Alex RodiaWhen you want to advertise your brand in a way that’s both engaging and memorable, there really is no better format than video. Across all digital platforms, videos are consistently the most appreciated and shared type of content. There simply is no better medium for marketers aiming to turn viewers into customers and loyal fans.
Breaking Through The Noise With Video Ads
It feels weird today to think that just 20 years ago, nobody owned mobile phones. Relying on digital, wireless, hand-held multi-media devices the way we do now seemed like science fiction back then.
But today, we’re all constantly consuming content on our phones. Email, news sites, social media and online shopping. It never ends! And every day, we’re faced with having to navigate all this content and choosing what to consume. As a result, people are getting increasingly picky about what they focus their attention on.
Video is the format that best helps your brand stand out in this flood of information. It’s fun and easy to consume and digest, and requires minimum effort from your audience. You can play with engaging visuals, sound effects, and storytelling, to make your target persona stop scrolling for a few seconds and listen to your message. Because with video ads, a few seconds is all you need to draw your viewers in.
This is why advertising video production is your best bet at capturing your audience’s interest. Video ads are highly effective for connecting with your audience and creating emotional connections. In a digital world where it’s easy to drown in noise, video ads will help your brand stand out.
Related reading: How to Get People to Pay Attention to Your Corporate Video
In this article, we will look at some of the benefits of advertising video production and the characteristics of the best-performing video ads out there. We will also share some examples from our own productions for inspiration.
Video Is The Most Efficient Format For Advertising
As we’ve already touched upon, we live in the age of information overload. Wherever you turn, there’s a virtual tsunami of marketing messages coming your way. Ads and marketing are everywhere, and as a result, people and devices are becoming increasingly savvy when it comes to filtering out the salesy stuff.
And simultaneously, people’s attention spans are growing shorter and shorter. Research shows that brands have around 2.7 seconds to capture their audience’s attention. This is one of the reasons more and more marketing teams are investing heavily in advertising video production. There simply is no better format for catching and retaining your audience’s attention than video.
And the benefits of advertising video production go beyond that:
- Video advertising can help you boost your overall conversion rates
- Video can help you increase customer loyalty
- Video is excellent for SEO and can help you drive traffic to your site
- Video ads enable you to explain complex concepts quickly and easily
- Video is driving the most social shares
- Video can help you build trust and credibility
Related reading: Marketing Video Production – Ten Ways Of Promoting Your Videos
When Should I Use Advertising Video?
Perhaps the question is, when should you not use advertising video? Our answer would be: never. Because advertising videos add value at each and every stage of the customer journey. At the top of the marketing funnel they’re great for building awareness and excitement about your product or service. In the middle, they’re a very good tool for showcasing customer case studies and testimonials in order to help build trust in your brand. And at the bottom of the funnel, video ads are a great complement to product demos and detailed feature videos.
YouTube Is The World’s 2nd Largest Search Engine
Imagine this: more than 2 billion people watch YouTube videos monthly. And 85% state that videos impact their purchasing decisions. It’s almost hard to grasp how much potential YouTube has for marketing. When you’re using YouTube for your video ads, you can basically be guaranteed a captive audience of your exact target demographic. An audience that will have to start watching your ad, to get to whatever they were planning to watch. And who, if your ad is good enough, will watch it to the end and potentially act on your call-to-action.
Related reading: 5 Calls-to-Action You Should Be Using In Your Videos
And yet, some brands are still hesitant about going all-in on advertising video production. Why is that? Sometimes, it may come down to costs and the general perception that video production is inherently expensive. Producing videos does cost more than writing blogs or creating graphics, But as always, it’s essential to set the cost in relation to the value something brings. And the ROI of video advertising is significantly higher than that of other content formats.
4 Key Traits of The Best Advertising Videos
There are many ways to create great advertising videos, and there’s no blueprint or silver bullet. However, there are a few traits that most successful advertising videos often have in common.
The best-performing video ads usually have most of the following characteristics:
Strong storytelling
A strong story is a key component of every successful video ad. As human beings, we respond to stories, and if your video ad tells a good one, you’ll be able to win the hearts of your audience. Video ads that leverage great storytelling are the ones that connect with the viewers on an emotional level.
Related reading: Creating a Story Arch For Corporate Storytelling
The Right Tone of Voice
A great video ad needs not only to capture and keep your audience’s attention. It also needs to resonate with your target persona; to do that; it’s essential to nail the right tonality. You should always keep your brand’s tone of voice when making a video. Is it corporate, edgy, or quirky? Then that’s the tone you should use in your video ads. But you also need to adjust it, depending on what digital platform you’ll use for distribution. Even though your target audience may be both on TikTok and LinkedIn, it’s usually a good idea to adjust your tonality to the different channels.
Series of ads building on recurring themes
When you’re getting into advertising video production, it’s a good idea to think ahead and beyond your current project. Don’t think in terms of just one video ad; instead, consider if you can turn it into a theme and a series of ads. The best advertising videos are often not standalone; they’re part of campaigns where the story continues and develops over time.
One great example is Budweiser’s series of ads with the iconic frogs Bud, Weis, Er, and eventually the lizards Frank and Louie.
A Strong Creative Concept
There’s no doubt that advertising video production is a powerful tool for optimizing your marketing and sales. But remember, it’s not the format per se that will determine the success of your campaigns. The most vital success factor in all marketing is the creative concept—the idea. Partnering with an innovative advertising video agency, and letting them create ads that stand out and get noticed, is the best way to maximize your ROI.
The campaign we produced for Rosetta Stone is an example of how you can get creative with a topic, when you give your agency the freedom to think outside the box.
Rosetta Stone: Promotional Video Production for Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone: A Robust & Authentic B2C Video Campaign for Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone: A Robust & Authentic B2C Video Campaign for Rosetta Stone
Booksync: Elegant B2B Video Marketing tool for the Startup BookSync
Related reading: Invest In Creative To Optimize Your Video Production Budget
What About TV Commercials?
Historically, all advertising videos were made for TV. Television and cinema were the first video advertising channels and, for many years, the only ones. But with the rise of digital media, things have changed dramatically. And as a result, TV commercials have taken a secondary role in many marketing strategies. As digital platforms keep gaining ground, this seems to prevail.
However, this doesn’t mean it’s over for TV commercial production. Quite on the contrary, actually. TV advertising is still a potent tool in the video marketing toolbox. And depending on your target demographic, brand, and budget, it might be worth considering. To read more about video advertising on TV, check out this article: TV Commercial Production: Trends and Tactics in 2022
Related reading: Commercial Video Production – A Complete Guide
Advertising Video Production – Some Examples To Be Inspired By
Entrepreneurs Forever – Lonely
Calaveras brought us in to help bring their creative vision to life in these promotional spots for Entrepreneurs Forever.
Our goal was to turn the great creative material developed by Calaveras into fun and informative promotional videos. These videos show small business owners how working with Entrepreneurs Forever can help them further develop their businesses.
This video ad focuses on how business owners can be lonely, but with Entrepreneurs Forever, you can work alongside others and share your struggles with like-minded entrepreneurs.
E-ZPass – The PA Turnpike Commission
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission hired us to create three short promotional videos (30, 15, and 6 seconds) to educate people about how much money they would save if they started using E-ZPass to travel on the turnpike.
One thing we love about these spots is the combination of live-action with a cartoony animated background. We filmed our talent driving against a wall-to-wall green screen in a studio setting. Then our VFX team placed the different illustrative background elements into the frame.
Together, we created a seamless world of live-action and animation for these promotional videos.
2nd Ave Thrift Superstore – Great Finds
You may think a thrift store is a place to go when pinching pennies and not a place to be fashionable. However, the reality is Thrifting is not just a way to save money but also to find stuff you want to look good or need to complete your home or book collection.
2nd Ave Thrift Superstores specialize in delivering high-quality, second-hand products that will delight those who shop at their stores.
This B2C video focused on showing “Great Finds” waiting to be discovered through the stories of influencers who regularly shop there.
We used a Docu-style approach to interview our talent and capture the b-roll of the store.
There is something for everyone at 2nd Ave, whether you are a bargain hunter, fashionista, or need a new pair of shoes.
Did we mention it’s also great for the environment?
Covalent Is An Award-Winning Advertising Video Production Agency
Video ads, when done well, are a powerful marketing tool. However, not all video ads are created equal. You’ll need to consider a number of things before deciding whether this marketing tactic suits you. The world of advertising video production is fast-paced, and trends come and go quickly.
New styles are trending daily on social media, and staying updated can feel overwhelming. But if you don’t, you risk producing TV commercials that feel outdated from the start. This is a big challenge for marketing teams today. Creating video ad content requires a deep understanding of your target audience and an agile way of working.
Related reading: The Importance of Keeping Up With Fast-Paced Video Trends
Covalent is an award-winning video marketing agency specializing in innovative and original brand and corporate videos. We excel at creating everything from authentic, docu-style videos to explainer videos and commercial ads. We’re experienced video marketers and can assist in every step of the process – from ideation to finished product.
Get in touch to learn how we can help you make your story come alive with video.