Online Marketing

Gestalten and Monocle Bring You Travel Guides, and Some Videos.

As we roll up to Labor day, people are getting ready for that last summer vacation, taking advantage of the long weekend. I’ve burned all my vacation days for the year so I’ll just be taking one extra day off. That doesn’t mean you can’t take a week or two and go somewhere fun though. And to help find all the cool stuff you’ll want to see and do in the exotic destination of your choice Gestalten has released a whole series of guide books from Monocle.

That isn’t what this is about though. This post is about the way Gestalten has truly learned to use video on the internet to promote its product line. If you pop over to their Vimeo page, there are at least seven videos like the one below. They have them cross posted via their social media channels and if you receive the Gestalten newsletter via email, you would have probably seen links pointing back to all of these which, point back to the Gestalten online store where you can buy the product.

The videos are always well crafted, with a high-quality production value, and because they live on the internet, the media buy is cheap and the reach is far.

Now I have to figure out how to get more vacation time because I want to go to Stockholm.

The Power of Online Video.

Less than a decade ago, the idea of using video as a marketing tool online was painful. Bandwidth was still limited, getting people to watch online was a challenge, and media outlets were few. Today however that has changed. With internet speeds ever increasing, the advent of multiple outlets, devices, and platforms, video is the fastest growing ad segment on the internet. Video growth is due in part to lower production costs thanks to advances in technology, the popularity of of video capable smart phones and tablets, and better online video production values. Over the last year alone, online video use has increased by 12 percent among business to business marketers. And video is now the 6th most popular online marketing tactic. The infographic from Brainshark below has even more information about the rise of video, and it’s online potential.

Vodaphone “Pixel Hunt”. Winning!

Sometimes a advertising campaign with the simplest audience engagement can generate the best results. A great example of this is Vodaphone’s “Pixel Hunt” game created by Jung Von Matt/Alster. The game was designed to promote the new LG Optimus phone and its 5 megapixel camera in Germany. Game play is simple, you click on pixels to eliminate them, and if you are lucky you could instantly win one of one hundred phones hidden behind a pixel in the image.

In one month, all 5 million pixels were clicked out by over 300 thousand participants that signed into the site to play. That is some pretty serious usage, that was generated with minimal promotion, and viral spread.

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Is Digital, The DNA of all Modern Advertising?

I just finished reading an article on ClickZ by Augustine Fou, that talks about Digital Content being at the root of modern advertising. This is interesting because it fits in with a number of discussions I have been having with various clients and colleagues over the last few years.

My point, and one that Fou eludes to is, not everything begins and ends with your website, or Facebook fan page, or a banner ad, but rather it is made by the cultural impact created from all of these digital options. It’s not that people live their lives online, but rather people use these digital properties, in ways that are integrated with so much stuff in their lives. Even when you don’t think you are online, you are. You use digital technology when you pay for items with a credit or debit card, you use it in the TV programs you watch, when you have your smart phone check movie times or help you find a location. It impacts you when you are waiting inline to check out at a store and there is a screen in front of you that commands your attention. More and more, all of the digital components in your life become more ubiquitous and literally everywhere. And more over you relate to it and use it, even if you are not actively searching for information about a product or service. In the end there is ultimately more and more human behavior that is now being tracked or linked enhanced or enabled by the digital properties that are embedded all around us. And due to the nature of this digitally enabled request and receive behavior, all of this information can be leveraged to understand needs and desires.

The value of these digital breadcrumbs, the information that we leave behind in our modern world can’t be overemphasized. I was just talking with a client about why integrating digital components at the core of their marketing and advertising initiative was so key. Because it allows for unprecedented analysis of data. Data that is related to how people interact with these specific digital properties in relationship to more traditional media channels. I was trying to make the case for more efficient and effective advertising, especially when it is designed from the beginning to take advantage of human insights and behavior.

Unlike Fou, I don’t necessarily think that digital is the center of the advertising universe, but it is a key element of the modern landscape. A ubiquitous component, rather than simply another media channel.