The engaged viewer

What's the value of an engaged viewer? This is the headline of Google's True Video launch announcement on YouTube. The answer may arguably be, 'everything'. An engaged viewer find value in having their need state met. Engagement invites conversation and hopefully a long term relationship if not a transactional one. True Video simply enables viewers to decide which ads they see when. This puts user centricity and relevancy at the forefront - delivering messages to the right person at the right time in the right environment. This is a trend being embraced by many, including Hulu with their self-selecting ad capability.

In its five years of existence, with 3.5 years under the Google umbrella, YouTube videos are streamed 2 billion times every day and YouTube is ranked as the second largest search engine behind parent Google. According to Mintel, watching videos over a PC is the most popular way to view videos, with the majority of those under 45 years of age doing so - particularly watching TV shows. eMarketer notes that video leads in the creation of 'magnetic content' defined as content that consumers genuinely want to engage in and pass along to others. The upside for brands is that they only pay when someone actually views their ad or video on YouTube - so it is win-win for the media publisher, the audience and the brand.

So, as marketers, the need to establish a reciprocal value, served within the context of relevancy, extends beyond merely creating the video, but also in redefining the 'ads' served as well. Shifting from advertising to engagement, awareness to education, push to invite - will be key success factors a brand's ability to form and sustain a relationship with their audiences. Perhaps instead of focusing on creating a marketing plan, we need to shift to understanding what our brand's value plan is.

Intelligence: Social Media Objectives

"Garbage in, garbage out" is a popular agency phrase for what happens when due diligence is not aptly applied to a marketing initiative, from branding to promotional executions. This acutely applies to social media, a venue where companies often throw social media tactics up against the proverbial wall of audience targeting, to see what "sticks". Not thinking through social media outreach in the context of an integrated cross/multi-channel plan can weaken brand impact or even reputation. This necessitates a coherent mapping of objectives, audience behaviors, sustainable infrastructure, measurement and optimization -- to audience value.

The Social Media Road Map, just out from Marketing Sherpa, shows how social media wisdom is a function of social media stage and "maturity". Brands that have been hazed through the initial trial and transition phases, are more likely in the seasoned strategic phase to map their measurement back to accurately defined objectives:

Social media can not be treated like a campaign. It is not an event-specific commodity. Social media, whether earned or owned, feeds off of reciprocal value between the company and their audience, not the advertiser and their customer. Starting with a "gut check" of what your social media objectives are and how you are going to go about them -- is worth the time investment both from an brand ROI, and an audience engagement perspective.