The Company That’s Taking Shoppable Video Seriously—and Driving Results

It’s no longer a question of whether consumers want to shop on social platforms. The latest ecommerce campaigns from Jordan Brands and Allbirds show that consumers are eager to shop wherever the retailer meets them—particularly on platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. The trick, though, is finding a way to remove the friction between creating good advertising on these platforms, which leads shopper to a cumbersome experience on an commerce platform on a mobile device to make a purchase. MikMak, a social video commerce platform, thinks it has a solution—one that allows retailers to sell directly to consumers through Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. A year into the company's 'pivot' to social video shopping, brands like Benefit Cosmetics, Pepperidge Farm and Under Armour are seeing positive results with the platform—and looking forward to the future of social video. “Social video allows us to do more storytelling in channels that our target consumers love and spend most of their time watching,” said Kiki Gregware, svp, global consumer engagement at Revlon. MikMak Attach, the company's core product, lets brands tie shoppable video ads to additional video content and the retailer's own ecommerce experience. It's all brought together by a MikMak URL that attaches to the brand's customer relationship management, data management program and ad managers. Retailers can choose from six different ways to incorporate a video into a potential shoppable experience. In other words, MikMak does for retailers what Facebook Instant Articles did for publishers—replicate the experience of visiting the publisher's or retailer's website without leaving the social media platform. For example, Benefit Cosmetics used MikMak Attach Cart to promote its new mascara, BADgal Bang. Consumers would first watch the traditional ad video, swipe up and see additional video content, add the item to their cart and then tap the “Checkout Now” option and complete their purchase—without leaving Instagram. Or, brands like Revlon, used the MikMak Attach multi-cart feature that lets consumers pick from different retailers (Amazon, Walmart or Target) to shop for a product they see in a video. Pick the retailer, add to cart and the consumer finishes the experience with the preferred retailer. "Since the internet will be one big video, commerce will have to be a part of it in a significant way," said Rachel Tipograph, founder and CEO of MikMak. Last year, Under Armour partnered with MikMak for a campaign where after watching a video, all the items in the video were added to a customers cart. Under Armour saw a 15 percent decrease in drop rates and were able to increase product consideration by 18 percent. To Attica Jaques, vp at Under Armour, it's good news as brands and retailers struggle with "big bounce rates." Pepperidge Farm, a MikMak client, declined to share any specific numbers but stated its video content engagement, add to cart rates and checkout were eight times above the average CPG engagement benchmark of 1.4 percent. Working with MikMak lets brands figure out how to approach social commerce with one version of a successful consumer funnel. “We’re really laser focused on finding the right ways to execute social videos,” said Anna Ritchie, senior manager, digital content and social media at Pepperidge Farm. “That’s part of the reason why shoppable videos for us felt like a really good fit. It didn’t click off to another website, it didn’t take them away.” Kyle Stone, director, US ecommerce at Benefit Cosmetics, likes that with MikMak, you can take a look at how the customer moves through the funnel and their different engagement points like whether they added the product to the cart or watched the video. “You can track those experiences, of course, but you may not know where they are in their journey [and] there’s always the opportunity for a bounce—all of that is supplemented with MikMak,” Stone said. Benefit Cosmetics didn't share any further details on engagement or add to cart rates. Each of these companies show how a brand can use MikMak to reach the consumers they want, with the right type of social video. "Not all video views are made equal," Tipograph said. "A brand's ability to convert customers from viewing to checkout has everything to do with a brand reaching qualified viewers with the right creative."