So you’re thinking about adding videos to your marketing strategy; that’s the right track but the train hasn’t left yet. Before you start thinking about your video length or how awesome your video will be, you need to start thinking about if your big-video dreams and brand match up.
You don’t have to scrap your whole website or abandon your content strategy all at once, but it’s helpful to make sure your video and brand are heading in that same direction to eventually meet up.
So let’s look at some examples.
The average American spends around 1.5 hours a day watching Netflix, and there are over 50 million Netflix subscribers in the US; think about all that binge watching.
But here is what is key to remember about Netflix: it ate itself.
I know, what barbarians, but back in the early 2000s, Netflix’s biggest competitor was Blockbuster in an era of DVD’s taking over VHS.
Netflix’s platform and brand was simple and convenient, but nowhere near as speedy as we know it is today, since Netflix was using the ‘mail-in’ and receive platform.
Blockbuster could have bought Netflix in 2000 for 50 million, but the deal fell through. And even though Netflix’s DVD sales were growing in revenue success, in 2007 after its billionth DVD sale, Netflix began moving away from DVD rental and into streaming; and soon David would defeat Goliath.
Blockbuster crashed and burned (except in Alaska weirdly enough), and Netflix is now the world’s number one streaming service with new original Netflix shows and movies. Netflix has now become a leader in fictional TV programming.
The lesson here was Netflix could see with the growing popularity of Youtube and the digital rise that could change their platform and completely revamped their brand mission.
Netflix didn’t altogether abandon DVD but they changed their entire brand and became auto-cannibals, making a popular streaming service and having fewer than 5 million Netflix DVD subscribers and predicted fewer in the future. They invested the majority of their business in new streaming technology and trends, and having DVD rentals as a side revenue.
What does Netflix moving from DVDs to streaming have to do with video? Well take a look at Netflix video ads for DVD promotion in 2004, to a more most recent video promotion for streaming.
Aside from quality (this is the modern-era after all), Netflix is no longer here for DVDs and their new video ads match up with that expectation.
So where is your brand going and how can you predict change in business patterns that will keep you and your campaign ahead of schedule?
Just like Netflix, Buzzfeed broke out from it’s original platform and adjusted to a more visual world.
At first a content creation website full of fun quizzes, blogs, and listicle articles – Buzzfeed jumped parachute-less into revenue based video production and how to utilize social media for video.
Putting aside their multitude of viral videos, they further added a re-brand strategy in creating an entirely different video series: Tasty – Tasty videos are recipe videos made easy, showing sequentially how to cook, mix beverages, and bake, in videos that are less than four minutes and as short as thirty seconds.
Here are a few examples:
Tasty videos are now some of the most shareable videos on Facebook and have become such a mega-hit, try scrolling through your Facebook without seeing one.
With the popularity of Tasty, brands like Tequila Rose have each started to create their own sequential recipe videos to help them re-brand into being more digital and shareable on social media.
Check out some examples here:
For a brand like Tequila Rose, video was the investment in a stronger and more lasting social media and digital presence.
When it comes to rebranding for or with your video marketing strategy, you have options between an actual full rebranding, like with Netflix, or branching off into something new like Buzzfeed investing in Tasty or the new videos by Tequila Rose.
Check out our blog about utilizing live video to see if that would help your brand!
