A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO BRANDED VIDEO

K E Y S O L U T I O N S T O T O P B R A N D E D V I D E O C H A L L E N G E S E V E R Y A D V E R T I S E R N E E D S T O K N O W

Branded video is already over a third of brands’ digital video budgets and is expected to grow

10% in 2016 based on findings from AOL’s 6th annual State of the Video Industry Report.

Though advertisers see branded video as a key tactic to develop emotional connections with audiences

through sight, sound and motion, research reveals they do face tough challenges.

While the obstacles range from cost to scale, it is clear that connecting emotion and technology is

key to overcoming each. To make the most of branded video’s potential, brands must tell their stories

as part of an engagement continuum—an immersive content cycle built on meaningful insights and

powered by leading ad technology.

Learn how to solve the top challenges in branded video with the key solutions every advertiser

needs to know in this guide.

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C H A L L E N G E # 1

PRICE/COST

O F A D V E R T I S E R S B E L I E V E T H A T P R I C E / C O S T

I S A C H A L L E N G E .

S O L U T I O N : C U S T O M I Z E D C O N T E N T P A C K A G E S D O N ’ T H A V E T O C O M E A T A C U S T O M C O N T E N T P R I C E

As it stands today, branded video can be an expensive investment for advertisers. With custom

creative for each campaign, brands often invest high budgets for human resources, talent deals,

production costs in addition to longer timelines to market. While big custom programs with top

name talent and producers create deep engagement with audiences with high impact, there are

other ways for brands to create emotional connections through content without such high

barriers to entry. Content solutions like curation and packaging help all brands communicate

their stories in a way that is less resource intensive by aligning with publisher content. Brands

without deep pockets can use these content solutions to align their brand story with publisher

content in a way that feels authentic to the brand, while brands with big custom programs can

also use them to supplement their campaigns and extend their message even further.

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CONTENT SOLUTIONS LIKE CURATION AND PACKAGING HELP ALL BRANDS COMMUNICATE THEIR STORIES IN A WAY THAT IS LESS RESOURCE INTENSIVE BY ALIGNING WITH PUBLISHER CONTENT.

C H A L L E N G E # 2

ROI VS OTHER MEDIA

O F A D V E R T I S E R S B E L I E V E T H A T R O I V S O T H E R

M E D I A I S A C H A L L E N G E .

S O L U T I O N : E M O T I O N D R I V E S T R A N S A C T I O N

Advertisers know that some tactics are meant to drive efficient acquisition while others prime

your audience by developing a connection with them that ultimately leads to buying. Branded

video falls into the latter category: communicating your brand story through valuable, engaging

content that connects with audiences to leave them with a better impression of your brand.

In fact, 66% of consumer online shopping moments have an emotional component, and are not

intent based.1 Emotions play a powerful role in building brand certainty before consumers are

in market to buy and greatly influence their purchase decisions.

However, advertisers often need to prove the ROI that ultimately is driven by branded video to

their CFOs in order to validate funds spent and sustain those resources or risk shifting to other

channels. Custom content effectiveness research helps advertisers prove the impact of branded

video campaigns on the emotional connections with consumers and shift in perception, including

affinity, interest and consideration. When comparing to other media, like TV, advertisers must

also consider attention in addition to reach and frequency metrics to measure the true impact

of branded video on consumer attitudes.

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66% OF CONSUMER ONLINE SHOPPING MOMENTS HAVE AN EMOTIONAL COMPONENT, AND ARE NOT INTENT BASED.

C H A L L E N G E # 3

QUALITY OF CONTENT

O F A D V E R T I S E R S B E L I E V E T H A T T H E

Q U A L I T Y O F C O N T E N T I S A C H A L L E N G E .

S O L U T I O N : I N S I G H T S D O N E R I G H T

Quality is a main challenge for advertisers and rightfully so—quality makes or breaks your

branded video efforts. In fact, 61% of consumers don’t care if content is created by a brand

as long as it’s good.2 So how do brands create good content?

Quality of production is important, but quality of the story itself it critical to its success.

Content itself must be fully consumer centric: the goal is to add value for consumers in

some way rather than exclusively promoting what brand wants to communicate. To

accomplish this, brands need a complete understanding of audiences including their motivations

and expectations for viewing video. With this information, brands can adjust their video topics

and messaging to provide value to consumers in an authentic way. For example, entertainment

is a major influence for why people watch video, but other motivations also exist including to feel

good or stay updated socially.3 Brands should develop a portfolio of video content to provide

value to consumers in multiple mindset to resonate with a larger portion of their audience.

With an understanding of human insights combined with pre-testing techniques and media

analytics, advertisers can create video that is strategically programmed to resonate with their

audience rather than shooting in the dark. Branded video rooted in insights enables advertisers

to connect deeper with audiences in a way that’s more relevant for them.

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61% OF CONSUMERS DON’T CARE IF CONTENT IS CREATED BY A BRAND AS LONG AS IT’S GOOD.

C H A L L E N G E # 4

AUDIENCE & CAMPAIGN MEASUREMENT

O F A D V E R T I S E R S B E L I E V E T H A T A U D I E N C E & C A M P A I G N M E A S U R E M E N T

I S A C H A L L E N G E .

S O L U T I O N : B Y T H E N U M B E R S

Not only do you need audience insights at the start of your branded video campaign to develop

effective content ideas, advertisers also need audience and campaign reporting throughout the

duration of the campaign. Today, many media vendors provide social analytics through an easy

access dashboard that media planners and clients can view in real time. This sounds exciting,

but the social journey of a piece of content is only a snapshot of its true performance. Promotion

heavily influences how viral a piece of content is. Was this content shared on the publisher or

brand’s social media accounts when others were not? Was it promoted on the home page?

Reporting based on social reach exclusively doesn’t show advertisers the true impact of their

content on consumers.

Truly useful custom content dashboards must provide an all-inclusive look at how the campaign

is performing using actionable digital analytics, including metrics like traffic, social efficiency

scores, video completion rates, and engaged time. These are used as intermediate sign posts

to determine if advertisers are on the right track to a successful brand building effort, which

should be paired with custom content effectiveness reporting to measure the brand impact of

the campaign. This measurement helps advertisers understand how the campaign performed

against their KPIs, and which content and ads performed the best, in order to determine any

areas for improvement and opportunity.

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TRULY USEFUL CUSTOM CONTENT DASHBOARDS MUST PROVIDE AN ALL-INCLUSIVE LOOK AT HOW THE CAMPAIGN IS PERFORMING USING ACTIONABLE DIGITAL ANALYTICS.

C H A L L E N G E # 5

SCALE

O F A D V E R T I S E R S B E L I E V E T H A T S C A L E

I S A C H A L L E N G E .

S O L U T I O N : D I S T R I B U T I O N A T L A R G E

Distributing branded video content at scale to the right audiences is another challenge for

advertisers today. The root of the problem exists on the publisher end. Currently, the majority

of branded video publishers distribute assets through their owned and operated sites and

owned social media, while only 33% of publishers scale branded video through video distribution

networks.4 Without a video network, discovery of the branded video is very limited, significantly

hindering ability to scale. To best benefit advertisers and drive the success of a campaign,

publishers must use the technology available today to distribute branded video at scale

through larger reach networks. If a publisher partner does not work with a distribution platform,

advertisers can license their video and partner with external partners for scale. Even further,

programmatic video and programmatic creative distribution enables advertisers to extend

their branded video to targeted audiences at scale using advertisers’ own data, third party or

even real time user interaction data. This also unlocks optimizations by content and audiences

against pre-determined KPIs to maximize results. Instead of reaching a fragment of your target

audience through exclusive owned and operated distribution, advertisers can reach all of them

with the right distribution technology.

C O N C L U S I O N

Fusing content with powerful data and technology transforms branded video campaigns and

fuels deeper connections with consumers. By expanding custom with affordable content solutions,

measuring results and ROI through advanced analytics, enhancing quality through deeper

human and media insights, and scaling with distribution partners, advertisers can unleash the

power of branded video to drive deep engagement.

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TO BEST BENEFIT ADVERTISERS AND DRIVE THE SUCCESS OF A CAMPAIGN, PUBLISHERS MUST USE THE TECHNOLOGY AVAILABLE TODAY TO DISTRIBUTE BRANDED VIDEO AT SCALE THROUGH LARGER REACH NETWORKS.

ABOUT

Partner Studio by AOL empowers brands to connect with consumers like never

before by fusing the emotion of content with the efficacy of technology.

SOURCES1 AOL, Unconditional Shopping, Oct 20152 AOL, The Alchemy of Connection, Mar 20153 AOL, Content Segmentation, Nov 20154 AOL, 2015 State of the Video Industry Report, Oct 2015

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