Making sure those video ads are seen and heard

‘Precision marketing’, ‘addressable media’ and ‘one-to-one marketing’ are different terms that we use — sometimes interchangeably — to describe our approach in communicating with consumers at a more personal level.

Usually, this is accomplished through content that is highly relevant to consumers, basing it off of their past behaviours, transactions, or any type of solid registration data accrued around them. Most marketers are aware of this increasingly granular and sophisticated way of addressing consumers’ individuality and, agencies are rightfully taking advantage of it to increase RoI (return on investment) by either moving people through the purchase decision journey effectively, or by cross- and up-selling to customers.

However, from a digital perspective, most are mainly using display media on desktop and mobile to personalise consumer experiences, often leaving the richest, more impactful creative format, video, in the back seat when laying out communication plans that involve ‘addressable media’.

Recognising its powerful role and influence, we’re mapping out the different ways to make your video digital content addressable:

* You can take one piece of content and display it to users who may find it relevant

Suppose, for the sake of an example, that you are a telco company and have created a video ad to promote an offer for the Galaxy S6 being sold online and at your stores. You can spray and pray, targeting everyone with that video ad. But the likelihood that diehard fans of other brands will switch is rather low — even more so if you don’t have the budgets to manage an ad frequency high enough to conquer consumers.

However, if you target users who are yet to graduate from the older Galaxy S4, the chances of you creating a deeper impact on them and moving them along closer to the sale is much higher.

* To solve the relevancy problem through video, you can create different video versions to address phone owners by brand and at several price points. For instance, you can develop videos to address Samsung owners, but also HTC and LG users who are yet to upgrade their phones and are still loyal to these brands. Of course, this extremely customised approach comes at a high production cost that brands will need to accommodate — and often, find difficult to justify in their spend.

* Instead of creating a piece of content that is only targeted at and relevant to specific users — in this example, the Galaxy S6 target market — or producing many videos at high cost, you can create a more general video piece and update it dynamically to display a Galaxy S6 ad to consumers who currently own a Galaxy S4. Or even build a different video experience for iPhone5 users who are yet to make the jump to the iPhone 6.

For the telco company, the RoI and likelihood of consumers going online to its e-shop and making the purchase, or of them checking out the product at its store, is much higher with the right creative for the right consumer. And this extends to video.

Companies such as Eyeview and Spongecell can spare you thousands of dollars in the production costs of creating different videos for different target consumers; they’ll take assets that you’ve already created and will rework them into the video ad seamlessly for a fractional cost.

Relevance draws the thin line between impactful videos and off-target advertising. Technology will save you thousands of dollars in production while delivering better user experience.

Don’t spray and pray with digital video when the technological capabilities at your disposal can — and do allow you — to be a better, more focused marketer.

The writer is Digital Director at SMG MENA.