This year’s Super Bowl Sunday was a pivotal moment for online video. The Darth Vader Volkswagen ad, which was released online before it aired on TV, had been shared by half a million people before the Green Bay Packers had even scored a touchdown. Within two days, it had delivered 750k shares to supersede Evian Roller Babies as the most shared online ad of all time.
Sharing on this scale was unthinkable just five years ago: when we launched Viral Video Chart back in 2006, YouTube was a cult indie site, Facebook profiles were restricted to university students and “the hamster dance” was vying with the “Gummy Bear Song” to become the most shared video on the web. Back then, you only needed 52 shares to become the most popular video of the day. Fast forward to 2011 and the number one videos on the daily charts are attracting over 60,000 shares.
This is due to the growing dominance of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. They have fundamentally changed the way we use video to build and redefine relationships with friends and family, brands and causes.
It’s not just that people are watching 2 billion videos a day on YouTube; it’s the fact that they’re sharing a billion pieces of content a day on Facebook alone, actively searching for content to post and discuss with peers.
Five years ago, it was largely bloggers and webmasters hunting for cool and kooky content; in today's socially-networked cyberworld we are all micro-media owners and there are billions of people now using online video content as a killer conversation starter, a powerful tool for self-expression, an effective mode of communication and a catalyst for social and political change.
So what exactly is social video advertising? In a nutshell, it’s branded video content that's made to be shared and is distributed across social environments, with a view to maximising brand advocacy and engagement.
The scale of the opportunity for brands wanting to join the social video conversation is only just beginning to emerge, but there are already high profile success stories. Think Old Spice Guy, which delivered an uplift in bodywash sales of 107% in just one month or T-Mobile’s Life’s For Sharing trilogy, which saw an uplift in handset sales of 52%.
Crucial for brands and marketers is the fact that people are as willing to share branded content as they are user-generated content – it’s the content quality that determines shareability.
High profile social video campaigns such as Evian’s “Roller Babies”, T-Mobile’s “Dance” and, most recently, Volkswagen’s “The Force” have, err, forcefully demonstrated the speed and the scale with which social video can make an emotional connection with an audience; entertaining, engaging and galvanising an audience on a global scale, turning consumers into brand evangelists along the way.
Key findings from research conducted by YouTube and the IAB make the same point: loyalty and familiarity are not the driving force behind recommendations. Whether people share or like a brand depends greatly on whether the content is interesting - 56% of users have shared branded videos because they’re “cool” and 40% have shared a branded video to “make friends laugh”.
And the volume of sharing is showing a definite upward trend. According to our Viral Video Chart, for the month starting May 1, 2010, there were almost 32 million shares of the top 200 videos across Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere. By January this year, this figure was up to 59 million. That represents a rise of 86.4%, or a total of 27,583,988 more shares than nine months ago.
Since we started running social video campaigns in 2007, the average budget has risen 600% since 2007. In 2011, we’re already seeing a further increase in budgets and a shift in advertiser focus, with forward-looking brands placing social video at the centre of flagship campaigns.
We’ve also seen a significant shift in the way brands and agencies make use of social video. As recently as 2008, many advertisers were chasing the holy grail of a "YouTube hit". As the sector has matured, though, advertisers have become less interested in manufacturing a one-off viral hit. They are now more focused on creating a long-term branded content plan that reinforces key brand attributes, feeds into broader social strategy, leverages owned and paid media to amplify the earnt and seeks to engage consumers in meaningful conversations, using the powerful combination of visual spectacle + story telling + soundtrack to build an enduring emotional connection with consumers.
More nuanced social video campaigns also recognise that the same users behave differently depending on their virtual context. People may look to YouTube for entertainment and downtime, but on Facebook, 56% of users “like” a brand because they want to receive more product information and have access to special offers.
Of course, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are important, but they don’t tell the whole story. Niche interest blogs can often be more effective at delivering higher interaction rates and dwell times.
There’s been a lot of hype in the marketplace about video pre-roll, all too frequently hailed as the natural successor to the 30-second spot. Despite this, agencies have been quick to realise that push video formats don’t generate anywhere near the same levels of engagement that social video can deliver and brands have been quick to recognise social video's ability to engage new audiences and strengthen brand affinity with existing, loyal consumers.
So what’s next for social video? We predict an even higher bar when it comes to creating content that people want to share. With 35 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, the competition for eyeballs has never been stronger. And with more brands creating video content, the battle for consumers' hearts and minds has never been tougher.
We expect social video content to be increasingly positioned at the centre of a brand's social strategy, part of an integrated on and offline campaign, where users can interact with the brands they love.
The shift towards three-screen delivery will also accelerate in 2011, with HTML5 gaining traction and mobile finally living up to all the hype! After all, there are 5 billion mobile users globally, compared with an online population of merely 1.7 billion. According to IAB research, 26% of users are accessing Facebook via mobile and savvier brands recognise the importance of being visible to their audiences, wherever they may be.
Leveraging the power of social video may not transform your brand into an intergalactic space warrior, but having a million people talking about your latest ad can certainly make your brand a force to be reckoned with.
Sarah Wood
Co-Founder & COO, Unruly Media
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