2010: The Year Video Marketing Kicked it up a Notch

In the last month I posted some of the best examples of Youtube Marketing all of which displayed new ideas behind using the video channel for marketing. I’m now going to share three more examples that are really making 2010 the year that using video in marketing really came into its own. By that I mean video is becoming more creative in its application to marketing communications. Its being interactive pulling in information from our online environments, be they from Google Streetview or our Facebook profiles to make them more personalised.

They are two key traits – interactivity and personalisation. Now not all of the examples in this or the Youtube marketing post, have both in equal measure, but it these that lift the best examples above the rest. Interactivity is a critical element for communication to rise above the noise. If a person is interacting with a communication it means they have acknowledged that message above other competing messages, by personalising the communication it keeps the message in the mind of the consumer for a longer time frame and they might be more likely to share that by electronic or old fashioned word of mouth. Personalisation of the communication resonates deeper because it includes something that you know or are familiar with in the experience.

So here’s three fairly recent examples that have both of these traits in different measures. Each example takes video marketing and puts a neat spin on it – something we’re going to be seeing more and more of no doubt.
Lost in Val Sinestra
This is the viral I couldn’t think of the full name for last Friday on Dublin City FM. You can access it here. Its a reasonably well shot trailer for a fake film, and is actually to promote a TV offering from Swiss Telecom. It’s a personalised video, nothing new there, they have been featured several times on this blog before for the likes of Dexter and Breaking Bad. Whats so nice about this is that it pulls in names and faces of your friends from Facebook who become characters in the plot.
NSFW Hunter Shoots Bear
When I first saw this the ‘NSFW’ had me thinking this was going to be be full of gore. Then when I saw the uploader name ‘tippexperience’ I was full sure this had something to do with the Tipp V Kilkenny match from last Sunday, and shouldn’t it be called NSFW Hunter Shoots Cat? It was none of the above so imagine my surprise when I realised what it was actually for. Pretty cool idea that makes full use of the brand and Youtubes ever expanding capabilities to promote what isn’t the most glamorous of products. To measure the viral’s reach Fred over at Channelship monitored the brand in social media, you can read his blog post here. And, yes I did type in ‘sex’ and erm, in a childish way thats even funny.

The Wilderness (Arcade Fire)
This makes use of Chromes HTML 5 capabilities to incorporate Google Streetview into the video. Not just any Streetview location, but your gaff! If you live somewhere that has been streetviewed of course! You can take full advantage of it here. But taking your home and including it in a music video is a really great concept and demonstrates a new way of incorporating Streetview. I blogged over on the Neworld Blog about different examples of using Streetview in marketing, but this takes it to a whole new level. Here’s someone elses Wilderness experience