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In the Personalization Games, Video is the Favorite to win Gold [Webinar]

Mark Flaharty August 18, 2016
In the Personalization Games, Video is the Favorite to win Gold [Webinar]

Like millions around the world, I can’t stop looking up coverage of the games in Rio. While media and sponsoring brands are canvasing the web with detailed reports and gorgeous photos, it’s the videos I click on and share the most. The power of full sight, sound and motion provides a more immersive experience that captivates viewers and allows them to feel as though they’re part of the story.

Brands and publishers like Google, Facebook and Snapchat are betting big on video, and it’s no wonder. Video is the most compelling storytelling medium, and that is a key reason why it is such a powerful tool for personalization.

It’s a tall order for marketers to make customers feel they are part of a journey, that their unique challenges are understood and their individual preferences truly matter – all the while still needing to build and differentiate their brand or offering. To address all this, brand marketers have begun to take steps toward personalized marketing in the past couple years. But, increasingly every marketer is realizing that it is simply not plausible to accomplish these objectives with text or display formats. Marketers need video to fulfill the promise of personalized marketing communication that will forever change the way they interact with consumers.

Here’s how video makes such a difference:

  • Brand Differentiation – Video allows brands to deliver real value by way of education and information that recommends the next best action to customers, versus simply the next sales offer or promotion.
  • Relevance – Marketers want to maximize the relevance of their message to every exposed consumer. But, is it relevant to just drop a first name into an email or showcase the last product viewed in a display ad? Video allows for multiple data attributes, relevant topic inclusion or exclusion and a longer period of time to engage the consumer to create such relevance.
  • Messaging continuity across channels – With video, brands can ensure messages are consistent across all channels and screens. Plus, video is the most natural medium for mobile since it captures the full screen and therefore the full attention of mobile users.
  • Brand meets ROI – Brands spend more money on video than any other medium. But, today there is a cry for those dollars to be more specifically accountable and measurable than ever before. Imagine how powerful a marketing weapon video can be when it can marry brand metrics with measurable business value.

Perhaps the most important benefit of video is that it allows marketers to tell a story that engages a user in a multi-sensory way.

But, generally such video has been a one-to-many message that, in today’s one-to-one digital world, just does not connect with empowered consumers like it might have before. Today marketers need video to be on-brand, but relevant at the individual level… and the data and technology are now available to help them do just that! For example, rather than a blanket message to every “Mark” who made an online purchase in the past three months, a sporting goods retailer can connect with the one “Mark” who purchased attire related to the Rio games in the past three months and provide him with valuable video content about what’s happening in the pool, in the gymnastics arena and in other athletic venues. Now, that is a gold-winning personalization strategy.

If you’re interested in learning more about personalization and how data-driven video can deliver individualization at scale, join SundaySky President Jim Dicso and Forrester’s Brendan Witcher for an upcoming webinar hosted by Adweek on “Why You’re Getting Personalization Wrong,” on Tuesday, August 23 at 1 p.m. ET.