• by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, November 23, 2012

As Black Friday kicks off the official holiday shopping season, video will play a role in the marketing strategies of many brands. But brands should keep in mind that they’ll want to market to consumers in different ways throughout the shopping season to move them from awareness to purchase intent at the right time, said Jivox, an online video interactive TV company.

Here’s why. Last year, Jivox found that video ads that ran on Christmas Day had engagement rates six times higher than those that ran on Black Friday, showing that interest and intent rises throughout the season. Engagement rates for interactive video hit 10 percent on Christmas week and then reached a high of nearly 16% on the day before Christmas Eve.

Overall during the holiday season about 8.6% of consumers who watched an interactive ad considered a purchase, which is three times above the norm for interactive video and ten times higher than for banner ads, Jivox said.

In light of this insight, Jivox CEO Diaz Nesamoney shared three tips on how brands can approach holiday video ads this season.

1. Make ads do the selling and have a store locator and/or a click-to-buy in the ad, he said. “Many buyers are pressed for time so if you have their attention and they are ready to buy, make it easy for them,” he explained.

2. Keep promotions running through Christmas.

Engagement rates were highest the closer to the holidays, so keep ads going for the build. Don’t forget that shopping continues on Christmas Day, and interactive video ads that ran that day had engagement rates close to 8%.

3. Dynamically measure campaigns so you can adjust in real-time.

“Measuring daily allows you to ensure your ad is resonating and producing the desired user engagement,” he said. “Today's technology allows ads and even the content of the ad to be swapped and optimized dynamically so that can ensure you react quickly if your initial creative wasn't engaging users sufficiently.”