From Aunt Owwee's Photostream on Flickr
Seasons present opportunities. They present all of us with opportunities to celebrate. And, because we celebrate, they present marketers with opportunities to connect with customers.
A recent ClickZ article by Robin Neifield, CEO and cofounder of NetPlus Marketing, a top 50 interactive agency, lists a number of tips advertisers can use to “maximize the opportunity [seasonal advertising] presents.”
In this post, we’ll use five of Neifield’s tips to demonstrate how advertisers can take advantage of dynamic video advertising to gain a year-round seasonal campaign edge.
Grow your customer base
As Neifield points out, many seasonal holidays put consumers into a buying or gift-giving mindset. While this increased receptivity may make them more likely to play your video ads, you need to take full advantage of their presence once you get them watching.
An excellent way to convert seasonally-motivated first-timers into loyal customers is to give them something of value, something they can use. One of the best ways to do that is to integrate a printable coupon or giveaway into a video ad. For example:
- A delicatessen before Labor Day: Capitalize on picnic season by including an exclusive printable buy-1-sandwich-get-1-free coupon available only to video ad viewers.
- Kitchen goods store before Thanksgiving: Include, in a video ad featuring a cookware sale, a printable cranberry sauce or stuffing recipe from a well-known chef.
Grow your customer email list
As you attract the seasonally-motivated to your video ads, give them an incentive to join your email list. For example:
- National auto manufacturer with a spring sale on several new models: Drive new customers to local dealers by including a geotargeted Sign Up For A Test Drive! overlay in a nationally-branded video ad. The sign-up email messages are sent automatically to each viewer’s local dealer.
- City-wide pizza chain: Generate orders and grow customer lists by including Order Now for $5 Off! lead capture overlays in a video ad. By geotargeting the ad by zip code, automatically direct orders (and leads) to the franchise closest to the viewer.
Learn more about your customers
Take the opportunity to learn from as well as sell to seasonally-motivated viewers by including real-time surveys in your dynamic video ads. Giving customers a chance to weigh in builds relationships and brand loyalty and helps advertisers improve their offerings.
In dynamic video ads, advertisers can incorporate surveys into their video content. Survey results are available in real time. Questions can be updated on-the-fly, and updates go live immediately. For example:
- A politician during primary season: Learn which issues your supporters care the most about.
- A coffee chain at the beginning of summer: Discover how to expand your seasonal beverage lineup (iced tea? blending fruit drinks?) by polling potential customers for their preferences.
Adjust your creative and messaging
Seasonal marketing succeeds or fails on the ability to switch creative and messaging on a dime. Quick shifts, Neifield says, from non-performing to high-performing elements can mean the difference between “acceptable and exceptional performance.”
With dynamic video ads, advertisers can change creative and messaging in real time.
- Want to change a holiday weekend offer the second the Labor Day weekend ends? Edit the text on an overlay.
- Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is on the way. Replace the stuffing recipe overlay with the frosted cookies one.
- Not getting the survey response you expected? Change the call to action.
These, and most other, modifications go live immediately without re-trafficking any ad tags.
Accelerate your optimization schedule
Neifield advises advertisers to accelerate their optimization schedules—if they can afford it. With dynamic video ads, cost simply isn’t an issue.
In a dynamic video ad platform, it’s easy to copy video ads, modify the versions, and rotate them randomly through the same Player.
This gives advertisers a couple of convenient, cost-free optimization options:
- Manually optimize: Remember the kitchen goods store? The store might rotate three ad versions with three different printable recipes through the same Player. As viewers gravitate toward the most popular recipe, the store stops running the other versions.
- Auto optimize: Remember the auto manufacturer with the geotargeted video ad? The manufacturer might create 2 versions of the video ad, each with a different start frame (start frame is the creative viewers see before they play a video ad). With auto optimization enabled, the video ad with the worst views-to-impressions rate is automatically dropped after a specified number of impressions.
The flexibility and interactivity that dynamic video ads offer make them the perfect vehicle for advertisers who want to realize seasonal digital success all year long.
More Information
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