• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, November 22, 2018

Analyzing metrics and results from its holiday campaigns, which included clients such as Michael Kors and Lexus, Glassview identified the most important factors to drive performance and ROI in holiday video ads.

James G. Brooks, Founder and CEO, Glassview, says “When evaluating results from some of our biggest clients’ holiday video ads, we noticed trends start to emerge. First and foremost, narrative is key, video that includes emotional and informational creative tend to boost deeper awareness for a product or service, while storytelling increases attention and engagement.” 

Analysis of the findings included:

Narrative is a Necessity: Enticing visual elements are nice, but don't provide an emotional impact without a clear narrative, says the report. A strong narrative can help to drive more robust peaks in emotional investment.

• Content focused on the audience and their experiences tends to boost brand favorability by 2x
• Creative featuring moments of closeness and romance, with a touch of humor, create peaks in engagement as it resonates with viewers on an emotional level and creates trust
• Especially during holidays, honest insight into touching family moments helps build a relationship with viewers, as authenticity makes a valuable connection with an audience.
• In order to achieve highest engagement, a story should be relevant to the target audience's experiences and interests.

Incorporating prominent logos, call to actions, and social sharing buttons in a branded video player can increase performance metrics across the board by upwards of 200-500%, says the report. Implementation of a brand bar on the video player itself can increase brand recall by 128%

Video Viewability: Video length is a key consideration, with differing performance based on audience types.

• Online video ads under 60 seconds perform up to 29% better in terms of metrics and brand recall than those over 60 seconds
• On average, videos ranging from 16-30 seconds drive higher share rates than videos 15 seconds or less, helping boost brand advocacy
• There is a high uptick in purchase intent for long-form content for B2B clients, while, B2C clients see very positive upticks in brand favorability from audiences viewing short-form content

Sequential is Essential: Sequential messaging can heighten a consumer's experience with a brand.

• Brands are far more effective in creating conversions with consumers through the delivery of video content in a sequenced fashion
• Online video campaigns that utilize sequential messaging are 3.4x more likely to drive purchase intent than messaging delivered through a more static video sequence
• Sequential messaging can be especially useful when reaching a target audience who is traditionally unfamiliar with a brand’s products

• Videos telling a story tend to elicit more attention, while those allocating more screen time towards product details and demonstration are less engaging 
• As video is geared towards more upper funnel awareness, prolonged focus on the product impedes a brand's ability to connect with viewers emotionally
• Client testimonials drive a strong uptick (40-70%) in trust for a brand 

Combinations of emotion and video lengths drive high share rates when benchmarking against: 

• Humor/Happiness (15-30 seconds)
• Nostalgia (30-60 seconds)
• Informative/How-to (1 min+)

Data and report summary provided by Aimee Clark|, Dotted Line Communications, www.dottedlinecomm.com