Online Video Marketing and Purchasing Behavior
Some businesses have witnessed a 35 percent increase in conversion rates just by incorporating video into their online marketing strategy.
In 2011, Liveclicker, a leading provider of online video solutions, analyzed more than 7,500 videos across 25 e-commerce sites with the aim of figuring out if these videos influenced consumers’ shopping behaviors.
Even though Liveclicker only looked to see if video viewing was correlated with immediate purchases, the results of their analysis strongly suggest that online videos make for more eager shoppers. Liveclicker found the following:
- As of Cyber Monday 2011, the average online video had generated more than $2,000 in revenue.
- On average, each video generated $3.74 each time it was played.
- Almost five percent of viewers who watched a video that was less than 30 seconds long made a purchase immediately after watching; nearly four percent of those who watched a video that was between 30 seconds and two minutes in length made an immediate purchase; videos longer than two minutes inspired around three percent of those who watched them to make an immediate purchase.
Numbers like these are the reason why almost two-thirds of advertisers believe that online video advertising is equally or more effective than television advertising, and why Google found, in a recent research study done in conjunction with Nielsen that, for certain consumer segments, YouTube is a significantly more effective advertising platform than TV.
GlobalVideoHQ, as a leading Dallas video production provider, believes in the potency of online video – we know it can engage costumers year-round.
Tis the Season…For Holiday Online Video Marketing
While online video marketing may be effective every day of the year, it seems to be particularly effective during the holidays, when consumers are ravenously buying up gifts and goods for one another. In the Livestudy cited above, the average retailer witnessed a dramatic 61 percent increase in the number of year-over-year video views in November 2011.
This result corroborates one found by Jivox, the maker of an interactive video advertising platform. Jivox found that video ads run on Christmas Day had engagement rates six times higher than those on Black Friday (which already had higher engagement rates than a typical day.) Jivox found that engagement rates for interactive video hit almost 10 percent on Christmas week, reaching their zenith – at 16 percent – on the day before Christmas Eve.
Taken together, Livestudy and Jivox’s data shows that consumers are more likely to engage with online video during the holiday season and, as the season wares on, they only become more likely to watch videos and buy products. For businesses, there is only one takeaway from this mountain of data: holiday online video marketing is a great way to make the most out of the season.
Target’s “Crazy Lady” Gambit was Crazy…Like a Fox
Target recently retired the Crazy Target Lady, a quirky, curious and a little unsettling creation that had been the mainstay of the company’s Holiday advertising for several years in the late aughts. Played by comedienne Maria Bamford, the character was a polarizing one; as of writing, almost 5,000 people had “liked” the “I Love that Crazy Target Lady” page on Facebook. She also, during her reign as the living incarnation of Black Friday lunacy, generated an “I Hate that Crazy Target Lady” page.
These numbers don’t tell the real story of how effectives these ads were. For that, we must turn to YouTube.
The most popular of the Crazy Target Lady ads, “Chorus,” has been viewed nearly 600,000 times. One opinionated commenter wrote, “Dear target, I’m sorry to tell you that no matter who you hire, in my opinion you will NEVER have a set of commercials that entertained me, made me laugh, and made me want to go to target the way this woman did, I hope you guys payed her shit loads of money cause her commercials are my favorite.”
Not only did the Crazy Target Lady develop a modest, if vocal, following – she also boosted Target’s bottom line. Early in the year, Target officially split with Wieden + Kennedy, the ad agency responsible for the Crazy Target Lady ads. While Target didn’t make it clear what had prompted this decision, it surely wasn’t the effectiveness of the ads themselves. During Wieden + Kennedy’s tenure, Target added at least $4 billion in sales annually. It had 48 billion in revenues for the first nine months of the 2011 fiscal year.
The Crazy Target Lady holiday online video ads wasn’t solely responsible for these revenues, of course. But it’s likely that, given her demonstrated popularity (and her long run as Target’s holiday season spokeswoman) that she contributed to them.
Conclusion
Online video primes consumers to buy – surely a good thing if you are a business owner. And holiday online video engages with consumers who are itching to spend money of baubles, gizmos and trinkets of all sorts. As Crazy Target Lady demonstrates, holiday-oriented video can be remarkably effective online and can attach consumers to a brand.
Businesses who want to make the most out of their holidays need to work with a company like GlobalVideoHQ, the leading Dallas video production facility in North Texas.
Call us at (972) 436-9500 to learn how we can help you craft a holiday online video that will bring some cheer to both your customers and your business!