The Drum spoke to senior marketers and creatives from Albion, Tribal Worldwide, Red Tettemer + Partners, and TalkPoint to find out what they think brands should and could be doing with the new Video feature.
Jason Goodman, CEO Albion London
I’m a big Instagram junky so I’m an immediate fan of its ultra-slick Video UI, and it’s good to see Facebook come through on the promise of video simplicity. Instagram Video will add another layer to ad video marketing on Facebook, and is perfect for our content rich Clients in the fashion, entertainment and ecommerce sectors. There is the challenge that brands will spread their marketing dollars too thin if they have to build up communities across so many social platforms but I‘m genuinely excited for Vine and Instagram video formats. It’s the logical next step for Facebook and Twitter and they deserve the hype around their potential for brands to tell stories and engage customers in conversation. This is already apparent in the tests we are running and as we learn how best to use the range of social video platforms we'll find the tools that can make video ads as simple and cost efficient as search. What is really clear to me is how video advertising is stealing share in the overall online ad budget. And for marketeers it’s becoming a zeitgeist subject on how to develop their brand response approach.
Rich Guest, president of US Operations, Tribal
Instagram's video offering represents the continued, but perhaps accelerated, democratisation of video production technology which will ultimately enable everyone to produce and distribute professional-grade content.The democratisation of video production technology represents an opportunity for brands to cost effectively produce significant amounts of incremental, relevant content which can be syndicated through their social media presence evolving the idea of brand as newsroom to brand as studio or network. Through this lens,
YouTube's expansion of its partner program to brands may be a more significant announcement than Instagram's video offering.The exponential growth in the number of professional-grade content creators, as well as available content, will force marketers to breakthrough with work, like DDB New York's Hashtag Killer content or Dove's Real Beauty Sketches content, that is fresh, relevant, and built from real insights.
Steve O'connell, executive creative director and partner, Red Tettemer + Partners
15 second Instagram films. Marketers must be drooling. It’s a length they’ve been dealing with for years. But at that length, let’s be honest, we can call them Instagram posts, but regardless of logo placement, they’re :15 Instagram commercials. Or Instagrammercials, if you will. (I’m sure someone else already coined that.)So do people want to see Instagrammercials? Maybe.Even at :15 seconds, that's more of an investment from the audience than simply looking at an image. Now, if a brand’s already established a relationship with its audience based on engaging content, they’re set. Old Spice, Apple, Under Armour… people will want to see what these guys put out. But for marketers who don’t have that unspoken promise of entertainment, it’ll be really hard to turn heads, or rather, get people to push the play button. Even if its got a cool filter.Instagram video is a great evolution of the platform. But like it is with all media, it’s all about telling a great story. You always need to start there.
Dan Roche, VP of marketing, TalkPoint
From the perspective of a marketer, Instagram Video presents a unique opportunity. I think that consumer brands in particular have a chance to show they are early adopters and present unique messaging with a low barrier to entry. The most important thing is to keep brand control and manage communications. When it becomes easy to create messaging, it also becomes easy to stray from the course.
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