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New research discovers the true impact of native videos

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May 27, 2022 | 6 min read

We all know the power of video marketing

But there's an impressive strategy that your brand may be overlooking: native video ads. These ads appear seamlessly alongside organic content on publisher websites. Data analytics and brand consulting firm Kantar recently released results of a study on the impact of native video ads in a brand's marketing mix. The results confirmed that adding native video ads to the marketing mix lifts the overall impact of multi-channel online advertising campaigns.

Here we look at Kantar’s findings in more depth.

The rise of video marketing

In recent years, video has quickly become one of the most effective content marketing formats. According to Wyzowl's global research, 86% of surveyed marketers use video in their marketing mix. Of those, 93% said video has helped them increase awareness for their brand, and 81% said video has directly helped them increase sales.

Video marketing is most commonly found on websites, social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, and video platforms like YouTube. And recently, more and more brands are jumping onto the native advertising trend, getting their products and messages in front of more receptive audiences in a premium context. With native advertising, video ads have higher contextual relevance — they’re displayed alongside content that covers similar topics, through open web channels like news and publisher websites.

But the real power comes from using all of these strategies together instead of just one. That's just what Kantar discovered.

Kantar's multi-channel brand impact study

Kantar tested the impact of exposure to an online video ad across multiple digital media channels: a native advertising platform, a social platform and a video streaming platform.

To do this, the study used Kantar Context Lab, Kantar’s ad effectiveness measurement solution. Two groups of respondents were exposed to an ad campaign across platforms, with a combination of exposures of native and social and native and video platforms. Several matched groups of adults were exposed to the video ads, each group in a specific digital placement and platform. A matched control group was not exposed to the video ads in the research.

Kantar then compared the differences in awareness and predisposition in each exposed group vs. the control group. This unearthed the impact of the video ad exposure in each digital placement and platform.

What the study found

The study revealed that adding native video to the marketing mix had three critical effects: an uplift in brand awareness, higher favorability and consideration of the brand and its image, and even higher engagement when combined with other video marketing channels, like social and video platforms.

1.) Adding native video to the marketing mix improved brand awareness by 25%

Adding native video ads to brand awareness campaigns provided a significant uplift vs. the control group. The study measured three types of brand awareness:

  • Top-of mind brand awareness: Does the brand come to mind first when thinking of companies in its category?
  • Total unaided awareness: Does the brand come to mind at all when thinking of companies in its category?
  • Online ad awareness: Does the participant recall seeing the ad?

In every instance, awareness was boosted when participants were exposed to native video ads. In the group with three exposures to native video ads, 33% of participants displayed top-of-mind awareness – compared to just 14% of the control group. When native video ads were combined with social platform video ads, top-of-mind awareness rose to 49%.

2.) Native video ads boosted favorability, consideration, and brand image

Participants were asked questions about brand favorability and consideration, such as:

  • whether they love the brand
  • whether the brand meets their needs better than others
  • whether they consider the brand to be different from other brands
  • whether the brand sets trends for its category

In every instance, participants who were exposed to native video ads responded more favorably than participants who were exposed to social or video platform ads. For example, 59% of participants with native video ad exposure expressed brand favorability, compared to 50% for social platform exposures and 51% for video platform exposures.

3.) Multi-channel video campaigns had higher engagement than single-channel campaigns

Campaigns incorporating native video ads received higher viewer engagement than campaigns that served viewers the same video multiple times on the same platform.

When exposed to multi-channel ads, participants viewed a greater percentage of the ad video on social and video platforms. For example, in the group exposed only to ads on the social platform, participants viewed 51% of the ad on average. This number jumped to 58% when the participants were also exposed to the ad through the native advertising platform.

Additionally, more participants watched the whole ad in both the social and video platform after also being exposed to native ads. And more viewers turned on the audio in the social platform after they were exposed to native ads.

Case study: Sony grows performance after incorporating native video

Let's look at a case study of a brand that tapped into native video ads to meet their business goals: Sony Pictures Entertainment Thailand.

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) Thailand wanted to promote movie trailers and increase ticket sales for three upcoming movies: Spider-Man, Venom, and Goosebumps. The company started with a single-channel strategy that used social media videos.

While they saw decent results, they wanted more impact. The team decided to add native video to their marketing mix, targeting tablet and mobile device viewers in Bangkok. By the campaign’s end, the native video campaign had brought in 194,000 completed video views and 411,000 impressions alongside those on social media.

Diversify your marketing mix with video ads and achieve better engagement on all channels

Kantar’s research found that native video ads amplified the impact of advertising campaigns in three key areas:

  • Brand awareness
  • Favorability, consideration, and brand image
  • Viewer engagement

If you’re using video ads to promote your brand, but haven’t tried incorporating native video, now is the time to add this channel to your campaign strategy. According to the data, there’s a strong chance you’ll see positive results.

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