The consumer of today has little tolerance for video advertisements, instead they have an ever-growing desire to digest quality video content. So how do marketers marry the two? The answer is shoppable video.
U.S adults consume 5.5 hours of online video daily. By making videos shoppable, marketers can take advantage of these hours spent watching videos without disrupting the content by inserting shoppable ads. With shoppable video, the products featured in the clip get more emphasis; whether your company video is an overview of your products/services, a catalog of your inventory, a tutorial video, etc. You can make your clip more useful to audiences by making it shoppable.
Check out these excellent examples to get better acquainted with the medium.
Welcome to Portland: We Make Stuff
Early adopters of shoppable video have seen a large jump in their view count. According to YouTube’s Director of Product Management for Ads, Diya Jolly, the number of views for product-related videos has increased by 40% over the past year since they introduced their True View Cards. Meanwhile, television channel site BravoTV.com has grown its digital audience by 91%, and it’s in large part thanks to the introduction of shoppable content on their site. Since it’s quite clear that shoppable video has great potential for helping sell products and services, why then have marketers not fully adopted this medium?
If we had to venture a guess, it would simply be due to a fear of the unknown. As you can note, from the examples above, there are many ways to approach shoppable video, and they may seem technologically advanced, but it’s easier than you might think. Marketing teams may imagine the need to hire an expensive video production team all for one piece of shoppable video content. In actuality, shoppable video can be created in-house and quite easily with trackable analytics. Here’s a walkthrough on some simple approaches to creating quality shoppable content.
Creating Shoppable, Interactive Videos with Wideo
Wideo can streamline the video creation process for an affordable amount. Not to mention, analytics accompany any Wideo to monitor video views, clicked links, the length of video watched, etc. so you can measure its success.
To make a Wideo shoppable is simple. You have the option to insert call-to-action buttons, sign-up forms, or spaces for email registry. Just connect a URL to the interactive options presented in the sidebar and manipulate the copy and color until you’re satisfied. That’s it; you’ve successfully created a simple, professional shoppable video in mere minutes. The interactive video, on Wideo’s platform, is accompanied by detailed analytics, as your video begins to receive views, which will help you ultimately track a quantifiable return.
Making Your video Shoppable with YouTube
If you want to make a shoppable Wideo for YouTube, there are two great options for you to choose from.
During your clip’s export, Wideo has a straight to YouTube option, which saves you the hassle of downloading the mp4 clip and uploading it yourself. On export from the Wideo platform, the interactive buttons you’ve made will cease to be clickable. Once the video is uploaded to YouTube, however, you can re-instate your buttons’ interactivity through YouTube’s annotations. Annotations allow you to pick a place on your video and hyperlink it to a URL. Line up the annotations with the buttons you made in Wideo, and you’ll have an interactive, shoppable Wideo once again.
For those who would prefer to hide their shoppable attachments more stealthily within the video, rather than display them as part of the storyline, you have another option. A cards-based annotation system, launched in March, is now offered to all advertisers on YouTube via Google Adwords. For this, your video can become shoppable without the stylistic help of the Wideo-made buttons. The cards-based annotation system provides a menu in the YouTube video player which showcases an array of interactive cards that viewers can click on. The menu is hidden from view except for an icon in the upper-right corner of the video player. Viewers can choose to view the menu alongside the video or have it disappear by clicking on the icon.
Here’s an example:
Using Interactive Video on Your Website
Of course, there is much more to shoppable video than the video itself. Your shoppable video can inspire a whole new approach to how you present your offerings on your site and platforms. Burberry’s elegant display of their latest menswear collection is a great example. You’ll notice while watching the clip of the runway show that as each look appears, the still image directly below the clip changes to present that same look with purchase details.
This video marketing strategy shows great creativity while keeping with the brand’s aesthetic. Most importantly, this strategy has streamlined the Burberry experience for prospective buyers. A fully formed video marketing campaign like this one that properly incorporates a shoppable video will only increase your chances of sales success.
Conclusion
Thanks to shoppable video you can direct a viewer’s focus towards certain products or services more than ever before. By creating quality content, you’ll engage the viewer. By making it shoppable, you’ll market to them without being overly promotional.
Creating these videos in-house allows your brand to integrate the tool fully into your company’s standard digital marketing strategy which will enable you to track a quantifiable return. So whether you’re interested in shoppable video as a means of engagement, or as a sales driver, the format is the perfect blend for audiences today that are turning away from traditional ads.
