs, and which content and ads performed the best, in order to determine any areas for improvement and opportunity. A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO BRANDED VIDEO 10

CHALLENGE #5 SCALE OF ADVERTISERS BELIEVE THAT SCALE IS A CHALLENGE.

TO BEST BENEFIT ADVERTISERS AND DRIVE THE SUCCESS OF A CAMPAIGN, PUBLISHERS MUST USE THE TECHNOLOGY AVAILABLE TODAY TO DISTRIBUTE BRANDED VIDEO AT SCALE THROUGH LARGER REACH NETWORKS. SOLUTION: DISTRIBUTION AT LARGE Distributing branded video content at scale to the right audiences is another challenge for advertisers today. The root of the problem exists on the publisher end. Currently, the majority of branded video publishers distribute assets through their owned and operated sites and owned social media, while only 33% of publishers scale branded video through video distribution networks.4 Without a video network, discovery of the branded video is very limited, significantly hindering ability to scale. To best benefit advertisers and drive the success of a campaign, publishers must use the technology available today to distribute branded video at scale through larger reach networks. If a publisher partner does not work with a distribution platform, advertisers can license their video and partner with external partners for scale. Even further, programmatic video and programmatic creative distribution enables advertisers to extend their branded video to targeted audiences at scale using advertisers own data, third party or even real time user interaction data. This also unlocks optimizations by content and audiences against pre-determined KPIs to maximize results. Instead of reaching a fragment of your target audience through exclusive owned and operated distribution, advertisers can reach all of them with the right distribution technology. CONCLUSION Fusing content with powerful data and technology transforms branded video campaigns and fuels deeper connections with consumers. By expanding custom with affordable content solutions, measuring results and ROI through advanced analytics, enhancing quality through deeper human and media insights, and scaling with distribution partners, advertisers can unleash the power of branded video to drive deep engagement. A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO BRANDED VIDEO 12

ABOUT Partner Studio by AOL empowers brands to connect with consumers like never before by fusing the emotion of content with the efficacy of technology. SOURCES 1 AOL, Unconditional Shopping, Oct 2015 2 AOL, The Alchemy of Connection, Mar 2015 3 AOL, Content Segmentation, Nov 2015 4 AOL, 2015 State of the Video Industry Report, Oct 2015 2015 AOL. All rights reserved.