How brands are leveraging holistic video to drive full-funnel performance
In today’s dynamic media landscape, marketers have more opportunities than ever to engage audiences across a variety of platforms, including streaming TV services, online video and linear TV.
Research shows that U.S. consumers spend nearly seven hours a day watching video, including digital video and traditional TV. Not only are consumers engaging with video at high rates across channels and devices, but ads served on these platforms are effectively driving full-funnel business outcomes. For instance, one survey found that 75% of consumers have made at least one purchase as a result of watching video ads.
However, with these opportunities come new challenges in ensuring effective and cohesive reach. In response, brands are turning to holistic video advertising to reach consumers through multiple touchpoints at scale. With a cohesive and comprehensive video strategy, advertisers are better able to achieve full-funnel objectives, including brand awareness, consideration and conversion.
“Holistic video connects advertisers with consumers throughout their entire day or purchase journey, using video creative and placements as the primary medium,” said Eric Kretzer, director of O&O streaming ads at Amazon Ads. “So that’s not only in-stream video ads as they’re watching their favorite content, but also experiencing video ads the moment they turn on their streaming device or seeing a branded video on Amazon.com during the shopping experience.”
Building a holistic video strategy throughout the funnel
To better reach fragmented audiences, companies like PepsiCo Beverages are investing in holistic video strategies that include streaming TV, live sports, online video, linear television and more.
While it can be challenging to implement holistic video strategies across different platforms each with their own unique offerings and formats, turning to a major industry player can unlock expansive opportunities for advertisers to reach audiences at scale.
For instance, Amazon’s expansive entertainment universe includes its premium streaming service Prime Video, FAST service Freevee, video livestreaming service Twitch as well as Fire TV, IMDb.com, Amazon.com, Amazon Publisher Direct and third-party exchanges. According to internal Amazon data, its streaming TV solutions alone (including Prime Video, Freevee, Twitch, Fire TV Channels and Amazon Publisher Direct) reach on average more than 175 million U.S. consumers.
“Our advertising solutions support components of the purchase funnel individually,” Kretzer said. “For example, at its core, streaming TV is well-positioned to drive awareness, as it’s primarily a lean-back experience.
“When you start to layer in additional approaches, like in-market segments or interactivity, that’s where it influences lower-funnel actions and consideration,” he said. “Each of these products has its own primary job but when you use them together, advertisers are able to reach new audiences, add incremental reach and even generate outsized results for consideration and purchase.”
Advertisers are tapping into first-party data to drive video campaign performance
For PepsiCo and others, first-party data is essential for a targeted approach to video advertising, allowing marketers to improve the relevance and effectiveness of their campaigns.
This is another area where Amazon Ads differentiates itself, offering advertisers highly relevant first-party lifestyle and in-market audiences based on Amazon’s billions of first-party engagement insights from customer interactions across shopping and streaming.
“Our superpower is our retail roots, and it allows us to turn audience signals into actionable opportunities for brands and advertisers,” Kretzer said. “Hundreds of millions of Amazon customers are shopping and streaming movies, listening to music and enjoying podcasts. With those billions of signals from shopping and streaming experiences, Amazon Ads can help brands identify and engage with new audience segments.”
Endemic and non-endemic brands are seeing results with Amazon Ads video campaigns
Both brands that sell on Amazon and those that do not have leveraged its holistic video offerings to drive business outcomes.
For instance, automaker Lexus worked with Amazon Ads to increase awareness of its electric vehicle offerings. The collaboration centered on a multichannel connected home campaign, featuring devices like Alexa, Fire TV and the Fire Tablet. Full-screen and interactive video ads appeared on these devices, allowing Lexus to reach incremental audiences across non-traditional ad environments.
Amazon Ads partnered with Kantar to measure the campaign results. The video campaign resulted in a 3.1x increase in ad awareness and a 2.1x increase in favorability in a high-consideration category. Additionally, the campaign resulted in a 6.6x higher consideration intent compared to the automotive industry benchmark, reflecting a significant increase in consumer interest for the Lexus range of electric vehicles.
In an endemic brand example, appliance cleaner affresh leaned on Amazon Ads for a full-funnel campaign using a high-impact sponsorship of a popular Amazon Original show, “Hollywood Houselift with Jeff Lewis.”
To drive awareness, the appliance products were featured in in-show integrations as well as sponsored social posts from the show’s talent. Further down the funnel, shoppable custom co-branded tune-in spots with Lewis and a Fire TV Feature Rotator, the most visible placement on the Fire TV screen, encouraged purchase consideration and conversions.
The campaign resulted in a 20-point lift in unaided brand awareness and purchase consideration for co-branded creatives. The brand also saw a 40% year-over-year increase in organic brand searches, while Amazon internal data found a 36% increase in purchases for customers exposed to the sponsorship.
These campaigns illustrate the importance of using multiple video channels and formats in tandem. According to internal Amazon Ads research, Amazon video campaigns that used two or more video solutions had 142% higher detail page view rate and an 84% higher purchase rate compared to campaigns that used only one video ad solution.
The compounding impact of multiple video channels has also stood out to other advertisers, such as food company Danone.
“By having the ability to precisely target consumers in-market for our product categories paired with premium video inventory, we’re able to increase awareness and consideration to drive omnichannel sales for our brands on and off Amazon,” said MK Woltz, director of media connections at Danone. “Additionally, when we run video and display we see higher incrementality with the ‘better together’ strategy deployed.”
By applying a cohesive approach to different video channels, brands are effectively reaching and engaging consumers in an ecosystem that continues introducing fresh content across new streaming platforms and devices.
“It’s important for advertisers to think back to their primary objectives so they can understand what video ad products will help them meet their goals,” Kretzer said. “With the scale and diversity of our products, we’re well-positioned to partner with advertisers in today’s evolving landscape.”
Sponsored by Amazon Ads
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