When Castle Lite released its Ice Breakers ad online, showing South Africa what they already knew about how seriously they take their beer, only Miley Cirus’ Wrecking Ball video beat its view count. Katy Perry lagged in at third place, saying some depressing things about SA music tastes but some exciting things about video marketing. The viral campaign tickled beer drinkers silly, turning into a multi-webisode tale about a bunch of guys going to extraordinary measures to unearth the best way to get their beer chilled.
By skipping ahead to online terrain, Castle Lite brand managers were working on a lesson Cadbury’s learned the hard way: visuals increase buying intent by 97%, but online, they do the ROI jive as vibrantly as our legendary Madiba. On television, their returns are about as lively as David Maynier’s parliamentary dance.
Video Marketing Afterthoughts
When Cadbury released its video of a drum-playing gorilla (that was, incidentally, way more attractive than Phil Collins) doing the solo of ‘In the Air Tonight’ they made the mistake of pumping funds into TV broadcasting first. Seemingly as an afterthought, they spent pennies releasing the video online, and its return on investment spiralled uncontrollably to three times the average in its market. The advert was targeted at a UK audience but, through social media sharing, it built the Cadbury’s brand right here in SA.
The Numbers
- There are 6 800 000 South African internet users, with usage growing by about 21% a year.
- A quarter of SA’s online users actively use and upload to video sharing sites.
- 8 billion people visit YouTube monthly
- Video in email multiplies click through rates by 53 times on other SEO methods
- Native video marketing increases ROI by, on average, 30%
- 52% of buyers feel more brand confidence after watching an explainer video.
Convincing hey!
Buggles once sang, “Video killed the radio star,” but it’ll also breathe new life into your returns.
