Using a multiple-platform strategy to stream video advertising can produce results greater than the sum of its parts, writes Youmna Borghol, head of data at Choueiri Group.
An increase in fragmentation combined with a complex media landscape present a challenge for brands looking to maximise returns from their media budget. Marketers have long used a combination of media to deliver significant levels of reach and create a synergetic impact to the consumer. Media synergy occurs when the joint effect of multiple media activities creates value beyond that delivered by each individual media channel.
Understanding the effect of synergy has become hugely significant in the age of media convergence, and an extensive body of empirical research provides theoretical foundations for the impact of the cross-media synergy.
According to Byron Sharp, one of the world’s most respected authorities on marketing, following several rules can create conditions that help achieve cross-media synergy:
1. Build cumulative reach Start by focusing on achieving as much exposure to a campaign as possible among the brand’s target audiences.
2. Broaden the timing and context of consumer touch points Advertising across multiple platforms at different times enhances receptivity. Aim for as much coverage and as little overlap as possible.
3. Provide enhanced repetition rather than just adding frequency Enhance timings, by drawing on media combinations that increase your footprint throughout the media day. Vary the context and space out your exposures.
4. Create a neuro-rich campaign environment Choose media platforms that when combined offer visual, auditory and text options that are as diverse as possible.
It is generally understood that a combination of video platforms can be more successful than using one single platform. However, how can different platforms be pieced together to generate effective synergy? Marketers who understand the distinctions in consumer behaviour, engagement and attitude across video platforms can most effectively apply Sharp’s rules for smart digital video planning and synergy. The foundation is always to build cumulative reach effectively and then allow the potential for other synergies to arise by widening the timing and context of consumer touchpoints and improving the effect of repetition.
Marketers should remember that their objectives are achieved through reach, engagement and impact, not platforms. They should first seek to answer how consumers are moving from a video platform to another platform and what content they are consuming at different times and in different situations. Recognising where, when and how consumers engage with different video platforms, marketers can build a strategy that leverages the strength of each. Different video platforms peak at different times of the day. While video-ondemand (VoD) platforms peak at night for watching long-form videos, social video platforms build steadily throughout the day, peaking in the afternoon and early evening. Social video consumers want on-the-go viewing around their daily activities. Their attention span is shorter, their choice of device incites more interactivity and they are after ‘snackable’ content. However, these consumers are on VoD platforms at home, in a relaxed mindset, when choosing to consume long-form content.
By placing advertising efforts across multiple video platforms, and focusing on the user mindset and timing, receptivity can be enhanced around various purchase consideration points. Such a holistic approach creates a video experience that emphasises the brand message, improving brand equity.
By establishing a sequential retargeting strategy across video platforms and spacing out the exposures, marketers can create consistent, integrated and platform-agnostic experiences for consumers throughout the journey. The enhanced use of various video platforms can ensure frequency contributes to enhanced repetition. Higher impact can be achieved through video strategies that attract, connect and remind. Attract with burst and frequency to get the consumer’s attention with short and impactful videos. Connect with storytelling through mid-length to long videos. Then use frequency again with short to mid-length edits without disrupting their experience.
Marketers should build customer-centric marketing strategies; however, it is crucial to tailor the strategies across the appropriate platforms. Whether the campaign objective is driving awareness, engagement or conversion, marketers need to be clear on which assets work best across each video platform to optimise towards their specific objective.
Using complementary video platforms and formats allows us to test and learn the best strategies to maximise video advertising effectiveness. Our findings consistently verify that ad repetition on multiple video platforms achieves greater impact than repetition on a single platform. Consumers exposed to an ad on multiple video platforms have considerably higher purchase intention, cognitive responses and positive attitude and perception towards the brand than those who viewed the same ad on a single platform.
Campaign budgets can simply be wasted if marketers don’t actively plan for synergy and consider the elements required to realise the maximum impact from multi-video-platform campaigns. The real advantage of adding more video platforms to the mix is to gain extra reach, and to reach people at more times and in different situations. It’s an evolving media world out there, and it is important that we expand our thinking to understand the new opportunities that have been created.
