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Hugh Fitz-Gibbon

Comms Planning Manager

About this Author

Hugh has worked at Dentsu Aegis Network since 2017, working on global campaigns for large FMCG, Technology, Entertainment, Transport, Gaming, Tourism and Real Estate clients. He is interested in content marketing, creative strategy and audio branding.

Five Steps to Producing Better Video Assets for your Brand

Video consumption habits are changing. We’re consuming more content than ever before, yet user attention span is only getting shorter. In fact, on average we now scroll through the height of Big Ben in feed whilst spending around 1.7 seconds with a single piece of content on mobile - highlighting the notion that ‘attention is the scarcest resource of the 21st century’. (1) To put that into perspective, research suggests we have less attention span than goldfish – a real challenge for marketers in a consumer market that is increasingly cluttered with me-too products and services fighting to be heard. (2) Since the first UK TV slot in 1955, advertising have become increasingly shorter over time in line with the development of digital technology - from 70 seconds to 6 seconds, a -91% reduction in length over 64 years. (3) Today, media consumption has become short, frequent and even sound-free with the rise in popularity of ephemeral content on Instagram, Snapchat and most recently Tik Tok – a short-form video sharing app currently boasting five billion video views in the UK every month. (4) Social platforms understand this shifting trend and recommend advertising up to 15 seconds, but I think we need to rethink this to around five seconds for direct response communications – similar to YouTube’s Bumper ads ‘making big impact with small stories’. Why? Because people are on-the-go, agile, using multiple devices simultaneously and need content that doesn’t hinder their lifestyle, so it makes sense for marketing messages to be even more clear and concise. (5) Digital communication is an amazing creative playground for brands and we can choose how to visualise these short-form marketing messages through any number of innovative video, motion graphic, cinegraph or GIF formats. But how do you know what works best? For performance marketers this means creating a test and learn programme to gain actionable insights to build into a scalable communications strategy but there are five ideas to consider when creating mobile-first short form video content regardless of industry or target audience: Think of the device You wouldn’t buy a billboard and decide to only paste an A4 sized advert on the bottom corner of it, so why do it with a digital impression? Yet 16:9 (landscape) long form TV cut downs are still the norm in many advertising campaigns on digital channels. In the UK, we are 1.5x more likely to watch video daily on a smartphone than on a computer. (6) This means we must be creating content sympathetic to the mobile environment, so prioritise 1:1 (square), 4:5 (vertical) and 9:16 (full vertical) on social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to maximise phone screen real estate. After all, 76% of all video spend in the UK is on smartphone so we must be thinking mobile-first. (7) Begin and end in a memorable way Bookend your creative message with branded start and end cards that clearly showcase the brand logo and call to action. They should also incorporate motion elements to make it as eye-catching as possible. According to Facebook internal data, consumers are 23% more likely to remember a brand if introduced in the first few seconds. (8) Stack video assets for maximise impact You have a small window of time for your marketing message to encode and decode in the mind of your target audience. Create maximise impact by thinking creatively about your digital canvas and place two or more visual elements on top or next to each other that showcase multiple angles or action simultaneously within a 9:16 or 1:1 frame. This technique is more of a natural fit for certain products or services, but studies show that ad recall increases by 3-7% when shown on vertical video compared to other formats – so why not test it out? (9) First impressions count Drop off. It will happen. And fast. Even with the most compelling creative in the world your audience won’t hang around for you. The traditional slow building story arc is simply too long for most on-the-go digital media consumption. Challenge yourself to distill your marketing message down to its fundamental meaning and let the receiver know what you’re promoting from the outset by introducing your product, service or message within 2 seconds. Research shows that 47% of the conversions you want from video happen with the first few seconds anyway so if they like you, they’ll want to find out more. (10) Incorporate subtitles The easiest way to optimise video viewing for sound off is by adding captions. Industry standard .SRT file support is being rolled out on social channels (most recently by Twitter in April 2019) so it’s easier than ever to make your content accessible to a broader audience. Also, it helps increase view time by an average of 12%. (11) Within ad supported digital platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and Tik Tok, we need to fit marketing messages seamlessly into the user experience. And when that experience is in entertaining or informative ephemeral video environments, the attention we pay the privilege for in that digital space will be brief – at best. Therefore, as people enjoy shorter, periodic bites of video content on mobile we need to communicate in a similar way, if we aim to engage them in a meaningful two way dialogue. Quoted Sources Paid Attention by Faris Yakob p.68 https://www.facebook.com/business/news/Marketing-to-Goldfish-The-ABCDs-of-mobile-advertising https://www.marketingweek.com/2015/09/21/tv-ads-at-60-a-history/ Q1 Tik Tok EU Media Guide 2019 https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-gb/advertising-channels/video/youtube-bumper-ads-making-big-impact-small-stories/ Facebook IQ Source: “Video in Mobile Feed” by Kantar Media (Facebook IQ-commissioned study of 1,999 people ages 18+ in the UAE and the UK who watch short-form [under 10 minutes] online video at least monthly), May 2016. Data is on average across the UAE and UK. IAB / PwC Digital Adspend Study 2018 https://www.falcon.io/insights-hub/topics/social-media-strategy/facebook-video-ads-best-practices-for-2018/ Facebook data, North America, Latin America and Europe, Nov-Dec 2016 https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/facebook-creative-tips-for-mobile-videos-ads https://adespresso.com/blog/b2b-facebook-video-ads-do-subtitles-make-a-difference/ 0 5 min read

Five ways to build trust in your brand using video

We live in a post-truth world. And when it comes to products and services, only 59% of us actually trust the brands we buy from in 2019. For marketers, this means shifting focus from short-term performance metrics to long-term relationship building for sustained growth in the digital economy. In the words of Zig Ziglar, “If people like you they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you they’ll do business with you.” [Source: ZAG – Marty Neumeier] But how do you build genuine trust and affinity with a brand? The answer lies in a content marketing approach that uses a key medium of marketing communication – video. The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) defines content marketing as “valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience.” This tactic is all about creating a value exchange that treats brand communication more like a conversation than a sales pitch to help win, keep and grow customers over the long term. 81% of people believe trust is an important part of purchase behaviour and increasingly businesses are using video to humanise themselves through stories, interests and personalities. If content was once king, it is trust that now sits on the throne. Whether a start-up or an established brand, video content marketing provides ideas, inspiration and education that act as gateways into the lower funnels of the buying journey. It also complements SEO, since websites without video have 59% less traffic than those with it. Besides, 78% of all mobile data traffic is predicted to be video by 2021 [Source: Facebook IQ source: Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2016-2021 White Paper, 28 Mar 2017], so brands need to prioritise producing and distributing the medium as it becomes an expectation rather than a nice-to-have. So, what types of video are good for building trust? Testimonial video Nothing beats peer-to-peer recommendation. If it’s good enough for them it’s good enough for me, right? In fact, David Ogilvy thought testimonials extremely powerful as they made marketing communications more believable (and trustworthy) [Source: Ogilvy on Advertising, P.82]. Known as ‘social proofing’, this behavioural bias is described by Richard Shotton as “the best tactic [to] state your brand’s popularity in a relevant way to your audience” [Source: The choice factory Richard Shotton. Bias 2 – Social Proofing. Bias 18 – The Pratfalls Effect]. Get real people to give real reviews to camera. Nice. Behind the scenes video In an era of fake news and manicured Instagram feeds, a yearning for transparency has come to the fore. Use video to show off your brand world in an open, honest and self-aware way. Besides, who doesn’t feel special with an Access All Areas pass? Interestingly, by admitting a weakness or flaw, a brand’s credibility increases – known as the pratfall effect [Source: The choice factory Richard Shotton. Bias 2 – Social Proofing. Bias 18 – The Pratfalls Effect]. This communication technique works particularly well if your competition are braggards. About us / Brand story video John Hegarty described a brand as “the most valuable piece of real estate in the world; a corner of someone’s mind” [Source: Hey Whipple, squeeze this! The classic guide to creating great ads 4th Edition]. We live in an attention deficit, so marketers need human stories to cut through the clutter of me-too rivals. Video is proven to be the most memorable form of content, so get storyboarding. Product / service demo video These are the most popular type of videos businesses invest in and it’s easy to see why. 64% of people state that seeing a video makes them more likely to buy [Source: 2018 Video in business benchmark report – Vidyard], whilst 72% prefer a video over text when learning about a product or service. From retail to financial services, industries are investing in more visual communication to showcase themselves. Don’t tell me, show me. How-to / explainer video Our brains process visuals 60,000 times faster than text, so video is great at packaging information into a short narrative that is easy to understand. Think the explosion of branded tutorial videos on YouTube. In fact, users of the platform are three times more likely to watch a tutorial video than read a product’s instruction manual. These types of video can also position a brand as a thought leader in its industry. Conclusion We need to stop focusing on short-term marketing strategy. Yes, immediate uplift metrics, such as clicks and sales conversions, are seductive but devoting time to brand health over the long term will keep the marketing funnel in perpetual cycle. Like any good relationship, brand loyalty is built on trust. Find your tribe and offer them something of value. Only then can you expect anything back in return. 0 4 min read

Why video is key to success in e-commerce marketing

E-commerce is on the rise. With high street footfall down -1.3% this year, consumers are ditching bags for bytes as online shopping has grown by nearly two-thirds in 2019. Time spent in brick and motor stores has decreased 5% year on year with consumers now shopping online for an average of 16 minutes a day. As shopfronts become increasingly digital, brands are investing more in e-commerce capabilities – and it’s big business. In fact, digital sales are predicted to grow 10.9% this year to reach £106.46bnillion, or 22% of total retail sales (£476.65bn) in 2019. This means transactions via electronic devices account for £2 out of every £10 in revenue, with £1+ of that coming from mobile users alone. By 2023, phone purchases will account for 71% of digital sales. And by 2028, more than half of all retail sales will be online due to its flexibility and convenience. So, buying habits are moving towards an on-the-go, mobile-first future. But this poses a problem – how do you translate the sensory experience of shop bought purchases to online? Video, I think, gets you pretty close. E-commerce communications have shifted from copy-heavy product descriptions to audio-visual experiences, with 79% of consumers preferring to watch a video to learn about a product than read text on a page (The State of Video Marketing 2017,” Wyzowl, 2017). We want to be shown, not told. From multi-angle product close ups to longer-form branded content, the medium allows advertisers to show off their products and services in an immersive way that imagery simply can’t. Augmented reality (AR) pushes this one step further by letting people experience products in 3D, from trying on the latest Adidas shoes to holding an exclusive Louis Vuitton bag – all within their mobile device. Retailers can even offer true-to-scale renders of their product range, with the IKEA Place app letting customers see how more than 2,200 furniture items would fit in their homes with pinpoint accuracy. With only 9% of the UK population not using the internet regularly, online visibility is key to business success. Video can increase organic website traffic by 157% whilst doubling page dwell time, which in turn boosts search engine rankings. It can also improve online conversions by 85%. If you create good content on your website, people will hang around for longer. Simple. More than two-thirds of the UK population use social media regularly, so communication planners are upweighting budgets into Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat to meet their clients’ marketing goals. The major platforms know this and have been improving their performance offering with retargeting pixel and catalogue upload improvements, whilst reducing the barriers to purchase with in-app checkout. E-commerce ad formats such as carousels, collections and instant experiences all share video capabilities that allow brands to show how their products react in the real world with an average ROI of 5.3x (Facebook case study, Mar 2017). Instagram is fast becoming a mobile shopfront with 130 million accounts engaging with IG shopping stickers every month, whilst organic video shopping posts are also being tested as self-serve ads to reach target audiences at scale. Brands need to be looking at ways to bring products and people closer together in the digital environment, whilst being mindful of mobile-first browsing behaviour. Video has become the modern buyer’s guide that can inspire, inform and attract users to make more informed purchase decisions. If David Ogilvy’s advice for effective advertising is to ‘make the product the hero’ (Ogilvy on Advertising p.18), then video acts as the supporting cast that ties everything together. 0 3 min read

Hugh has been a paid social specialist since 2017, working on global campaigns for large FMCG, Technology, Entertainment, Transport, Gaming, Tourism and Real Estate clients. He is interested in content marketing, creative strategy and audio branding.

Hugh Fitz-Gibbon

About this Author

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