The following is a guest contributed post by Ronen Menipaz.

Days of old fashioned TV-style “spray and pray” approach to advertising are long gone now and what the modern day advertisers need today is a complete overhaul of this philosophy which has become too long in the tooth. Video advertising of today is organized more along the lines of a precise laser, rather than of an advertising equivalent of “shotgun” marketing. If the leads are what you are after in your online business, you are currently on the right track as previous year ended up being a turning point, with 61 percent of successful businesses stating that they use video as a marketing tool. The very same tool helps them carve out revenue for themselves, as the research done by Eyeview demonstrated that using video on a landing page alone can increase conversion rates by 80 percent. The future of advertising is here and it offers lucrative propositions for those who can recognize it for what it genuinely is.

Brain as an Additional Conversion Tool

But, let us first quickly go back to the nearest past – back in 2011, a research by Treepodia showed that the conversion rate for buyers who were offered to watch video was dramatically higher across varied verticals. Those looking to shop for gifts online were more easily converted to leads by 113 percent, followed by 101 percent for electronic enthusiasts. Even less “traditional” online shoppers, such as those looking for garden products recorded 43 percent higher conversion rates in case they were offered a video on a landing page of their interest.

For the majority of them, the most attractive proposition was the existence of videos (particularly those of explanatory nature), which managed to “charm” 74 percent of users who decided to buy a product immediately after watching them. Before you accuse e-commerce site owners of employing nefarious hypnosis techniques, let us remember that this is primarily an expression of human innate inclination towards visuals as opposed to written material.

This is important not only for selling products constituting the core of your online business, as you equally want your consumers to spread the word about it. Luckily for you, psychology and the human brain’s visual hunger once again offers their help at no marketing agency fees – as many as 39 percent of shoppers are more willing to share the content if it’s a video, reports Psychology Today.

Light on Resources, Heavy on ROI

As if this was not good enough, video advertising more than graciously returns whatever you decide to invest into it. According to the research prepared by Wyzowl, 76 percent of businesses were ready to confirm that, in their experience, video provided great rate of investment. These data easily dispel the notions put forward by those who claim that the costs of video production outweighs its benefits. Video production technology has closely followed diverse trends of IT revolution in general, rendering its tools more readily available for anyone with at least elementary expertise in the field. In addition to it, it is constantly improving and made “lighter” on resources (and, consequently, your budget) by turning everyday tech such as mere phones into solid video production tools.

Nevertheless, even if you lack professional resources to plunge yourself in the business of making sophisticated videos, you have to bear in mind that your beginning can be as humble as possible, as long as you set your bar ever higher afterwards. Provided that you adequately detect what your targeted users exactly need, these statistical data will turn your videos into an equivalent of morning cups of coffee that may taste bad occasionally, yet rarely fail to deliver the goods each day.

Mobilizing Your Conversion

Video advertising profits massively from the expansion of mobile technology which makes it possible for people to watch videos “on the go”. Starting from 2013, mobile video segment has grown by about 233 percent, judging by the number of its viewers. According to trustworthy sources such as Google, mobile users are two times more likely to feel personally connected to video content they watch on their devices, compared to TV viewers or desktop users. Considering that this is the loyal audience that you want to keep in order to ensure their conversion into leads, you’ll be more than happy to learn that their number has been steadily increasing, as the mobile technology expands beyond even the wildest predictions.  At the same time, the majority of mobile and tablet users also make use of multiple devices they play their videos on, despite them being as many as three times more prone to watch videos in general compared to other consumers.

Finally, there is one more important consideration, and that is the love which Google and consequently YouTube give to your videos. According to the statistics, you have 53 times higher chance to rank better in Google searches if your website features a video. You can go even further: with competent SEO optimization and adequate placement of links to your website or products, you online lead conversion rates are bound to skyrocket in an environment that is surely ripe for growth.

MemeVideo Wants to Be Part of Your Business Success

So, what happens if you profess to be aware of all the possibilities of video advertisement in 2017, yet you are still in two minds about the direction(s) you want to take? MemeVideo company offers a guiding hand or, more precisely, two of them, in form of tools named Outstream Hybrid and Robocop 1.3. They are designed for the use by professionals, developers and publishers working in the field of digital advertising. Robocop functions as a fully automated platform that drives traffic to set tags, helping users create a quality video ad campaign without being limited to the services of expensive marketing managers. It targets the audience in laser-like manner that is bound to materialize in excellent ROI and revenues, if we are to follow obvious real-life examples. At the same time, Outstream Hybrid will assist the customers with creating premium content which can easily be integrated by utilizing viewable and non-intrusive video advertising.

Conclusion

Global world of advertising has finally accepted online video as an indispensable component of its unstoppable commercial engine. Its trump cards are in line with contemporary focus on the needs of a single customer and personalization of the seller’s relationship with him or her. With the advent of mobile technologies and the shift in the average consumer’s approach to the seller’s content, video becomes an effective tool for converting them into stable leads that can, almost too easily, become loyal customers.

The post Why Online Businesses Should Use Video to Nourish Leads appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

“By teaming up, the pair will bring Immersion’s haptic technology across all media owners on SpotX’s platform, empowering advertisers with high-impact, tactile experiences,” reads a company statement published by MAW.

According to the official word on the pairing, distribution has long been one of the biggest pain-points in the haptic ad market. The integration of Immersion’s technology with SpotX’s platform will make haptic mobile video ads available at significant scale to ad buyers, by automatically activating the possibility to deploy haptic ad units across compatible inventory from a range of premium publishers.

“As virtual reality, touchscreens, and wearable technology grow in popularity, opportunities to use haptics are growing rapidly, as high-quality tactile effects enhance the user experience,” said Sergio De Acha, Regional Head of Business Development at Immersion. “With ads you can feel, touch taps into an additional sense to help brands differentiate themselves. Our partnership with SpotX makes high-impact ad units available to buyers at scale, making the power of haptics more pervasive.”

The post New Partnership Brings Scale to Haptic-Responsive Video Advertising appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

That’s the key takeaway from a new report published by the IAB.

As for what’s to come, the IAB notes that 80 percent of brand and agency executives say that they are planning to spend even more on original digital video this year.

These projections are contained in the fourth annual “Digital Content NewFronts: Video Ad Spend Study.”

This survey of 358 marketing and media buying professionals was conducted by Advertiser Perceptions.

Original digital video is gaining a greater share of total digital video budgets—its slice of the pie reaching 47 percent, from 45 percent in 2016. Native advertising is increasingly a key part in these original digital video buys, accounting for 42 percent of investment, up from 32 percent the previous year. More than half (53%) of respondents cited expanding budgets as the means to fund this rise in original digital video spend.

“Original digital video is an inventive and engrossing medium that is increasingly being leveraged by advertisers to reach and engage consumers,” said Anna Bager, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Mobile and Video, IAB. “As video evolves with the introduction of VR and 360-degree technologies, we can expect to see original digital video play an even bigger part in brand strategy. The study also underscores the strength of the NewFronts as a critical industry event where marketers and media buyers find inspiration and budget allocation happens—all driving further growth across the original digital video landscape.”

To download the full report, click here.

The post Investment in Original Digital Video Has Nearly Doubled, Says IAB appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Looking at Q4 2016 data, Positive Mobile found that mobile video ads now account for 17% of the spend, which is up 5% from earlier in 2016.

The report, highlighted in full this week by BizReport, discovered the top categories for mobile video are CPG, with a 35% share, retail with a 17% share, and Telecom with a 10% share.

Furthermore, Sahi Stein, CEO & founder of Positive Mobile commented, “From local car dealer and retail ads to ads for congressional candidates leading up to Election Day, we’ve seen exponential growth in location-based mobile video ads.”

Meanwhile, a Cisco’s Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Trends report predicted mobile data traffic is expected to account for 20% of IP traffic and that 12 billion mobile devices will be in service by 2021.

Video is expected to have the highest growth, representing a predicted 76% of all mobile traffic by 2021.

Vice President of Service Provider Marketing at Cisco, Doug Webster, remarked “As a result, broader and more extensive architectural transformations involving programmability and automation will also be needed to support the capabilities 5G enables, and to address not just today’s demands but also the extensive possibilities on the horizon.”

The post Video Increasingly Important for Brands in the Mobile Space appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

According to an emailed status, Coinage will feature 600 short-form videos throughout 2017 to help guide everyday choices consumers make in spending, saving and investing for themselves and their families across all stages of life in a lighthearted and entertaining fashion.

Sponsored by GEICO and one of Time Inc.’s largest video initiatives, Coinage is informed by rich data insights and curated through the wide range of brands and passions in the company’s portfolio, including finance, celebrity, sports, politics, food, fitness and entertainment.

“We are excited to be working with Time Inc. on Coinage. It allows us to be part of an entertaining and practical video series that will resonate with our existing customers as well as new audiences,” said Geoff Troidl, Digital Marketing Senior Manager, GEICO.

Coinage videos, approximately 90 seconds in length, will feature original infographics, in-studio interviews with personalities and experts and other relevant news and information.

“Coinage is an extremely exciting new editorial franchise for us. It showcases both our rapidly expanding video prowess and our ability to leverage the digital scale and reach of our full portfolio,” said Alan Murray, Time Inc. Chief Content Officer. “We are thrilled that GEICO is supporting this new initiative.”

Editorially, Coinage will be led by Kate Santichen, Senior Producer, and Adam Auriemma, Digital Editor of Money. Nearly every Time Inc. brand will contribute content and promotional efforts to the project, including their social media channels, which reach an audience of nearly 250 million.

Watch Coinage’s first videos here: Super Bowl, Credit Score and High-End House Flip.

The post Time Launches New Video First Brand appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The company is aiming to provide better monetization solutions for small and medium web publishers.

“There’s currently a major disconnect between what the average website can offer and where advertising is headed,” said Hyaat Chaudhary, founder and chief executive officer of Outstream.com. “Advertisers are shifting spends from TV and banner ads to digital video and can’t find enough quality inventory.”

Outstream.com is an innovative outstream video platform for web publishers. Unlike traditional online video advertising that plays before or after a video, outstream is online video advertising that plays in-content.

The company says digital video advertising spending nationally is predicted to quadruple from $6.84 billion in 2015, to $28.08 billion in 2020.

The post Outstream Makes Big Push for Video Advertising Accessibility appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

According to the announcement, National Bank will use TubeMogul’s software platform to automate media planning, buying, optimization and measurement across Canada, and Adviso, National Bank’s agency of record, will continue to advise National Bank on digital and programmatic strategy.

Through the deal, National Bank gains complete ownership of audience data as well as complete transparency across ad economics and performance while retaining Adviso’s expertise. The partnership reflects the growing trend of brand marketers taking direct ownership of technology used to improve overall advertising effectiveness and to better understand audience behaviors across multiple channels and screens.

National Bank and Adviso will use TubeMogul’s full product suite to power cross-screen advertising initiatives across desktop, mobile, connected TV and Facebook to raise brand awareness, influence consideration and drive purchase intent.

“This partnership with TubeMogul gives us full control over our entire digital advertising strategy and empowers us with knowledge, insights, and ultimately expertise that we would not have had otherwise,” said Alexandre Troung, Lead Strategist, Programmatic Marketing, National Bank of Canada.

The post National Bank of Canada Taps TubeMogul For Video Advertising appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

That was the formal announcement shared with MMW on Friday.

So how does it work?

Eliminating the need for manual, custom-coded production methods commonly used today, the Jivox IQ platform provides the industry’s most sophisticated set of solutions for conducting personalized video advertising at scale – all delivered seamlessly from a single platform and with a self-service user interface for maximum ease of use.

“Video has long been a favorite format of advertisers. With the emergence of modern technology and greater data availability, however, brand marketers can finally do what TV has never been able to – add a personal touch,” said Diaz Nesamoney, CEO of Jivox. “Instead of delivering the same video ad to each viewer, marketers now have the power to deliver video campaigns every bit as personalized as their display ad counterparts – and with equal ability to exponentially increase user engagement and improve campaign performance.”

To learn more about Jivox and its latest solutions, click here.

The post Advertising Innovator Ushers in a New Era of Video Advertising Campaigns appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The following is a guest contributed post from Cole Vineyard, Senior Marketing Manager of Filmora and FilmoraGo.

In March, Instagram announced that it would start allowing users to post videos up to 60 seconds in length, a significant increase from the previous 15 second cap. This change has already had a huge impact on the way users, marketers and influencers interact with the app.

The increased length opens a door for content marketers to take a more serious look at using Instagram as a platform. The fifteen second limit had forced marketers to rely on outbound tactics, such as ads and endorsements, and made it difficult to provide high value content to customers.

Now there is room for true inbound content marketing through video. For brands already on Instagram that are unfamiliar with creating video content there may be a learning curve, but the payoff of tackling this new challenge could be a huge rise in consumer engagement.

Instagram says the change in video length is intended to allow users the flexibility to tell longer “more diverse” stories, and there is certainly an opportunity for more creative storytelling in a minute-long video than in a fifteen second clip. Instagram also recently updated its algorithm to favor quality content, so it is clear the app is serious about improving user experience.

However, allowing longer videos is also a matter of following trends. It has been predicted that by the year 2018 almost 80% of consumer internet traffic will be devoted to watching videos. In order to keep a larger portion of that traffic in their app, Instagram needed to enable users to consume and create more video content.

Why Limit Video Length at All?

This raises the question of why Instagram is choosing to limit video length at all. On YouTube and Facebook users can post videos that are much longer. However, there is a noticeable drop off in viewership within the first 30 seconds of many longer videos. If the video is only 60 seconds long, then viewers who might otherwise click away are more likely to watch until the end.

Viewers who finish videos are more likely to have had a positive experience with those videos and decide to watch more. This is good for Instagram because it keeps users on the site, and it is great for brands because those satisfied viewers are more likely to continue engaging with content posted by that same brand.

One minute is actually an ideal length for content marketers because it is long enough to encourage interaction from consumers and short enough to limit the rate at which viewers drop off. A video that lasts 60 seconds can actually result in both more watch time and brand engagement than a video that lasts longer because it has a higher chance of being watched to completion.

The Challenges Presented by Longer Videos

Sixty seconds is long enough to tell an engaging story. It is also long enough to get boring, if you are not careful. Expectations on Instagram are high. Failure to meet the standards of Instagram users can result in a backlash. For example, Instagram used to be very selective about the ads they allowed to appear on the platform. Brands submitted ads which were reviewed by an actual human being who would judge whether the image met Instagram’s standards for quality and creativity. That is no longer the case.

Now any brand that can afford it can buy ad space on Instagram through the ad platform and not be held to the same quality standards they once would have been, at least not by the app. Users complained vehemently both to the site and to brands producing substandard content. Although they ultimately decided to live with the changes, there is still some bitterness. The resentment of subpar ads used in some outbound marketing strategies creates a huge opportunity for inbound content marketers to make their brands stand out.

While expectations for posts from unglamorous brands like Walmart are fairly low now, brands and individuals which are actually dependent on their online communities need to rise to different standards. A look at the user generated content Instagram has chosen to feature will give marketers and influencers a better idea of expectations on Instagram than browsing through some major brands’ posts.

Creating quality photographs for Instagram was already a challenge for individuals and brands alike, and the potential to create longer videos creates even more challenges. Don’t let that put you off, videos garner more engagement than photos, which means there is a chance for brands to create a feeling of community amongst their customers. The trick, for marketers, is creating the kinds of videos that will start conversations.

Rising to Quality Expectations

Marketers who are familiar with creating video content, but unfamiliar with Instagram, will face an obstacle in that Instagram only allows uploads from mobile devices. This could make it difficult to maintain the same level of quality.

Influencers, brands and Instagram users in general who are not familiar with video production and editing may find that there is a learning curve to creating longer videos that are at the same quality level as the photos and short clips they had been producing. This will result in an increased demand for simplified mobile editing apps which can make that curve less steep.

Editing is likely to be more important on Instagram than it has been on YouTube or Facebook. This is due to the length of videos still being limited – meaning there is literally no time to waste – and the higher quality expectations as noted earlier.

Instagram is attempting to meet this demand itself. In addition to increasing the length of the videos users can post, they also brought back a previously discarded feature which gives users the ability to stitch together multiple videos stored in their camera rolls.

There are also mobile editing apps, such as FilmoraGo by Wondershare, which are attempting to provide easy and feature-rich solutions for mobile videographers. FilmoraGo, in specific, offers content marketers the kinds of features that will likely be expected by audiences on Instagram, such as animated titles, royalty free music, filters and motion graphics and much more, all in an easy to use interface. It’s quickly becoming the go-to choice for Instagram video.

Another reason editing will become important is the recent algorithm update. Rather than just showing users posts in chronological order, the new Instagram algorithm is intended to favor quality content. It is hard to say how quality is measured, but it is a fair guess to say that user engagement is a factor.

Posting a large quantity of content that may have been decent, but not truly remarkable, used to work for brands because it was guaranteed to show up in the chronological feed of anybody who followed them. There is no longer any such guarantee. This has marketers in a slight panic, although it need not. So long as a brand is prepared to focus on creating high quality engaging video content it should be able to position itself well on the changing platform of Instagram.

The post Video Marketing Expert Weighs in on Instagram Video Length Extension appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

According to a statement provided to MMW, the company has raised a Series A round of $12 million in new funding from Menlo Ventures, Yahoo! Japan, Flint Capital and 500 Startups.

The investment builds on a $6.62 million seed round from VC firms and angel investors including FundersClub, Troy Carter and Farzad (Zod) Nazem.

As digital advertising embraces a rapid shift to programmatic video, Virool has established itself as a key partner that supports all sides of the media equation. Launched in late 2012 out of Y Combinator, Virool now powers more than 75,000 video campaigns for some of the world’s biggest brands and their agencies. In March 2015, Virool introduced its InLine unit, an outstream ad unit that has served client video ads across more than 2,000 publishing properties on desktop and mobile web.

“2016 is already proving to be a very big year for Virool,” said Alex Debelov, CEO of Virool. “Our technology continues to push the limits of what’s possible for digital video as the market shifts advertising dollars from TV to digital in an emerging cross-screen world. With the support of Menlo Ventures, Flint Capital and 500 Startups, the additional funding will accelerate our North America, Latin America and Europe plans, and extend Virool into APAC with the strategic sense of Yahoo! Japan.”

The post Video Advertising Platform Virool Poised for Further Growth appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.