Do you consider watch time the most important metric for online video? YouTube adopted it as its key metric and it would appear Twitch seems to agree. What’s more, in its look back on 2015, Twitch reported that its average user was watching over 130more minutes of video each month versus the average YouTube user, at over 7 hours per day!
The massive amount of time spent watching Twitch is a good indication of not only the health of eSports, but also one of many signs that suggest marketers should be using part of their budget on Twitch, especially if they are targeting a similar demographic as Twitch’s gamers.
Twitch: Building Success via the Community
The leader in live-streaming is building its brand not just through content, but also through community, following in the footsteps of YouTube before it. 2015 was the inaugural year for TwitchCon, which saw over 20,000 fans gather in San Francisco this past year to celebrate live streaming and eSports. For comparison, it took YouTube’s own flagship gathering, VidCon, six gatherings to reach similar numbers. For those that couldn’t attend, Twitch had 1.9 million people watch online. That is a great opportunity to add value to your community and advertisers. VidCon take note! One can’t overstate the value of a thriving, inspired community when building an online video presence. An important piece of building Twitch’s community has been based around charity work. It raised over $17 million for more than 55 different charities in 2015.
Although Twitch has expanded to include more than just games recently, it is clearly driven by the eSports scene. As eSports gain in popularity, so too does Twitch. It saw its peak concurrent viewers occur last year on August 23rd, when over 2 million viewers tuned in for a massive pair of eSports events in ESL One: Cologne 2015 and the League of Legends NA LCS Finals. While that’s not Super Bowl type numbers, it is very close to the numbers reported for the first NFL streamed game in 2015, which had 2.36 million viewers.
ALSO ►How One Twitch Channel Boosted Video Views By 380% in a Day
Twitch has developed such a strong, personal relationship with the gaming community that it is now appearing in games such as H1Z1, Rocket League and through XBox Avatars. Twitch has even developed its own sort of creative language through emoticons and allowed its streamers to sell custom packs to viewers. It reports that over 9 billion messages were sent last year at a rate of over 17,400 messages per minute. That’s a lot of Kappas. If you are unfamiliar with the #1 emoticon on Twitch, it’s their own way of expressing sarcasm, through the face of a former Justin.TV employee. Twitch has even inspired a community run site that does nothing but track the usage of emoticons.
Perhaps the biggest reason for the community support of Twitch is because it has spent a lot of resources in supporting its community. It now boasts the ability to “broadcast, watch, and chat from every major gaming platform on Earth”. While Twitch is primarily enjoyed through the Web, with 56% of its viewership watching there, it had over 1 million mobile installs this year that contributed to the now 35% of their viewers that are mobile. Twitch is supporting the demands of its community wherever they broadcast.
Twitch has proven itself the leader in streaming gaming content, giving its viewers both the content they desire and the ability to connect with like-minded fans in a unique way. That’s a recipe for success in online video. I see a particular opportunity for Twitch in the coming years to use that same infrastructure and formula to capture the traditional sports market, who still relies primarily on television. It’s a tall order for Twitch, no doubt, but if it could get major sporting leagues to make their home on Twitch, there is no telling where this company could go.
A number of organizations announced which Super Bowl 50 ad had “won” this year less than 24 hours after the “Big Game” ended on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016. Why the rush to judgement? Well, as the chart below illustrates, the Monday after the Super Bowl is when views spike for Super Bowl Commercials.
But video marketers know that the competition online starts more than a week before kickoff and it continues more than a week after the Vince Lombardi Trophy is handed out. That’s why I’ve waited until now to declare which Super Bowl 50 ad won this year.
Super Bowl 2016 Ads Distributed via YouTube and Facebook (Data via Tubular Labs)
Super Bowl 2016 Video Views: YouTube
Now, there are a variety of metrics that can be used to identify the winner of the “Big Game.” Let’s start with the default metric, “views.” Yes, YouTube counts “views” when users click to play and watch a video for at least 30 seconds and Facebook counts “views” when a video is displayed in a user’s news feed for 3 seconds or more, even if the person doesn’t actually click on the video to watch with the sound turned on. So, to avoid comparing apples to oranges, let’s take a look at the Super Bowl 50 ads that got the most views on each platform.
According to Tubular Intelligence, the Super Bowl 2016 commercial with the most views on YouTube was “The Chase – Hyundai Super Bowl Commercial” Published on Feb. 1, 2016, this 0:31-long video had 23.9 million views at time of writing.
Using “views” as our yardstick, “#Pokemon20: Pokémon Super Bowl Commercial” ended up in second place on YouTube. Published on Jan. 25, 2016, this 1:11-long video had 21.1 million views at time of writing.
And, based on the number of “views” it has accumulated, “Mtn Dew Kickstart: Puppymonkeybaby | Super Bowl Spot,” danced its way to a third place finish on YouTube. Published on Feb. 3, 2106, this 0:33-long video had tallied 20.6 million views at time of writing.
Super Bowl 2016 Video Views: Facebook
On Facebook, it appears that viewers watch different video ads on the social network, or different segments of people use different video platforms as their second screen during major TV sports events. Alternative explanations for the surprising results that you are about to see below also include:
Facebookers were watching video ads from a different “Big Game” than YouTubers.
The beings watching Super Bowl 50 ads on Facebook were from a parallel universe.
The Super Bowl 2016 commercial with the most views on Facebook was “Watch the new X-Men: Apocalypse Super Bowl Commercial now. In theaters May 27.” Uploaded on Feb. 7, 2016, this 0:31-long video had 15.9 million views at time of writing.
Using “views” as our yardstick, “Kentucky Fried Chicken | Dream | 2016 Big Game Commercial” ended up in second place on Facebook. Uploaded on Feb. 6, 2016, this 0:30-long video had 10.7 million views at time of writing.
And, based on the number of “views” it has accumulated, “10 Cloverfield Lane Super Bowl Ad (2016),” creeped its way to a third place finish on Facebook. Uploaded on Feb. 7, 2106, this 0:30-long video had tallied 10.6 million views at time of writing.
Super Bowl Ads by Engagement
You will also see a surprisingly different picture if you use Tubular Intelligence to sort the results by “engagements,” which includes Likes, Comments, Shares, and Tweets.
The Super Bowl 50 commercial with the most engagements on YouTube was “#Pokemon20: Pokémon Super Bowl Commercial.” This video had 436,000 engagements, giving it an engagement/view ratio of 2.0%. Using “engagements” as our yardstick, “First Date – Hyundai Super Bowl Commercial | The 2016 Hyundai Genesis” ended up in second place on YouTube. This 1:01-long video had 394,000 engagements and 14.7 million views, giving it an engagement/view ratio of 2.6%. And, based on the number of “engagements” it has accumulated, “HEINZ Ketchup Game Day 2016 Hot Dog Commercial | ‘Wiener Stampede’ - Extended Cut” ran off with third place on YouTube. Published on Feb. 1, 2016, this 1:01-long video had 293,000 engagements and 6.2 million views, giving it an engagement/view ratio of 4.7%.
And, you see a somewhat different picture if you use Tubular Intelligence to sort the results by “engagements” on Facebook. The Super Bowl 50 commercial with the most engagements on Facebook was “Watch the new X-Men: Apocalypse Super Bowl Commercial now. In theaters May 27.” This video had 715,000 engagements on Facebook, giving it an engagement/view ratio of 4.4%. Using “engagements” as our yardstick, “Marvel's Captain America: Civil War Big Game Spot” ended up in second place on Facebook.
This 0:30-long video had 256,000 engagements and 5.9 million views, giving it an engagement/view ratio of 4.3%. And, based on the number of “engagements” it has accumulated, “The new Heinz Superbowl commercial!” ran off with third place on Facebook. Uploaded on Feb. 1, 2016, this freebooted version of the 0:30-long video on Sausage Dog Central’s Facebook page had 218,000 engagements and 7.3 million views, giving it an engagement/view ratio of 2.9%.
Which Super Bowl Ad Won in 2016?
So, based on this data, am I ready to declare which Super Bowl 50 ad “won” this year? Almost, but not quite yet. Regular readers of ReelSEO know that I’ve encouraged video marketers to use Google’s Brand Lift surveys to measure increases in brand awareness, ad recall, consideration, favorability, purchase intent, and brand interest, as measured by organic search activity.
And it turns out that the Facebook Marketing Science team commissioned Nielsen to analyze data from 173 of their BrandEffect studies which included digital video ads on Facebook. Each of these studies used a test-and-control design to measure the video’s impact on three ad campaign metrics: ad recall, brand awareness, and purchase consideration. So, it appears that both of the two leading video platforms understand that video view counts alone don’t tell advertisers enough about the value driven from digital video ads. Measuring engagements is a step in the right direction, but video marketers also want to know how their ad resonates at the later stages of the purchase journey including consideration, favorability, and purchase intent.
Unfortunately, neither YouTube nor Facebook makes this kind of information public – unless it is approved ahead of time by an individual brand. So, video marketers need to look elsewhere for this critical data. Fortunately, there is a reputable source for some of this critical data – and it’s willing to share it publicly. It’s YouGov BrandIndex, a brand intelligence service. BrandIndex interviews more than 6,800 consumers every day, yielding over 2.5 million interviews a year. Last week, YouGov BrandIndex published an article about this year’s Super Bowl ads. Among other things, the brand intelligence service said, “The Heinz ad hit home with two of the most comforting images: cute puppies and yummy condiments. Heinz showed the greatest uptick in Buzz and Purchase consideration compared with early January figures.”
In other words, purchase consideration for Heinz was 58.9% back during Jan. 4-17 – before the Super Bowl. And the brand’s purchase consideration was 69.6% for Feb. 8-9 – after the “Wiener Stampede” ad aired on TV and was published online. That’s a positive left in purchase consideration of 10.7%
The eccentric “Skittles: ‘The Portrait’ w/ Steven Tyler. Super Bowl 50 Commercial” helped to lift that brand into second place. Skittles had a purchase consideration of 30.0% during Jan. 4-14, but that increased 8.6% to 38.6% as of Feb. 8-9.
And according to the YouGov BrandIndex article, “AXE ditched the ‘bro’ attitude for something more sophisticated – it’s now ‘grooming for men’ - more grown up, like the smart big brother giving you advice.” This explains why and how “AXE - Find Your Magic” boosted purchase consideration from the brand by 6.8% – from 15.2% during Jan. 4-17 to 22.1% as of Feb. 8-9. So, it seems that Unilever’s AXE did the right thing by changing direction.
These strategic insights are why it was worth waiting until now to announce that the Heinz ad is the winner of this year’s “Big Game.” It also tempts me to coin a new phrase: “The Super Bowl ain’t over till the ‘Wiener Stampede’ ends.”
Let me know what you think in the comments area below.
At the end of January 2016, Facebook reported its financial results for 2015. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, stated that “2015 was a great year for Facebook. Our community continued to grow and our business is thriving.” And it is. The results confirmed a year-on-year revenue increase of 44%, along with a 21% growth in mobile monthly active users.
But how about video? Is the focus paying off for the social networking site? Apparently so, with the company announcing Facebook viewers now watch an incredible 100 million hours of video every day.
500M People are Watching Facebook Videos Every Day
Zuckerberg confirmed that “Video is an important part of the Facebook experience", and the company will continue to pour investment into video. The site has been testing out new features and functionality like suggested videos, with the aim of promoting that content to users who want to watch more.
When Facebook reported its Q3 2015 results three months earlier, it disclosed that more than 500 million people watch videos on the social networking site daily. This number wasn’t updated when the Q4 2015 results were reported, so we have to assume that it remains the same. This means that the average viewer is watching about 12 minutes of video a day on Facebook. According to Tubular, 1.8 million videos were natively uploaded to the site in the last 7 days, generating 31.6 billion views. The most popular video was this upload from BuzzFeed's Tasty which generated 67.5 million views, and 2.5 million likes, comments, and shares:
Facebook also wants to ensure that users in developing countries don't miss out on the features. It already offers the less data-heavy 'Facebook Lite' which aims to offer a better user-experience in areas of low-bandwidth. The company stated that over 80M people have access to Facebook Lite and it's helping to improving load times of video content. So, video views may eventually increase in countries across Asia, and in parts of Latin America, Africa and Europe. But if had already happened, then I would have expected Facebook to have updated the number of people watching videos on the social networking site daily. So, I would categorize this as a “forward-looking statement.”
Instagram Community 'Continues to Grow'
Zuckerberg also confirmed that the Instagram “community continues to grow,” but he didn’t update the 400 million monthly active users that was announced back in September 2015. He did state that the new looping Boomerang app for the platform reached #1 in the App Store in more than 70 countries. Instagram also launched a new video channel so viewers can catch up on big tent-pole events like New Year's Eve, and College Football.
So, while we’ve known for more than a year-and-a-half that Facebook is competing with YouTube, it turns out that Instagram is competing with Vine, too. In other words, there are a lot of “Type A” personalities (more competitive, outgoing, ambitious, impatient and/or aggressive) at Instagram’s headquarters in San Francisco as well as Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park.
Zuckerberg confirmed that, “More than 800 million people now use Messenger monthly, and in 2015 we grew that number by almost a quarter of a billion, while also increasing engagement. We continued to give people new ways to communicate by introducing video calling, and new options for customizing conversations with fun things like colors and emoji, and by using apps through the Messenger Platform.” So, does this mean that Facebook Messenger competes with Snapchat? Is there any video platform that the Zuckerbergians haven’t declared war on … yet?
Mobile Video: How Viewers Watch Differently
During the announcement, Zuckerberg was followed by Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s COO. She shared a recent case study that video marketers will want to analyze. Microsoft Xbox optimised video for Facebook and Instagram for the launch of Halo 5.The video marketing teams behind the campaign understood that viewers watch video differently on mobile than via other devices, like TV, so created content that captured the viewer's attention in the first 3 seconds, even if that viewer watched without sound. This tactic drove over 380 million impressions and 49 million video views, and "increased purchase intent by 10 points in the US.” Now, we can quibble all we want about how Facebook counts “views,” but a 10-point lift in purchase intent is nothing to sneeze at.
This was the good stuff that I discovered while picking the data dump made during Facebook’s recent earnings release. In my next post, I’ll pick through the data dump that was made on Feb. 1, 2016, when Alphabet Inc. (Google) announced its financial results for the quarter and fiscal year that ended on Dec. 31, 2015. In the meantime, if you feel so inclined, you can catch the full details of Facebook's earnings release call at investor.fb.com, along with the earnings press release and slide presentation.
January 2016 was a relatively quiet month for brands on Vine and Instagram, after such a push of Christmas and holiday content. I guess they are holding out for the promise of some major tent-pole events that February holds like Super Bowl, and Valentine's Day. After all, it's often easier to publish content when it's trending.
As ever, the challenge is not just following the trends, but making sure that your videos highlight the trends while showcasing your brand. Despite it being a quiet month, we have chosen some of the best branded micro-content that should leave you hungry for more. Join us for a look back at the best branded Vines and Instagram videos for January.
Want to see which brands and creators generated the most views on each of the micro social video platforms in December? Check out Tubular's ranking leaderboards for Vine and Instagram Videos:
Best Branded Vines January 2016
Twitter: A couple of nice stop-motion clips from Twitter last month, one promotional, and one celebrating 3 years since the Vine platform (which is Twitter-owned) went live. Information coming out of #CES2016, one of the tech industry's biggest events, can be a little overwhelming for anyone, especially those trying to follow on social media. Twitter Ads encouraged us to watch out for product launch updates via the site with this little promo:
Can you believe that Vine celebrated its third birthday on January 24th? According to Tubular, over 39M videos have been uploaded to the platform in that time, generating 765 billion views. Here's to the next 3 years!
Dunkin Donuts: OK, so technically this was uploaded on the last day of December 2015, but as one of the most recognisable coffee retailers across the world, we would have been pretty disappointed if DD hadn't celebrated New Year's Eve in its own unique way. This Vine was one of 26 pieces of video content uploaded by Dunkin Donuts in December 2015 and January 2016 across the main social platforms, and it generated 53K views, or loops, for the brand.
Coca-Cola: In January, Coca-Cola teamed up with top Vine Stars Lucas and Marcus to create content around their products being sold in fast-food chain Wendys. Interestingly, the collab was uploaded to Coke's own channel (32K followers), rather than to that of Lucas and Marcus who have 1.5M followers, so potentially missing out of thousands of extra views. Although, in the end this Vine generated 854K loops.
The Home Depot: What's the first thing that springs to mind when you're planning to make a day of watching the Super Bowl? Is it making sure you've invited friends and family, or that you'll get the right snacks in? Or is it buying a flexible HDMI cable? Fair play to Home Depot for creating content around the event, however tenuous.
Best Branded Instagram Videos January 2016
Ben and Jerrys: Ben and Jerry's have created a very successful little series of hints and tips, using Instagram as a teaser to drive viewers off-platform and onto its own site for further information. It also scored highly with followers of its Instagram account with some delicious how-to videos, and the latest invites viewers to make a delicious hot chocolate drink. Yum. This Instavid guides the viewer to the B&J website where they can watch a longer YouTube tutorial video.
Dunkin Donuts: We've already covered DD on Vine, but here's another stop-motion clip uploaded to Instagram, this time for the brand's new Caramel Macchiato.
Taco Bell: Sometimes the best Instagram videos are the most simple, and this hypnotic offering from Taco Bell is just that.
LEGO: It’s almost too easy for LEGO to make this list so long as it stay timely with its videos. in the last few months it has made videos relating to Halloween, Back to the Future, Thanksgiving, and Star Wars. As long as the brand a few master builders ready to go at a moment’s notice, there is no reason it can’t quickly build up a timely masterpiece and get it posted to ride the latest buzz.
M&S: UK retailer M&S sell a huge range of products, but is perhaps best known for its in-store food markets. A cross between Trader Joe's and Safeway, it carries a range of high-end luxury products, but also a line of healthy foods, and it kicked off 2016 with this promo for low-fat lunch option.
That's it for our roundup of the best branded Vines and Instagram videos for January 2016. Stay tuned for February's instalment!
YouTube has just released the January 2016 YouTube Ads Leaderboard showcasing the top ads people chose to watch last month. With caucus and primary season heating up, political ads leapt onto the Leaderboard for the first time ever, taking three of the 10 spots. Clash of Clans also continued its year-end domination by landing #1 for a consecutive month and claiming two spots on the list.
Now, YouTube first launched its monthly Ads Leaderboard in April 2013. So, there is no way of telling whether a political ad like “Yes We Can - Barack Obama Music Video” would have made it onto a similar chart if it had existed in February 2008. But, the fact that there are three political ads and only one Super Bowl ad on January’s YouTube Ads Leaderboard highlights what people choose to watch. Each list is derived purely quantitatively, through a methodology that keys into the most potent signals of audience engagement – whether viewers choose to watch and share (both in an ad and organic context) and how long they watch. Here are some of the highlights:
Political Video Ads: YouTube January 2016
The three political ads that landed on the U.S. Ads Leaderboard were promotional clips from Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, and Our Principles PAC. With the election heating up, YouTube is proving as important a platform as ever for campaigns to engage and reach potential voters and supporters.
Bernie Sanders’ “America” ad, set to the music of Simon & Garfunkel and released in the run-up to the Iowa Caucus, struck a chord with viewers and surged to #5 overall.
Ted Cruz’s “Invasion” ad, and an anti-Trump ad, The Trump Tapes: Vol. 1, from Our Principles PAC round out the January Leaderboard at #9 and #10 respectively.
Continuing last month’s domination, Clash of Clans takes the first two spots on the Leaderboard, marking its 10th and 11th appearance on the Leaderboard overall. Both spots continue last month’s campaign and featured real gameplay from users as narrated by Christoph Waltz. For the second month in a row, game ads take half the spots on the Leaderboard. Aside from Clash of Clans, the Leaderboard includes spots from Boom Beach, Pokémon and Candy Crush Saga.
Official January 2016 YouTube Ads Leaderboard
1. Clash of Clans: Traps (Official TV Commercial), 18.6M views
2. Clash of Clans: A Special Map (Official TV Commercial), 11M views
3. #Pokemon20: Pokémon Super Bowl Commercial, 10.6M views
4. Boom Beach: Dr. T's Song (Official TV Commercial), 3.4M views
5. America | Bernie Sanders, 2.8M views
6. Drone Racing League: The Sport of the Future | DRL, 1.4M views
7. Meet the real Jelly Queen! - TV ad - Candy Crush Jelly Saga, 1.3M views
Overall, there were 50 million views for the whole Leaderboard. And there were 9 million minutes of watch time - a total of 73 years and 295 days!
So, what can video marketers learn from the January 2016 YouTube Ad Leaderboard? For starters, all 10 of the video ads tap into some very basic human emotions. Watching them will trigger a range of emotional reactions, some positive, some negative. The technological advances in the technology of advertising has changed dramatically during the past 30 years, but the impact of emotion in ads has remained the same.
Serving more than 100 million people every month, Vine delivers over 1.5 billion loops of its six-second content every day. This kind of engagement is elevating talented performers to celebrity status, while companies and brands try to harness these influencers' popularity to promote their wares. Meanwhile, those performers struggle to parlay the fleeting glory of a celebrated video into long-term dividends elsewhere.
Jason Nash, for example, achieved breakthrough success – to the tune of over 2 million followers – with successful videos like “Soda Dad,” and is trying to channel that viewership back into the work he did pre-Vine as a podcaster, stand-up and filmmaker.
“I was making a movie for Comedy Central called 'Jason Nash is Married', and I certainly wasn’t famous or had a big name or anything,” Nash recently explained. “But I knew I had to come up with some new [material] somehow, so I went on Vine and started doing whatever I thought was funny, and it just took off, and it worked.”
Not everyone on Vine who competes on Nash’s level has the same aspirations; then again, many of them started for entirely different, decidedly unprofessional reasons than Nash did. “There was a girl I had a crush on, and she had Vine, and one day she made a video and Tweeted it in her timeline, and I was like, ‘what is this?’” admitted Greg Davis Jr., aka Klarity. “I watched it, and downloaded Vine just so I could watch the video. And then I just started playing around with it.” In fact, it wasn’t until a friend informed him that he’d become popular that Davis began to recognize the impact of what he was doing.
“I remember starting and not knowing what I was doing, and so we shot some, and he said, I’m gonna post it, and I left. I went to church and while I’m there, he texts me and says it made the top of the page,” he remembered. “That was such a big deal because it means it’s like it’s trending on Twitter or whatever, and I’d beaten my head against the wall with social media for years trying to get followers and grow, and the first thing I did in this space, everybody who’s on this platform saw it. So from then on I was hooked.”
Nash indicated that the immediate appeal of Vine was the control he could exert over each video, and the speed with which not only he could shoot it, but receive a response from his intended audience. “You and I have this idea, ‘oh it would be funny if…,’ and next thing you know, you pull your phone out and shoot it, upload it and you know right away if people like it – you can tell in the first minute,” Nash said. “There’s tons of talented people out there, and that’s the best thing [now], that the power is in the hands of the creator, and no one can tell you no.”
ALSO ►Top Vine Stars & Most-Watched Vine Creators: December 2015 Leaderboard
“And the immediacy of Vine,” he added. “I’ve been waiting for this movie to get greenlit for six months, and I’m going to do a Vine today, and it will go up and people will see it.”
Davis, meanwhile, said that Vine’s brevity forces users to condense and maximize what they want to say, which has in turn honed his creative instincts and made him a more confident performer. “If you can be creative in six seconds, you can be creative in any amount of time,” he explained. “It’s forced me to get to the point quicker in telling a story. And it helped me in every other area of being a storyteller, whether it’s 30 seconds or long form. It forced me to be creative, and to get out of my comfort zone and to get over some fears with comedy.”
“I didn’t do it to procure more acting jobs, I just did it because I wanted to be not as insecure anymore,” Davis continued. “I wanted to knock the dust off, I wanted to hone my skill and be comfortable in front of the camera again.” That said, Davis insists that he isn’t letting that online success go to his head, nor expecting that it will do more than open a few doors in the creative areas where he truly hopes to make his mark. “Being on social media and having a million followers is cool, but until I get a call from Spielberg or Scorsese or whoever, I’m not taking anything from it.”
That said, Davis observed that what he does has the opportunity to entertain a lot more people than traditional forms of entertainment, especially now that cell phones and mobile devices have become inseparable from their owners. “You can go on Netflix and watch a comedy special, but who has that hour and a half out of their day until they go home at night or on weekends?” he asked. “But if you’re in traffic, you can pull out your phone and just laugh real quick, or you can be walking from one class to another and pull out your phone and get a quick laugh. I don’t think it’s ever going to replace anything, but it’s a new way to get content out there.”
For Nash, the goal is to merge his digital reach with his real-world creativity. “My endgame is just to be able to create content and have the audience tell me what’s good or bad,” he said. “In television and film, you write a script, you spend nine months on it and it doesn’t go – no one ever saw that effort.”
“I just want to do things that people see, and work. And what it comes down to is there’s an audience there, and it’s so wonderful, and it’s real.”
In a previous ReelSEO article I asked our readers three questions about creating an effective mobile video strategy that focused on the viewers that were discovering, watching, and sharing mobile videos. In this post, I'll tackle three more important questions:
When should you promote your mobile video content with paid media?
How should you measure your mobile video marketing or ad campaign?
Why is Snapchat the horse of a different color you’ve heard tell about?
When Should You Promote Mobile Video with Paid Media?
As the YouTube Creator Playbook for Brands observes, given the sheer amount of video content available on the Internet, “It’s risky to assume that your content will be organically discovered by a large audience". In other words, video marketers need to plan for as big an audience as possible. So, if brands don’t already have millions of subscribers, likes, or followers, they’ll need to seed their content when it launches. Indeed, when they don't have an existing YouTube subscriber base or engaged social media following, many brands use paid advertising to ignite sharing and accelerate audience building.
For example, the YouTube platform allows you to promote your Owned Media (video content) by letting you select it as Paid Media (paid video advertising) in order to ignite Earned Media (“free” views obtained when people share the video ads). But why should brands do that? Well, as YouTube confirms, many campaigns can generate "at least one earned view as a result of every two paid views", and that's a pretty decent recent on investment. Social platforms Facebook and Twitter offer similar options to use advertising promote video content on those sites.
Of course, ad blockers throw a spanner into the works of all of these strategies. According to the IAB, 34% of the US population uses ad blockers. And this trend is picking up pace. So, the keys to success in 2016 are to: (1) produce great, relevant videos that people want to watch and share, and (2) make sure that the 66% of your target audience which still doesn’t use ad blockers discovers them..
How Should You Measure a Mobile Video Marketing Campaign?
When it comes to measuring results, here’s the good news: the love affair with the “view” is long gone – although some agencies admit that they’re still convincing their clients that the view counter is merely a vanity metric. And here’s some even better news: more and more brands are looking closely at metrics which measure attention and engagement (e.g. dwell time, completed views and interactions).
Even if a brand’s primary goal for online video advertising is increasing brand awareness, then as I reported back in September, video marketers can use Google’s Brand Lift surveys to measure brand awareness, ad recall and brand interest among users who saw their ad versus users who did not see their ad.
And Brand Lift provides actionable insights into what happens between exposure and conversion. Google recently introduced additional metrics to tell you how your ad resonates at the later stages of the purchase journey including consideration, favorability, and purchase intent. And unlike other solutions that can take months to provide limited results, Brand Lift gives actionable insights in a matter of a few days so you can adjust your campaigns in near real-time. Brand Lift also links your advertising to lift in organic searches on Google.com and YouTube.com so you can see what impact your ads have on driving interest in your brand and products.
Since launching Brand Lift in 2014, brands have run more than 10,000 studies across display and video advertising on desktop, mobile, and tablet providing a wealth of actionable insight. For example, Mondelēz International was faced with the choice of deciding between two creative versions of an ad for a new flavor of Trident in Brazil. So, Mondelēz tested both versions, and then exclusively ran the winning ad with ad recall jumping 23% higher for this top version.
And Nissan in Canada learned that their ads for its micromodel resonated more with women in two age groups: 25 to 34 and 45 to 54. As a result, they were able to shift their media targeting to drive greater impact.
And these results aren't unique to Nissan and Mondelēz. In analyzing over 50 Google preferred studies, 94% of brands have seen a lift in ad recall, with an average lift of 80%. And an analysis of over 800 brand lift studies showed that 65% of brands were able to drive a lift in keyword searches on Google.com with an average lift of 13%. In other words, Google’s Brand Lift lets video marketers measure every moment that matters.
Now, a few leading advertisers are thinking about using online video advertising to drive important metrics like viewer purchase intent. Two recent studies show just how much video advertising on YouTube can assist in every part of the sales cycle, from research, to purchase.
A team from Google and YouTube looked at all of the Brand Lift data since June 2015, which included a huge number of campaigns across many different verticals. The study found TrueView ads saw a 35% lift in purchase intent from the viewer.
So, YouTube state that TrueView ads are an important step in the sales process, driving an increase in brand consideration for 57% of the campaigns included. TrueView’s skippable ad format also gives viewers the choice to watch and engage with an ad, or to skip it, and that's a huge bonus for viewers.
To understand how this choice has a positive effect on campaign metrics, the study also included viewers who watched 30 seconds (or more) of a video ad. It found that the metrics were higher, with purchase intent 19% higher.
Previous Google research indicates that the longer a viewer stays watching a video ad, the higher the potential for a rise in brand visibility. And that also means a lift in purchase intent. Brands should optimise for this intent by making content that viewers will stick with. A great example of this comes from Gillette, who set out to target a specific demographic (millennial men). It created a campaign to teach men how to shave, based around the history of shaving, and other closely related topics.
According to Tubular Labs, “100 Years of Hair” has 13.6 million views and a total of 10,500 engagements (4,000 on YouTube, 5,700 on Facebook, and 726 on Twitter). According to YouTube Analytics, 84% of viewers watched at least 85% of the ad. According to Google’s Brand Lift solution, Gillette searches grew by 211% and clicks grew by 111% (biggest increase ever for the brand). And according to Gillette, “100 Years of Hair” delivered more than 500,000 clicks-to-buy and surpassed sales expectations by up to 4X across seven markets.
Want even more details? Then watch “Gillette Wins With a Digital-First Approach for Gillette BODY | YouTube Advertisers.”
Snapchat and Video Promotion
This brings us to Snapchat, which is a horse of an entirely different color. According to Evan Spiegel, who is the co-founder and CEO of the mobile application, “Snapchat discards content to focus on the feeling that content brings to you, not the way that content looks.”
For example, Snaps are picture or video messages taken and shared with friends on Snapchat in real-time. Snaps can be viewed for up to 10 seconds, depending on the amount of time the user chooses. Snapchatters can choose to have their photo or video saved in their phone’s photo gallery or just sent to friends. By default, Snaps disappear from the screen once they are viewed - unless your friend decides to keep it, such as with a screenshot or separate camera. Snaps are meant to make conversation more spontaneous, visual and fun.
ALSO ►Snapchat: How Ephemeral Video Marketing is Engaging Viewers
On the other hand, Stories string Snaps together to create a narrative that lasts for 24 hours. To create a Story, a user chooses to add their Snaps to their Story. Depending on their privacy settings, the photos and videos added to a Story can be viewed by either all Snapchatters, just the user’s friends, or a customized group. Stories honor the true nature of storytelling - in sequential order with a beginning, middle and end.
To monetize Snaps and Stories, Snapchat introduced 3V advertising in June 2015. Here’s a YouTube video of Spiegel explaining the opportunity – back then.
According to research by Millward Brown Digital, 93% of Snapchatters exposed to an ad for the Universal movie Furious 7 liked or loved it. And there was a 3X likelihood that a Snapchatter who saw watched the ad saw the movie as opposed to non-Snapchatters of the same demo.
That was seven months ago. Today, there are more than 100 million active daily active Snapchatters and Snapchat is getting over 6 billion video views every day. So, this is yet another key segment that discovers, watches, and shares mobile videos – that are ephemeral.
Video Marketers: Keep Up With Those Metrics
Video marketing, and advertising, is evolving at an extraordinary rate. None of us should assume that everybody already knows this stuff because somebody posted it somewhere at some time. That’s why I'm sharing these tips again with ReelSEO readers now. Let me know what you think in the comments section below.
Facebook video ads yield amazing results for creators and marketers who leverage the platform effectively. I’m not just talking about fat stacks of cash either - whether your objective is to close sales, build a list, or win a whole bunch of new followers, fans, likes, and clicks, Facebook video ads provide an unmatched ability to target your ideal viewers with content they are sure to enjoy. But which Facebook video ad formats are the most effective?
In our research to find the top performing video ads on Facebook, the Videospot team looked at pages from national brands, media companies, and even local business. We evaluated the success of the video ads based on their publicly displayed views, likes, comments, and shares.
Most Effective Facebook Video Ad Formats
We made the assumption that businesses wouldn’t continue to pay for views that weren’t driving an objective and therefore a high view count reasonably assumed that the video achieves results. We discovered that all the best ads fit into 3 major video formats. In this article, I’ll examine those formats and break down the key takeaways from each so that you can expand your reach beyond YouTube to effectively engage an audience on Facebook. Let's take a look at the first format:
#1 Educational/Informational Shorts
These fast-paced, short-form instructional videos have been made popular by media giants BuzzFeed, Tastemade, and Food Network. Smaller Creators too have jumped in on the game with exercise videos, crafts, makeup tutorials, and even window cleaning versions of these popular videos. Known for audience retention, these videos are fun and highly shareable because viewers can watch the entire video quickly - exactly what the Facebook audience wants! This style may work well on Snapchat too.
Key Takeaways:
Average time of ad is 0:30.
Shoot your video either straight on or right above the object you want to bring the most attention to. Speed up the footage in premiere or use an intervalometer on your DSLR to create a time-lapse.
Use text and/ or images heavily on-screen so the viewer knows what you’re doing without having to turn on the audio. More on that later...
#2 Gifs
This video ad format refers to the animated Gif (pronounced: Jif, like giant or giraffe), and is an animated image or series of images that move like a video. The Gif leverages one of the web's most popular forms of viral media with sleek movements that wow the eye. Gifs engage the viewer as they tune in naturally to see what will happen next. Technically still video because it’s uploaded in MP4 or MOV format, this image-emulating style is made popular by Facebook Insights, Corona, and Time Magazine but has been seen for software companies, marketing agencies, and creative firms.
Key Takeaways:
Gif animation software is easy to come by but the same effect is made possible using any linear editor.
Keyframing in Premiere or Final Cut works nicely while the camera in tool in After Effects can really set your video ad apart.
Popular Gifs use a collection of still images that are animated inside a larger context.
Use sound effects and stunning lens filters to create a sense of motion.
These videos generate a ton of views and they are easy to share. They are easier to produce if you have the right images.
ALSO ►20 Ways Brands Can Make the Most Out of Facebook Video
#3 Worksafe Ads
Worksafe videos use text or captions to tell the story without having to turn the volume on. This makes the video safe for work and environments where playing audio would be disruptive. This expands your viewership to those individuals (and groups of individuals) riding on the bus, sitting in a conference room, arguing with their spouse, or in otherwise precocious environments.
Made popular by media organizations like Business Insider, the worksafe format really started to compete with YouTube’s caption feature. As Facebook began to roll out captions savvy Creators like Buzzfeed saw opportunity to engage viewers by adding titles (aka on-screen text) and without audio at all. We are now seeing this style from a variety of organizations including Videospot but also Vimeo, karate schools, restaurants, and even YouTuber vloggers like Sarah Glide (who is actively involved in the deaf and ASL community).
KeyTakeaways:
These are not captions. Captions show us what the speakers are saying. Worksafe videos use titles to help tell the general story.
Will help you reach the deaf and ASL communities (note: the deaf community prefers the term deaf to hearing impaired).
Will help you reach an international audience of non-native English speakers.
Keep your shots wider than usual and shoot footage knowing that you will be adding titles
For closer shots, be sure to keep some look room (nose room) in the shot for your titles.
Titles will work for speaking videos too but the Worksafe model refers more to titles and less to captions.
You can fit captions in as well but remember the captions will appear in the same place (bottom center) of your video. Captions should be used for speakers only- not to tell the story. Be sure to edit knowing that you’re going to use captions and titles. Captions can be added in post-production through services like Ciela-24.
Always Choose the Right Ad Format
These top three video ad formats for Facebook perform incredibly well. While each of these formats are being used by major media corporations and brands, the style of video translates well for smaller businesses too.
While these three represent the top of performing ads we discovered, they certainly aren’t the only styles of video we’re seeing perform well on Facebook. However, as Facebook continues to mature as a video platform, the Creators who gain reputation early on will reap the rewards of being positioned early. We at Videospot plan to be one of them.
Are you seeing video ad formats on Facebook that you didn’t read about here? Post your observations in the comments below and be sure to tag me @owenhemsath so I can get in on the conversation.
Over 11 million creators publish video content to the major social video platforms every month, and now we can confirm the top video talent across those sites to show you who is generating the most views, engagement, followers and buzz.
Using data from Tubular, we can track and measure the most watched online video creators on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Vine. In this post, we take a specific look at December 2015 Video Creator Rankings for Vine, and which Vine stars generated the most views and engagement on the site last month.
Most Popular Vine Video Stars: December 2015
According to the most up to date statistics for the site, around 100 million people watch at least one Vine a month, either on their mobile device or via their desktop. For video marketing teams, Vine is an important part of the programming and distribution strategy for content, but it's fair to say that Vine has made more stars out of individuals, than it has of brands, although of course some brands are killing it on the platform.
As you can see from the December leaderboard, eight out of the top 10 most watched Viners are still independent creators, and appear in the comedy category. For the eighth month in a row, teenage Vine star Lele Pons, who is perhaps best known for pulling pranks on her friends and family, was one of the most watched Vine creator, with an incredible 181 million views, or loops as they are known on the site.
Top 10 Most Watched Vine Creators December 2015 (Data via Tubular)
Lele Pons, a Miami-based teenager became the first Vine star to reach 1 billion, and then 6 billion loops. The teenage sensation has over 9.9 million followers on her Vine account, and picked up 300K new followers last month alone.
Along with Thomas Sanders and other Vine superstars who are fast becoming are the new Influencers for millennials, Pons can command a good fee for any product or service endorsed. She has used her Vine channel to collaborate with or promote Ritz Crackers, HP, and Kotex, and belongs to a stable of Viners represented by Gary Vaynerchuk's Grapestory, a company dedicated to matching Vine personalities to brands such as Virgin Mobile, and GE. Influencer marketing has such widespread benefit for brands, that Vines owner Twitter, invested a rumored $30 million in February this year to acquire Niche, a site that also helps brands and advertisers find Vine Influencers to work them on endorsement deals. So, although Vine doesn't carry paid advertising, it's creators like those featured in the most-watched Leaderboard that can offer brands the visibility they need to access their target audience on the platform.
ALSO ►We're All Watching More Video on Our Smartphones and Tablets [Study]
Heading up the leaderboard is Vine superstar Thomas Sanders with a total of 259 million video views for December. His most looped Vine, with over 12 million views, was this 6-second clip of festive fun, created alongside fellow vineographers BK, and Caleb Natale. 179K viewers liked it so much they chose to share, comment, and like it too.
For the first time since we launched the Vine rankings leaderboard, two sports brands have made the top 10, NBA with 152M video views, and Sports Center with 107M views. Vine was the top channel in terms of video views for the NBA, with this impressive sporting feat by Steph Curry which generated 4.8M views.
Ten Most-Watched Vine Creators December 2015
Thomas Sanders (259M Views)
Lele Pons (181M Views)
NBA (152M Views)
MeechOnMars (134M Views)
The Gabbie Show (112M Views)
Sports Center (107M Views)
Allicattt (107M Views)
David Lopez (105M Views)
Aaron Doh (103M Views)
Manon Mathews (101M Views)
Tune in Every Month for the Most Up-to-Date Stats!
Each month ReelSEO will publish the most up-to-date leaderboard charts from Tubular, so stay tuned! In the meantime, if you'd like to check out the Top 25, please fill out the form below:
There were over 8.3 million native videos uploaded directly to Facebook in December 2015, generating over 179 billion views for around 1.6 million different creators. And food related video content really scored some huge views, the with top publishers going all out to upload recipes, walk-throughs and inspirational ideas for the festive season and beyond.
5 of the top 10 most watched video creators on Facebook last month produce content around food, and between them they generated 2.7 billion views on the world's biggest social networking site. But viewers also had an appetite for news and current affairs, with news sites the second and third most watched. The 'Most Watched Creators on Facebook' leaderboard gives an exclusive look into the brands who are generating the most native video views on the social video platform. Let's take a deeper dive into the numbers.
December 2015: Food Content Wins on Facebook
Five out of the top ten most watched video creators on Facebook for December 2015 uploaded content about food and drink - making it one of the most watched categories on the site. As with previous months, BuzzFeed topped the chart with its 'Tasty' channel, but also appears in fourth place with its 'BuzzFeed Food' page. The publishing giant also makes the chart with its 'BuzzFeed Video', and 'SOML' Facebook channels although they feature a much wider range of content. There's no denying that BuzzFeed and food are a winning recipe, as 26 out of the 30 most-watched videos under the BuzzFeed brand uploaded to Facebook last month were food related. Food and drink is one of the most engaged topics that BuzzFeed creates video content around.
With a combined 1.5 billion video views on Facebook last month, BuzzFeed Tasty, and BuzzFeed Food, are not only consistently generating massive views and engagement each month, between them, they attracted 6 million new followers on the site in December alone. The most viewed video for Tasty was this walkthrough recipe for 'Baked Garlic Parmesan Potato Wedges' which generated 87.5million views, and an incredible 2.8 million engagements. BuzzFeed Food's most popular Facebook video was 'Waffle 4-Ways' which generated 82.2 million views, and an impressive 3 million engagements.
Top Facebook Video Views & Creators December 2015
Top 10 Most Watched Facebook Video Creators December 2015 (Data via Tubular) Rankings include only those creators and brands which publish primarily original content.
Viewers Turn to Facebook for News
News content does incredibly well on Facebook, as users turn to social media to get the latest updates on current affairs, and breaking events. At #2 and#3 in the rankings for the most watched video creators on Facebook in December, we have two news sites, all generating views in the millions for both their current affairs content, and also for native uploads that bring a little light relief from all of the bad news.
In the #2 spot is NowThisNews - a brand that calls itself "mobile news for a social generation". Active across Instagram, and YouTube as well as Facebook, the organisation generated 601M views in December, and attracted another 871K likes for its page. Although it uploaded footage featuring exploding hoverboards, the US Election race, and animals overcoming a range of difficulties, it was this review of the year in science and technology was its most viewed with 112million views and 1.7 million engagements.
With the news that Al Jazeera is shutting down its America wing due to an 'unworkable business model', the organisation is finding enormous success with its Facebook channel. Its page not only generated 592M video views in December, but its upload showing a barber cutting hair with a sword generated the most views of ANY video watched across the main social video channels last month with 182 million views, and 3.5 million viewer engagements.
Facebook Video and Original Content
Tubular's most watched Facebook video creators leaderboard is a curated list of brands and organisations who upload video content that is mostly original. However, we are aware that aggregators of video on Facebook are producing the kind of views and engagement that even the top branded pages can only dream of. Freebooting issues aside, Facebook accounts from So Flo Antonio, Pho, and others generate video views in the hundreds of millions each month. The top 10 Facebook compilation accounts generated a staggering 8 billion views in December 2015, compared to 4.8 billion for branded/top original creator views. Compilation pages on Facebook are a true phenomenon, and we take a deeper look into why in this article.
Most-Watched: Top Facebook Video Creators December 2015
Tasty (BuzzFeed) (1B Views)
Now This News (601M Views)
AJ+ (592M Views)
Buzzfeed Food (495M Views)
Tip Hero (472M Views)
Tastemade (436M Views)
Buzzfeed Video (337M Views)
Tastemade Brasil (334M Views)
SOML (BuzzFeed) (255M Views)
Ellen (255M Views)
Tune in Every Month for the Most Up-to-Date Stats!
Each month ReelSEO will publish the most up-to-date leaderboard charts from Tubular, so stay tuned! In the meantime, if you'd like to check out the full list of the top 25, just fill out the form below:
Get the Full-List of Top 25 Video Creators on Facebook
Lisa Gevelber, the VP of Americas Marketing at Google, wrote an article entitled, “Why Consumer Intent Is More Powerful than Demographics,” which was recently published on Think with Google. The critical data and strategic insights in her article gave me a giant whack on the side of my head. I suddenly realized that video marketers – and video advertisers – may not be targeting the right audiences. So, let me begin by sharing why starting with consumer intent can help you reach more of the right people than demographics alone – especially if consumers are mobile shoppers.
Gevelber says, “When someone has a want or need, they turn to their smartphone for help – whether it’s a karate newbie watching an expert do a move on YouTube or a mom looking for the best deal on a pair of sneakers. When a need arises, people turn to search and YouTube to look for answers, discover new things, and make decisions.” Then, she shares the findings of two different studies to back up her thought provoking point of view.
Advertisers Missing Out on Their Potential Audience
The first is an analysis of mobile search and video behavior by Millward Brown Digital, which was conducted in U.S. from January to June 2015. It states that only 31% of mobile searchers for video games are men ages 18 to 34 - so advertisers are missing 69% of their potential audience who engage with the relevant YouTube content if they only target that demographic.
And the video game market isn’t the exception to the rule. Gevelber shares some more data from the “Mobile Purchasers & Influencers Report” by Google/Ipsos MediaCT, which was conducted in August 2015. This research found that 40% of baby product consumers actually live in homes without children! And their #1 way of finding out about these baby and children products is via a search engine - whether that's Google, or YouTube.
But wait, there’s more. In the middle of Gevelber’s article is an infographic that shows other examples of potential customers you might be missing. For example, 56% of sporting goods searchers on mobile are women, and 68% of skin and body care influencers in the past six months were men.
Consumer Intent Beats Consumer Identity
But, B2C marketers aren’t the only ones who can harness intent. In another report, “The Changing Face of B2B Marketing,” which was published on Think with Google in March 2015, were the following surprising findings:
· Nearly half of all B2B researchers are millennials.
· B2B researchers who are not in the c-suite influence purchase decisions.
· 71% of B2B researchers start their research with a generic search.
· Mobile usage is intensifying; B2B researchers are using it throughout their entire path.
In addition, 70% of B2B buyers and researchers are watching videos throughout their path to purchase. That's a 52% jump in only two years. And it's not just light viewing. According to U.S. YouTube data, over 895,000 hours of some of the top B2B videos from brands were watched in 2014. Nearly half of these researchers are viewing 30 minutes or more of B2B-related videos during their research process, and almost one in five watch over an hour of content.
Targeted Video Advertising: Getting it Right
So, what should video marketers – and video advertisers – do with this critical data and these strategic insights?
For starters, you can fill in the gaping hole in the YouTube Creator Playbook for Brands. It includes a lot of useful information for building a content plan, creating great content, scheduling your content, optimizing your content, promoting your content, amplifying with social, and measuring your results. But there isn’t a section on identifying, segmenting, or targeting the right audiences. Well, there was a short-lived effort back in April 2013 to provide five tailored Playbook Guides – for education, media companies, music, nonprofits, and sports. But those appear to have disappeared.
In addition, it’s time to take a second look at all the different methods that are available for targeting video ads beyond demographic groups. For example, TrueView video ads can run across 90% of the Internet as well as on YouTube. According to comScore, the Google Display Network reaches over 90% of Internet users worldwide through 2 million sites, including YouTube. By targeting your TrueView video ads, you can reach consumers at the exact moment they are searching for your product or service. Marketers can choose their audience by interests, keywords, topics, as well as via features like video remarketing.
In summary, I think Gevelber has provided video marketers – and video advertisers – with lots of critical data as well as some strategic insights. And I agree with her that understanding intent is the best way to meet consumers in the moments that matter. What we need now is a just tad more tactical advice in different industries as well as in B2B markets.
A couple of weeks ago, I pointed out that five out of the six top YouTube videos about the 2016 U.S. presidential election had been created by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Saturday Night Live. But video marketers know that “views” isn’t the only measure of success on YouTube.
In fact, a survey by Mixpro last April found that advertising executives think “engagement with interactive elements”, “shares”, “conversions”, and “total time spent watching videos” are more important metrics for measuring the success of social video ads than “views”. So, with those metrics in mind - which presidential campaign channels have the most engagements?
With Iowa about to hold the first caucuses in the nation on Monday, Feb. 1, 2016, and New Hampshire about to hold the first primary in the nation on Tuesday, Feb. 9, this isn’t an academic question. Now, I was prepared to do a lot of manual labor to dig out all of this critical data. But, fortunately, I have an ally. Her name is Lindsay Lamont, and she is the Lead Strategist at Tubular Labs. And she put together half a dozen PowerPoint slides that most presidential campaign managers and savvy political journalists would love to get their hands on. But, ReelSEO’s readers get to see them first.
Clinton and Sanders: Neck and Neck
In the Democratic contest, Hillary Clinton has a comfortable lead over Bernie Sanders – if you use “views” as a metric. Clinton’s videos got a total of 177 million views from July 1, 2015, to Jan. 10, 2016, while videos for Sanders got a total of 91.8 million views over the same period.
But, if you look at “engagements”, then the race is neck-and-neck. Clinton’s videos and videos for Sanders both received a total of 4.6 million engagements from July 1, 2015, to Jan. 10, 2016. And engagements with videos for Sanders passed engagements with Clinton’s videos in last month.
Republicans: Trump Takes the Lead
Meanwhile, in the Republican contest, Donald Trump has a huge lead over Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Chris Christie – if you use “views” as a metric. Trump’s videos got a total of 502 million views from July 1, 2015, to Jan. 10, 2016, while videos for Carson got 72.8 million views, Cruz got 50.7 million views, Rubio got 25.8 million views, and Christie got 21.7 million views over the same period.
But, if you look at “engagements”, then the race gets a little tighter. Trump’s videos got a total of 14.5 million engagements from July 1, 2015, to Jan. 10, 2016, while videos for Carson got 2.6 million engagements, Cruz got 2.1 million engagements, Rubio got 844,000 engagements, and Christie got 604,000 engagements over the same period.
If you take Trump out of the picture, then you can see who may emerge as the #2 candidate for the Republican nomination. From early September through the middle of November 2015, it looked like Carson “coulda been a contender” – based on “views” of his campaign’s videos. But he was passed in December by Cruz.
A similar picture emerges when look at “engagements”.
Now, there are some obvious caveats about these trends. First, they are national. The trends in Iowa or New Hampshire could be different. Second, online video isn’t the only content that people watch during a presidential campaign.
Nevertheless, more than 72% of online adults use video-sharing sites like YouTube, according to the Pew Research Center. So, winning on the leading video platforms could play as important a role as winning the innumerable debates on TV. So, this is an ongoing news story that we’ll be covering again and again until Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016.
The North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) gets underway today in Detroit. Now in its 28th year as an international event, the 2016 NAIAS is among the most prestigious auto shows in the world. With more than 5,000 credentialed journalists from over 60 countries expected to attend the upcoming show, many of the automakers and suppliers exhibiting at NAIAS will garner considerable visibility globally for their part in the car industry.
But, many of these manufacturers seem to be stuck in second gear when it comes to using video marketing to generate even more visibility globally on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Vine.
The Car Industry and Video Marketing
Now, Detroit has hosted an auto show for over a century. So, I’m not arguing that automotive marketers should skip this annual event, which attracts the public as well as the press. What I am saying is that the brands need to shift into a higher gear if they want to keep up with the influencers in the automotive category. According to Tubular’s General Automotive Leaderboard, 265 creators in the United States and Canada uploaded videos to one of the four major video platforms over the past 365 days. These videos have received 11.7 billion (yes, that billion with a “B”) views.
In first place in the General Automotive category is the Motor Trend Channel, which has 7,257,851 followers overall (3,696,901 on YouTube; 2,949,967 on Facebook; 334,226 on Instagram; and 276,757 on Twitter). The Motor Trend Channel got 23,754,148 views in November 2015 (23,394,169 on YouTube; 292,499 on Facebook; and 67,480 on Instagram).
Now, Motor Trend magazine has been published since September 1949. But, that doesn’t mean that it was better positioned to leverage video marketing than automakers and suppliers that have been in business even longer. Heck, Red Bull is a media company disguised as an energy drink company. So, the only limit on what a brand can do on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or Vine is “the vision thing.”
So, if gearheads get their automotive adrenaline charge on the Motor Trend channel, then most major automakers have no one to blame but themselves. From first drives and tests of the hottest new supercars and classic muscle cars to the latest automotive news from around the world, to the incredible machinery and personalities from beyond the automotive mainstream, the Motor Trend channel has it all, delivered daily. For more premium video content, auto enthusiasts can visit Motor Trend OnDemand.
ALSO ►Attn Brands: Discover a GoldMine of 2M+ Video Creators via Tubular Creator Profiles
In second place in the General Automotive category is Toyota USA, which has 3,650,211 followers overall (125,793 on YouTube; 2,628,537 on Facebook; 323,418 on Instagram; 19,367 on Vine; and 553,096 on Twitter). Toyota USA got 31,452,008 views in November 2015 (6,521,240 on YouTube; 24,770,131 on Facebook; 152,379 on Instagram; and 8,258 on Vine).
In third place is 1320Video, which provides some of the best street car videos around the United States. It has 4,669,767 followers overall and got 29,902,980 views in November. In fourth place is Honda with 5,380,097 followers overall and 1,819,633 views in November. In fifth place is Ford Today with 5,305,502 followers overall and 3,073,854 views in November. In sixth place is BMW USA with 3,123,789 followers overall and 4,476,798 views in November.
But where are other automotive brands like Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, KIA, Land Rover, Lexus, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, MINI, Porsche, Subaru, Tesla, Volkswagen, and Volvo? Well, they are all going to be at NAIAS. But, to be charitable, let’s just say they rank lower in Tubular’s General Automotive Leaderboard than Daily Military Defense & Archive, maxman.tv, and Haggard Garage.
That’s what I mean about being stuck in second gear.
How big an opportunity are they missing? Well, as I mentioned back in November, consumers are increasingly turning online to research and review the car they are looking to purchase, and video is playing a big part in the customer sales cycle. Nearly 70% of people who used YouTube as part of their car buying process were influenced by what they watched. And views on YouTube of test drives, features and options, and walk-throughs have doubled in the past year.
So, as the auto industry gathers in Detroit today, I’ve got to wonder why so many automakers seem to be driving into the future with their eyes firmly focused on the rear view mirror. Only a handful seem to have a clear vision of what an effective or successful video marketing program looks like.
Zuckerberg also confirmed that the Instagram “community continues to grow,” but he didn’t update the 400 million monthly active users that was announced back in September 2015. He did state that the new looping Boomerang app for the platform reached #1 in the App Store in more than 70 countries. Instagram also launched a new video channel so viewers can catch up on big tent-pole events like New Year's Eve, and College Football.
But where are other automotive brands like Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, KIA, Land Rover, Lexus, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, MINI, Porsche, Subaru, Tesla, Volkswagen, and Volvo? Well, they are all going to be at NAIAS. But, to be charitable, let’s just say they rank lower in Tubular’s General Automotive Leaderboard than Daily Military Defense & Archive, maxman.tv, and Haggard Garage.