We are blessed to live in a fast paced world that spreads news at real time speed and is evolving by the second.  In the past, it was essential for television advertisements to air frequently and remain fresh in your mind. Now, it seems that we are more likely to remember an ad that was shown before a YouTube video or on the right side of our Facebook feed.

Is internet advertising taking over and leaving television in the dust?

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For the first time ever, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), internet advertising revenue report declared that advertising dollars spent on the internet exceeded television advertising. Internet advertising dollars were at a whopping 42.8 billion whereas television advertising made up for 40.1 billion in the U.S.

Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB  says, “The news that interactive has outperformed broadcast television should come as no surprise, it speaks to the power that digital screens have in reaching and engaging audiences. In that same vein, the staggering growth of mobile is clearly a direct response to how smaller digital screens play an integral role in consumers’ lives throughout the day, as well as their critical importance to cross-screen experiences.”

Internet advertising prices are subject to vary, however, Digiday reports what some of the most prominent internet channels are charging:

YouTube homepage takeover = $400,000
To own the large display ad with video on the YouTube homepage, advertisers pay an estimate of $400,000. They usually include a package with other media such as in-stream video ads, display ads, or featured video listings.

technologytell.com

Facebook log-out screen ad = $100,000

businessinsider.com

Twitter promoted trending topic = $120,000

easypurl.info

BuzzFeed sponsored article = $20,000

socialfresh.com

The increase in internet advertising doesn’t come as a shock. The average person is equipped with a device that makes internet viewing easier than ever. We are certain that this trend is going to continue to evolve as the internet continues to grow. It’s time to say “Good-bye” to the tube and “Good day” to the internet. 

Check out this interesting infographic brought to you by Intel!

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“In Internet slang, a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community…either accidentally or with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.” (Wikipedia)

It’s inevitable: you will encounter an internet troll at least once in your life, especially if you are a frequent blogger, tweeter, vlogger, person of interest etc. There are people out there who lurk in the shadows behind their computer preying on individuals who voice an opinion or present an idea that is different from their own. Nothing you say or do will stop them from making nasty comments.

There are varying levels of internet trolls that you should know about. Some produce harmless, negative comments that might annoy you or anger you, while others threaten harm or even death. How do you differentiate between the trolls, and when should you react?

Aggressive troll: If you’ve ever scrolled down to the comments section on YouTube (it’s a guilty pleasure), you will find the worst of the worst when it comes to internet trolls. This type of troll is easier to spot. They use profanity, racial slurs, wish death upon the author of the content, bodily harm, harm to their family or employees, and other violent things. Don’t let this type of troll get to you. Trolls survive off of defensive, over-emotional responses, and they feed on those victims who respond that way. Don’t take it personally. Let’s use an example:

Anonymous writes, “This blog post sucks. I hope all your fingers get broken and you never get to write again because you clearly have no brain function to produce decent ideas. I also hope you get in a car accident that permanently disables you because this planet has no use for you,”

Ouch. Your heart is racing, you have never read such awful things being wished upon you, and you want to respond emotionally because you don’t deserve such a fate. Stop. Breathe. No matter how nasty the comment is, don’t take it personally. Chances are you have never met this person in your life and you never will. You have three options on how to deal with the comment: erase and forget about it, ignore it, or respond politely.

“Thanks for the feedback. What sort of topics would you like me/us to cover in the future?”

If the troll responds with more aggression, you can ignore it. If there is no constructive criticism, you will gain nothing from it. Remember that you are not posting content online in order to preserve or defend your sense of self. You’re posting content that represents your ideas, your opinions, your product, your creativity, etc. Not everyone will agree, and that is ok.

The troll trying to change the world: You will come across this troll by voicing your satisfaction with a certain product, company, political or religious stance. This troll will come out of nowhere and attempt to make you feel embarrassed about your personal opinion by stating facts that support the opposing view. They may or may not include any curse words or racial slurs. Respond in a passive, emotionless way. Thank them for their input, state your own facts if they’re questioning your brand or product, ask how it could be improved, and move on.

The fake profile troll: This troll will create an account on a social media site posing as a somebody else or somebody you might know. They will try to get a rise out of you by spreading rumors, sending vicious messages, threats, and posting inappropriate photos where they may tag you. This could be a difficult troll to ignore, but ignoring them is your best weapon of defense. Do not argue with them, and certainly do not threaten legal action as that can only worsen the situation. Block that person from your own account and continue to do so even if they keep making new profiles. Trolls eventually tire and go onto the next victim when the current one isn’t giving in. The only way you will win is by remaining calm and collected – or at least appearing so.

Sources:

http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/How_to_deal_with_vile_nasty_comments_online_11553.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)
http://www.webroot.com/us/en/home/resources/tips/pc-security/you-cant-win-an-argument-with-a-troll
http://www.business2community.com/blogging/how-to-handle-nasty-comments-on-your-business-blog-0570591

• Wi-Fi trumps all. Really now, could you imagine staying in a hotel that didn’t have internet access? That’s a nightmare waiting to happen.
• Guests want a high end coffee machine in the room. This makes some sense: if you fork out the money for a gorgeous room, the last thing you want to do is leave it to find a good cup of joe.
• Complimentary bottled water was a simple amenity that most guests would like to see.
• Wine tasting and happy hour is a fan favourite (you don’t say!)
• Interestingly enough, a lot of people snatch a magazine or book from their hotel room. We just want to ask those people: do you really need ANOTHER copy of the bible?

Check out all these stats and more in the INFOGRAPHIC below:

Nothing will grab a consumer’s attention better than a video from a brand; a product demonstration, a celebrity endorsement or an innovative commercial all demonstrate this perfectly. The problem is, brands used to utilize large budgets on flashy commercials to enter the video market, and this (as we know) is no longer a relevant way to spend ad dollars. Modern technology such as DVRs and Internet streaming mean that people are recording or downloading their favourite shows, meaning commercials are not making nearly as big of an impact to their intended audience. So where can you, as a brand, post your videos/commercials for your products where people will actually consume them? With a quick internet (or common sense) search, the answer is pretty clear, YouTube.

Undeniable YouTube Statistics

The user and viewing statistics for YouTube are pretty staggering:

• Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month
• Over 4 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube
• 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
• YouTube is localized in 53 countries and across 61 languages
• 25% of global YouTube views come from mobile devices
• People watch one billion views a day on YouTube mobile
• YouTube is available on 400 million devices

Souce: http://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html

YOUTUBE PARTNERS

With such amazing global attention, learning how to harness the power of YouTube is undeniably valuable, and brands have attained desirable reach doing so.

Basically, if you are a brand on YouTube, you have 2 options to advertise; run ads in front of other channels’ content as part of the YouTube Partners program, or you could run your own channel. The YouTube Partners approach has pretty wide appeal, more than a million advertisers use Google ad platforms, the majority of which are small businesses. (x) The advantage of these ads is that YouTube only places your ads on the category of videos that it feels your potential customers will come from, there’s no point of putting an ad for make-up as the intro to Wii U console review, it just won’t garner the desired traffic. The one drawback to these ads is that 65% are skippable. So again, if someone doesn’t want to see your ad, they don’t have to watch it.

OLD SPICE

The other approach for brands on YouTube is to have their own channel where they can upload their own videos, have people leave comments about the brand, etc. This approach is another way a company can develop the brand identity and personality, creating a personal connection with their consumers. One brand that did this very well was Old Spice. Back in 2010, the Unilever brand had a major viral/commercial hit on their hands with the ‘Old Spice Guy;’ the seemingly perfect, gentlemanly specimen who was a Jack-of-all-trades and could do anything better than your man. Who WOULDN’T want to smell like this guy? As part of their marketing campaign, the Old Spice Twitter followers were invited to submit questions or comments and then the Old Spice Guy would film video responses to them. The initiative was beyond successful, probably due in part to the fact that Old Spice Guy responded to some pretty famous names. Below is the original ‘Questions’ video & the video response to ‘Everyone’

HEINEKEN

Looking at current YouTube data, Heineken is the clear winner in beer market as not only YouTube leader but overall social media leader in their industry.(x)

So what makes them the best on YouTube? Let’s take a look at their channel. The branding of the channel is clear and it’s very user-friendly: props to their marketing department!

And the content itself is beyond creative. Their featured video at the moment is entitled “The Candidate,” and yes you’re right, it has nothing to do with beer.

This video completely focuses on the company culture; what it is like to work at the company. Customers who identify with a culture or personality of a firm aren’t just product loyal; they are brand loyal which is way more valuable. Clearly, the marketing and public relations firms & agencies at Heineken are rockstars.

RED BULL

If you want to see a company that knows how to market itself on YouTube, look no further than Red Bull. Besides being the major sponsor of some very popular sporting events, including Red Bull: Crashed Ice, Red Bull was the main sponsor of one of the most discussed stunts in recent history, Felix Baumgartner’s jump from the edge of space. That event was live streamed and the residual video from that jump can be used for a time to come in product videos as well as brand videos.

Red Bull has done their research when it comes to their targeted audience and brand positioning. Their sponsorship of extreme sports fits very well with the YouTube community as many BMX riders and skateboarders use technology (such as GoPro cameras) to capture their latest and greatest stunts and upload them to YouTube. When fellow extreme sports enthusiasts are searching and watching content on YouTube, Red Bull wants to be in there to capture a portion of those views, and boy have they ever. As of January 2013, the Red Bull YouTube channel had over 1.4 Million subscribers, (x) more than the next 2 top ‘Brand User Movers’ (Apple & Sony Music India SME) combined.

TARGET

A recent FORBES article ranks Target as the top retailer on social media and a quick look at their YouTube page shows why. Target has never shied away from strong branding; their logo is a bright red bull’s eye for goodness sake!

What they’ve done well is consistence. Their images are crisp, clear and easily distinguishable as Target. Their stylish shopping bag full of celebrity endorsements, product lines and partnerships don’t hurt either. Clicking through their uploaded videos you see: The Fray, Coco Rocha, B.O.B., and Brad Goreski, amongst others. The most recent edition to the Target family of celebrities, Mr. Suit and Tie himself, Justin Timberlake; when the guy makes a comeback, he does it in a big way. Check out his spot below:

What makes Target such a force to be reckoned with on YouTube is a combination of elements. Their content isn’t only fun, full of catchy songs and bright images, it is also informative. Without even stepping into the store, I bet the average person could name off a list of products you can buy from the retailer thanks to their videos. Their videos are also filled with tips and tricks from top Hollywood stylists on how to look like a star while sticking to a budget; in today’s image obsessed society, doing those types of videos well will definitely put you ahead of the competition.

RECAP

So what have we learned today?

1. Top successful brands should be using YouTube to share their video content with consumers, the facts and figures are too incredible to ignore.

2. A brand on YouTube needs to present their channel pages properly; make them user-friendly and make sure the colours and images presented represent the brand.

3. Content creation needs to be consistent and topical; if you’re a company that only posts a video every couple months, or on an inconsistent basis, you will be forgotten. Additionally, if you’re a brand posting videos than cannot relate back to your brand at all, what’s the point?

4. Be creative; such a clichéd phrase but still true. No one wants to watch a video of a spokesperson just standing there blabbing on about how useful or delicious your product is, they will click away faster than you can upload your next ‘masterpiece.’ You have a matter of seconds to capture your audience’s attention, don’t waste it.

5. MOST IMPORTANTLY: Use YouTube to develop your brand identity and personality. A video combines moving pictures, words and audio capabilities to engage a viewer more than a single sense medium such as print or radio. Written words can be misinterpreted, a well constructed video that shows what your brand is all about just can’t.

So there you have it, a list of tips and suggestions along with viable examples of brands that have taken over and used YouTube to their absolute advantage.

How will you utilize YouTube for your company?

We came across this fascinating INFOGRAPHIC that really details some of the interesting internet usage within our nation. It doesn’t take more than a moment’s notice in any social situation to realize mobile is a driving force in our community. Here’s some  great takeaway stats from the image below:

General Statistics

• 27.4 million Canadians are online (that is 80% of the population!)
• 17.2 hours are spent on the internet a week
• 93% go online for product information
• 44% use online videos more than they did last year
• 25% would give up TV over their smartphone
• 64% have a profile on a social network

Mobile

• 79% of Canadians don’t leave home without their mobile device
• 97% use their phone at home
• 83% use mobile on the go

People are using their phones in businesses:

• 77% use mobile in stores
• 77% use mobile at the workplace
• 72% use mobile in restaurants
• 56% use mobile in airports
• 60-70% of Canadians are on mobile
• 80% are on a smartphone
• Smartphone searches to regular phone: 60:1
• 86% of smartphone users notice mobile ads

57% have performed a mobile search after seeing an ad. Compare to:

• TV: 49%
• Shop: 47%
• Magazine: 39%
• Billboard/poster: 32%

Image courtesy of http://www.6sMarketing.com