It’s time to be thinking globally when it comes to digital video.
In the mobile age, small screens scale beyond borders. Consider this: Last year, digital advertising in Europe grew a robust 13 percent—and more importantly, hit a major milestone, eclipsing the continent’s TV market for the first time, according to the IAB. Expect the same sorts of gains in 2016, which means plenty of new experiences for consumers and a wealth of opportunities for advertisers.
A comprehensive multiscreen approach can transform the brand-consumer relationship—but only if you get it right. YuMe’s new report, “The Liquid Marketplace: The Path for European Companies Toward Multi-Screen Video Globalization” lays out five essential components of an effective strategy:
1. Think audience first
The latest digital ad platforms, bolstered by big data, empower marketers to target audiences with jaw-dropping specificity. Rather than reaching out to broad, faceless demographics, brands can tell stories that are meaningful to individual consumers—regardless of where they live. In today’s world, values, aspirations and behaviors know no borders.
“While technology has provided new opportunities to reach the target consumer, the focus has to be on talking and reaching the audience with relevant content,” says Roland Schaaf, director, brand management and strategy at Skoda/Volkswagen Group China. Prioritizing connections with people will help you build an anywhere-and-everywhere audience that feels a personal attachment to your brand.
2. Take a global and local approach to metrics
As digital video campaigns march across screens, platforms and geographies, so do the metrics assessing them—often to the frustration of marketers trying to refine their efforts. Unified metrics are essential to successful campaigns, but in seeking a common vernacular on a global scale, it’s important to keep KPIs local and individualized. The phrase ‘think globally, act locally,’ well applies for companies looking to move beyond the EU to create broader definitions of success.
3. Transcend traditional language barriers
A marketer’s ultimate mission is to give the consumer a powerful emotional experience. Digital video can achieve this mission on a global scale, delivering compelling local stories to far-away viewers in a way that feels personal, immediate and understandable. “The visual language of video crosses boundaries and brands to create communities,” says Gisèle Wertheim Aymés, publisher of Elle and Elle Deco in South Africa. This language allows brands to “entertain, shock and inform” viewers as never before.
4. Experiment with immersive experiences
Augmented reality, virtual reality and 360º video won’t feel like new technologies for long. They’re poised to create big opportunities for brands to increase their global presence and resonance—not to mention revenue. Consider this: Virtual reality will have its first billion-dollar year in 2016, with 5-7 million VR devices making it into consumers’ hands, per Deutsche Bank. By 2025, the VR and AR market will have surged to roughly $80 billion, Goldman Sachs predicts. The future comes quickly; prepare for it by playing with new approaches now.
5. Understand that human truths surpass technology
Innovation is important, but stories—and the feelings they foster—matter more. Research suggests that any video that elicits a strong reaction is twice as likely to be shared; a video that inspires a positive reaction is three times as likely to be passed along as one that provokes negative feelings.
“What travels are ‘human truths,'” says Doug Ray, CEO of Carat USA, “fundamental aspects in the way people engage with brands, categories and culture. Our job is to use the immense data at our disposal to uncover these truths in order to bring people and brands closer together, often seamlessly around the world.”
