Youtube. Snapchat. Facebook Live. Periscope. Instagram Stories.
Video is well and truly taking over the online world. Today, viewers are leaning more and more towards video content. Over 8 billion videos or 100 million hours of videos are watched on Facebook every single day. And marketers are taking full advantage of it. 73% of marketers plan on increasing their use of videos.
Several brands skyrocketed their online success through the potent power of videos. Without further ado, let’s discuss some of the popular campaigns of four famous brands!
1. Lowes Home Improvement
Lowes is an expert at using videos effectively to promote their brand. They’ve taken the video marketing world by storm by introducing one successful video campaign after another.
It all started in April 2013, when they hopped onto the latest social platform of that time Vine, and introduced their uber-popular ‘Fix in Six’ Vine series. These 6 second, DIY, home improvement videos were so popular, they won Cannes Lion (a bronze in Cyber) and a silver Clio. They also become an overnight Vine sensation, and got 30,000 followers, and over 40 million loops on their Vines.
There was no stopping Lowes after that.
Following their previous success with short DIY videos, they used Facebook’s 360 technology to create a video series called, ‘Made in a Minute’. One of their posts generated 4000 shares and a staggering 5.7 million views.
They then jumped on to SnapChat to target their younger audience (aged 18 - 30) through a fun campaign called, ‘In a Snap’.
When Instagram rolled out their story feature (a bit too inspired by SnapChat), they quickly turned their ‘In a Snap’ videos into Instagram Stories.
They also religiously use Instagram and Facebook’s video ads feature to market their brand and hook their customers in. Even their video ads are super helpful.
CMO Marci Grebstein believes in “creating inspiring and entertaining content based on how a platform works”, and their overwhelming success with video content is a testament to this.
Figure out what works for your audience and use it across all platforms. Just like Lowes understood their audience and their preference for short, DIY videos. They started off from one platform and introduced variations of this campaign in all other platforms.
Rinse, wash and repeat.
Source: Tubular Insights
They post short videos on Facebook accompanied with some fun, taco-focused posts that make us chuckle. For them, this strategy works great. One of their most popular uploads on Facebook generated a whopping 49M views, 21M in just the first 30 days.
TacoBell makes great use of Youtube, as well. Their recent video series, ‘Taco Tales’, is a great example.
“We have so many different hilarious stories and pieces of content, we want to them bring to life through a series. Taco Tales is inspired by fan stories and [it’s] our take on them.” Jozlynn Rush, social and digital experience manager at Taco Bell, said.
They went on to test the limits of real-time video and SnapChat by producing a six minute mini-movie introducing their ‘Spicy Chicken Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos’ on the red carpet of the MTV Movie Awards.
Tacobell doesn’t do anything quietly. They hit big; and this mini-movie was pretty damn big.
You’ve probably heard it a million times, but bear with me. It’s an oft repeated advice in the digital marketing world because it’s true.
Be creative. Don’t be afraid to think out of the box. It may not always work, but when it does it will create history for you. Just like it did for TacoBell with their various ventures, especially the SnapChat mini-movie. Keep creating, keep tweaking.
Airbnb is a master at using data from their extensive user base to create highly targeted, viral-worthy marketing campaigns. Dennis Goedegebuure, former head of Global SEO at Airbnb, says, “The real challenge of global strategy isn’t how big you can get, but how small you can get.” It’s all in the details, folks.
And this why, Airbnb’s popularity knows no bounds on social media. With 2.4 million social reach (that’s increasing with each passing minute), they’ve managed to reach a massive crowd through their marketing efforts.
They did this by making use of all video-friendly platforms effectively.
While Vine is well and truly dead, it was a huge video platform till some time back. With over 200 million monthly viewers, it was a great avenue for marketers.
Airbnb launched their first short film, “Hollywood & Vine” in 2013. Their fans were invited from all over the world to create short vine videos. Out of 750 entries, 100 were chosen for the mini movie and entrants won $100 in Airbnb vouchers.
The concept was simple, yet genius.
They’re also open to experimenting with new technology. Recently, they tested the 360 degree feature on Twitter and Periscope to give house tours.
Using storytelling at it’s finest, they started a ‘Daily Kindness Bulletin’, a Youtube show that highlighted positive stories and was “guaranteed to make your day a little more cheerful”. One of it’s most watched video, ‘Never a Stranger’, was viewed 6.9 million times!
Another one of their (awesome!) videos, “Welcome to Airbnb” has been viewed over 5 million times. Most of their successful campaigns revolve around creating a homely experience for their customers. It’s very benefit-oriented.
Even on their Facebook page, you’ll find video stories about places around the world told by Airbnb hosts.
As Jonathan Mildenhall said: “We believe in humanity and we’re putting that humanity and truth into the soul of our marketing.”
Airbnb is all about the warm, fuzzy feels. And that’s what you should do as well. Paint a story for your audience. Don’t go on and on about your product features, show them through videos how your product will make their life better.
From creating highly-popular Facebook videos to grabbing Youtube by it’s proverbial horns, RedBull has leveraged every video platform known to mankind successfully.
One of it’s most popular Facebook videos “Red Bull Creepers,” has over 73.0 million views and 1.3 million engagements. It features two climbers racing to the top of a bridge. Simple, but effective.
It has even successfully nailed real time marketing on social media.
Combine extreme sports with real time broadcasting, and you’ve got a sure winner. Sitting at the edge of their chairs, munching popcorn, chewing nails nervously and watching a bunch of people participate in extreme sports on Facebook and Periscope. What more could you want on a lazy Sunday afternoon?
And Redbull knows this.
In January this year, their Red Bull Crashed Ice event was broadcasted live on Facebook and received over 2 million views. Earlier, another one of their events broadcasted through Facebook Live stream from France received 1.3 million views.
Most of their live videos tend to go viral.
On Youtube, they are the undisputed winners. According to video ad tech company Unruly, Red Bull was the most shared video brand of 2016 on Youtube. On their bad months, their video views may dip down to 100 million, but on their amazing months the views soar to 300 + million.
According to Tubular Insights, ‘In the last 365 day, the energy drink brand has created a total of 639 videos that each has more than 1 million views’. Woah.
And this is the secret behind their overwhelming success. Constant stream of videos. A great mix of quantity AND quality video content.
Don’t just make one video and think your work is done. You need to create and upload videos on a consistent basis. Once every week. Once every 2 weeks. Even once a month will work. But, keep uploading. Only then your audience will engage with you and your efforts will pay off.
Start small. Experiment with different formats. When a certain concept starts to click with your audience, start creating variations of it and post it online.
If they can do it, you can too
These brands had the foresight to make video an essential part of their digital marketing campaign from the start. And this paid off big time. They’re now considered giants of the online world.
But video is still alive and producing astonishing results. Include it in your marketing plan right away and get an edge over your rivals. Learn from the giants. Learn from your own experiments. But never give up. Keep working.
As Jonathan Mildenhall said, “The entire world is moving towards video. The entire world.”