Vine Introduces Web Profiles: Production Tips and the Best Branded Vines of 2013

Twitter’s mobile-based video sharing platform Vine introduced web profiles and TV mode last week. Users can now access their Vine feeds using a web browser and brands will have specific URLs that contain the entirely of their content, enabling them to take full advantage of the app for identity building and content sharing. TV mode lets viewers see a collection of sequenced videos in full screen from any feed or profile. Brands can use this feature to create multiple Vines to tell stories longer than six seconds. Instagram introduced Web profiles last year. Brands often use Twitter as a customer service channel. Take, for example, British high street bank NatWest. The company receives frequently asked questions via its Twitter handle, @NatWest_Help, which often require more than one Tweet to answer. Working with ad agency, M&C Saatchi, NatWest developed a series of pre-recorded video answers to quickly and creatively address most customer queries using a single tweet. Vine is becoming an important platform for budget-conscious online influencers looking for creative and entertaining visual solutions that generate higher levels of engagement. Econsultancy's David Moth offers the following tips on how to effectively use Vine to connect with customers: 1. What’s the point of your video? Make sure it serves a purpose. Vine’s instantaneous nature means it’s tempting to just record the first thing that comes into your head, but We Are Social marketing director Tom Ollerton says that the best results always come from having an underlying strategy. Take The Times' budget Vine - it may have been knocked up quickly but it had a decent bit of planning behind it, resulting in a nice creative concept, turned around promptly. So think about why you want to use Vine. Often brands use it to give people a peek behind the scenes at their company or promote a new product, but it can also be used for competitions, to attract user-generated content, or for quirky short ads. 2. Remember that Vine records sound as well. When you watch a Vine the default setting is to have the volume switched off, which seems to trick some brands into thinking that they don’t have to worry about the sound. However I feel that at the very least brands should make sure that the sound isn’t offensive to the ears and ideally should be incorporating speech or some sound effects into the clip. These two Vines show how different the outcome can be – Doritos came up with a fun, creative idea that has great visuals and sound. It also ties into a competition so it serves a purpose beyond simply testing out Vine to see what it can do. And at the opposite end of the spectrum, this example from General Electric is a tribute to the Harlem Shake. But listening to it with the sound on is a major disappointment... 3. Consider mounting the camera on something so it doesn’t shake too much. Just because it’s a six-second clip that doesn’t mean you can afford to ignore your production values. According to Ollerton: Although they are clearly very different concepts, you should be just as comfortable presenting a Vine in a marketing meeting as your latest ad. While a handheld camera can add a bit of personality and authenticity to a clip, there’s also a danger that it will be too shaky and look low quality or unprofessional. Therefore, depending on your aims, it might be worth investing in a tripod for your phone so that the resulting video is smooth and doesn’t induce motion sickness. This is particularly true when it comes to stop motion clips, as the impact will be undermined if the camera isn’t held in a fixed position. 4. Keep it simple. Focus on one idea. As you are probably aware, six seconds isn’t a very long period of time, so simplicity is the aim of the game when creating a Vine. Focus on one idea and work out a succinct way of getting your point across. There simply isn’t time to introduce several different ideas or themes and you’ll end up with a messy clip that nobody will want to share. According to Ollerton: Simplicity is the key to Vine. Our brains just aren't ready to take in more than one concept in six seconds, and people don't want to have to work hard to understand what you're getting at. More likely is that they'll just lose interest. 5. Don’t use too many different camera angles. This ties into the idea of keeping things simple, but I’ve noticed that a number of brands try to cram in far too many different camera shots into their Vines. Take this example from American Apparel. The idea is okay as its giving people a look inside one of the company’s factories, but unfortunately the number of different clips makes it confusing and painful on the eyes. I would suggest that in general Vines should be limited to around two to four different shots otherwise it can dilute the impact. 6. Be creative. To make the most of Vine you need to come up with something that people will want to retweet and share, so it’s important to push the boundaries and be creative. A video of your new catalogue is not going to get people excited, but if you give it a twist using stop motion then it makes the clip more interesting. In this example from Next there are a few problems with the consistency of the lighting and the ripple effect at the end is too ambitious, but with a few tweaks it could have been great. Similarly, this example promoting the new Wolverine movie is incredibly creative (though I think it has too many different camera shots) and according to Unruly was the ninth most-tweeted Vine since the platform was launched. Econsultancy's Christopher Ratcliff put together what he believes are the 15 best branded Vines of 2013. He writes, "The best branded Vines are funny, creative, innovative and have one simple message delivered clearly. They also tend not to go for the ‘hard-sell’ of traditional advertising, and treat the product or brand in a playful or cheeky manner."

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Vine Introduces Web Profiles: Production Tips and the Best Branded Vines of 2013

Five Vine clips are shared every second on Twitter and branded Vines are four times more likely to be shared than branded online videos.

Christie Barakat

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Christie Barakat