BMA B2B Marketing Blog

Have you ever watched an hour or so of TV bloopers, animated shorts or funny and clever advertisements? Some of the most fun I've had watching a film has been when I've had a chance to view the most creative and compelling work by advertising creatives. Luckily, on May 2nd, Saint Louis will have a chance to see the best television ads from last year, as awarded at the prestigious Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. 

This annual festival is held annually in France for the top advertisers and agencies around the world, and the most memorable one yet wrapped up last summer. This year, only one organization is bringing you an hour and a half of the winning TV ads. Everything from Google Chrome's clever science experiment ads to Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like", and all the hilarious ones you've never seen in between. BMA is hosting "Cannes Do", an special viewing at the Sheldon Concert Hall, on Wednesday, May 2nd from 6:00 to 8:30. Join us! 

More Details

More About Cannes International Festival of Creativity

* It is considered the largest gathering of worldwide advertising professionals, designers, digital innovators and marketers.

* It was inspired by the famous, international film festival in Cannes and uses the same cinema screens.

Why 2011 was Special

* 2011’s Cannes Lions festival included talks from will.i.am,  James Murdoch, Facebook's Carolyn Everson, Piers Morgan,Aaron Sorkin, David Simon and Eric Schmidt. In 2011, a record 28,282 entries were received.

* The seminars this year compromised of a mixture of established advertising agencies (Ogilvy, Saatchi & Saatchi, R/GA, Grey, Leo Burnett), super brands (Coca Cola, Ford, Time Warner) and tech giants (Google, Adobe, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft).
* In its 58th year, the International Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity rewarded agencies and marketers from around the world for excellence in creativity on many levels. Over 28,000 entries were judged by thirteen juries during the course of two weeks in June. 

Who should attend?

* Marketing and brand managers who want to learn what makes video go viral.

* Creatives who want to be inspired.

* International marketers who want to see winning strategies from around the world, for products ranging from insurance to plastic. 

Caroline Lorusso, Display and YouTube Account Manager at Google, presented to BMA's St. Louis chapter at our November luncheon today. Caroline gave the group some actionable tips on how to leverage YouTube for B-to-B video marketing purposes during her presentation, and we captured them quickly on video with Caroline after her presentation. 

Below the videos, you'll find my notes from her presentation, including stats on YouTube growth and usage, examples of great B-to-B marketers with compelling YouTube channels, key takeaways, and some fascinating news about YouTube Original Channels (coming soon) and Google+ for Business. We hope you enjoyed the luncheon as much as we did, and if you missed it, be sure to check out all the details in this post! 

YouTube is a valuable marketing tool and presents a huge opportunity you can’t afford to miss out on

 

1.       Snapshot of the online video landscape & its incredible growth

a.       1/3 of all time spent online is watching online video

b.      YouTube has 3 billion video views per day, 15% increase in daily view over last year

c.       48 hours of video content is uploaded to youtube every minute around the world

d.      B2B customers are using YouTube – branded searches have doubled in the past year

e.      YouTube ranked 2^nd largest search engine, only behind Google.com

f.        Over 660,000 Internet users are referred from YouTube to a B2B branded site each month

g.       Has direct response advantages – referrals from YouTube are converting

h.      YouTub connects: 54% of B2B executives share work related videos daily or weekly with colleagues or prospects

i.        "Brands don’t sell brands. People sell brands." Good content or a good experience is inherently social, as always.

k.       46% have said something good about a brand or company on social sites

l.        20% of tweets are free brand advertising

m.    Social media has become the center of brand conversations and feedback

n.      Turns passive viewers into active brand advocates.

o.      Gives users and brands a stage to express themselves and share with others.

p.      70% of viewers watch a YouTube video because a friend/colleague recommended it.

q.      600 YouTube videos are shared via Twitter every minute.

r.        100 million videos are commented on, shared or liked every minute

 

2.       Playbook for business marketers to develop an effective strategy

a.       Establish  > Build > Sustain > Own (your audience)

b.      Establish your audience -- Brand Channels:

                                                              i.      Create a home base of video content for your brand

                                                            ii.      No cost

                                                          iii.      You can pull in real-time Twitter updates to your YouTube channel

                                                           iv.      Good examples: 3M, FedEx and ExxonMobil

                                                             v.      Check out 3M’s intro video that plays automatically when you arrive at their brand channel – great way 

to introduce the brand’s capabilities

                                                           vi.      Generate traffic and video views to your channel via paid media

                                                         vii.      A common misconception is “If you build it, they will come”

                                                       viii.      ExxonMobil used promoted video on YouTube – you can set up a simple account at a $5/day limit through AdWords

                                                           ix.      Sharpie launched a homepage takeover ad during back to school shopping season

                                                             x.      Takeaways

1.       Create engaging content that ignites passion for your brand

2.       Add social gadgets on your channel that promote engagement

c.    Build Your Audience:

                                                              i.      Ecomagination line dance challenge. For every donation GE donated

1.       1.5 million channel views and 1,000 submissions, 92% lift in channel engagement

2.       Used TV, online display ads and video ads to

3.       They modified their channel to allow users to submit their own videos to GE’s channel – and had someone reviewing the videos first

                                                            ii.      You can re-engage your audience on YT at each new initiative

                                                          iii.     52% of users follow or fan companies or brands.

1.       Target your audience: attributes are demographics geographic, language. Behavior includes interest category, third-party audience data, data type

2.       Re-engage fan base by continuing video content promotion and production across YouTube prior to each new initiative

d.      Sustain your audience

                                                              i.      Capitalize on your unique value proposition on YT

1.       Leverage your brand’s ownable personalities and offerings. The Marines are doing this well. (It’s the Marine Corps’ birthday today)

a.       Invitation to potential recruits to ask a marine a question through an interactive question. The community ranks the video up or down and then an actual marine answers the question on video

b.      One video had over 12,000 views in four weeks

2.       Update your channel regularly with fresh content to encourage repeat viewership – a new video every 3 or 4 weeks is ideal

e.      Own Your Audience

                                                              i.      How American Express strengthened their brand connection with small business owners. Nov 25^th, the day after black Friday, they called “Small business day”

                                                            ii.      My Business Story on their site. Offers small businesses a tool to create and post free videos about their businesses

                                                          iii.      Top 36 featured on the YouTube homepage on Saturday, the 25^th

                                                           iv.      “My business may be small, but my story isn’t.”

 

New innovation from Google: YouTube + for business, original channels

1.       YouTube Original Channels

a.       TV quality content across 100 new channels, 18 content genres

b.      As social as the web

c.       Will slowly un-roll at very end of this year and really announce in Q1 2012. Interested advertisers should give 1.5 months lead time.

d.      Verticals are broad and narrow – in each one, you’ll see a portfolio of channels with their own unique point of view

e.      Power of celebrity and largest media brands in the world, men’s health, wall street journal, etc.

f.        TV’s proven programmers such as CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC, VH1, MTV former heads of networks.

g.       Producers of some of the most popular TV shows

h.      3 advertising options

                                                                          i.      Brand Platforms – buy out a category and become sole advertiser in a specific category – allows you to get in early and make a big investment

                                                                        ii.      Channel sponsorships – more selective investment to own 100% of the content on a channel and potentially within the programming

                                                                      iii.      Featured  media packs – how you’re used to buying on youtube today. You buy one of the existing targeted media packs. Will include some existing content with new content too.

2.       Google + Your Business

a.       Collection of tools and products to help you get closer to your customers

b.      Your business’ identity on Google Plus

c.       Pages are profiles but specifically built for businesses, designed to grow and evolve to fit the needs of a business.

d.      Basics: Get your page up and ready

e.      Your page includes a +1 count and button – it’s not just the total number of people who plus’d this page. It’s a total count of # of people who plus’d the brand - - on the website and on the plus page

f.        Circles allow you to group your followers and who you’re following

g.       Hangouts – let your imagination run wild about how to use hangouts.

                                                                          i.      Politicians host town hall meetings

                                                                        ii.      Celebrities hang out with fans

                                                                      iii.      Michael Dell has been hanging out with customers

                                                                       iv.      “Hangouts On Air” allows Google to broadcast popular, public hangouts

                                                                         v.      A unique opportunity to engage with your customers

                                                                       vi.      Can add a layer of personality and personal approachability to businesses

                                                                     vii.      Limited to 10 people in one video room – this will increase soon to 15, then 20, and potentially eventually a mass reach audience

                                                                   viii.      Imagine you have a new product launching

                                                                       ix.      Possibly launching in the future: Ability to record a hangout meeting for upload to YouTube

                                                                         x.      ConEducation is a good example of using YouTube for continuing education

                                                                       xi.      The +1 button appears over 5 billion times on the web daily, making it the fastest growing social sharing button ever