Recently comScore reported that in April 09, U.S. Internet users viewed 16.8 billion online videos.  Nearly 152 million folks watched an average of 111 videos, and an average online viewer watched 6.4 hours of video.  The age of online video viewers trends slightly younger, however, viewership by Generation X and older boomers are at no small scale.

That’s a lot of folks watching videos online.  And every minute there’s around 20 hours of new videos being uploaded to YouTube.  However, videos that generate millions of views overnight are few and far between—especially those uploaded to support a marketing agenda (e.g., commercials or promotional videos created by companies to promote their brands).

Here are some basic, yet essential, guidelines for online video success that we use to provide results for our clients.

1. Take a Long-Term Perspective:  While it is true that some online videos became an overnight sensation (e.g., Susan Boyle), the reality for most is that building an audience takes time—weeks, months and perhaps even years.  Keep in mind that unlike running a TV commercial where your ad/message disappears after your schedule runs out, online video has a potential to be active for years, accumulating viewers all along the way.  Therefore, creating content that has long-term relevance is key, which brings us to our second point.
2. Content is King:  Don’t just put a TV ad online (unless you have an incredible, one-of-kind commercial).  Create a short, entertaining message through a good story (e.g., humor, heartfelt tales, did you know, can you believe this, etc.).  People love to be surprised and everyone enjoys a good laugh.  Just as laughter works, so do tears, joy, compassion and a poignant moment.  The key is offering the viewer some quick entertainment that will engage them to respond, further investigate and/or share with their network.
3. Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan:  Just like you would with a TV commercial, incorporate a strategic plan behind your online video. Don’t just count on people stumbling onto it.  Remember that your new video has a shelf life of 48 hours before it’s moved from the Daily Most Viewed list to the Weekly Most Viewed list on most video sharing sites, so it’s important to share and spread the video quickly.  Some basic tactics that should be included into the online video launch include sharing and posting on social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, MySpace), reaching out to bloggers and sending out email invites to your circle of contacts.
4. Engage with Your Viewers: Some of the most successful videos are those that are able to solicit comments and start discussions with their viewers.  According to Tim Street, creator of French Maid TV, in order to get your video to a higher plane, “It needs to interact with the viewer, and allow the viewer to interact with the characters or the creators.” Comments are a great way to hear feedback and receive ideas for future initiatives.  Keep in mind that comments may not always be positive, but they present the opportunity to connect with your audience one-on-one.  Therefore, make sure to properly monitor the social web sphere across all chatters on your video and brand.

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The shift towards social media today is huge. Numerous articles, case studies and statistics extol the myriad benefits of this powerful new marketing movement each day.  However, getting your feet wet in social media can be quite a challenge as social media is not just another medium or channel where traditional marketing messages can be pushed. Instead, it’s all about understanding the culture of participation. And then harnessing and incorporating that into all your marketing and business processes.
So, what is the best way for an organization to embrace social media?  Here’s some of our top-line suggestions:

1.  Set a goal. All marketing programs, from advertising to promotion, starts with a defined goal. The same is true for social media marketing. Some of the common SMM goals and uses are:

• Converse with your market:  Corporate voice community
• Build and reward loyalty:  Loyalty community
• Generate ideas: Innovation community
• Customer support: Peer support community
• Stimulate a passion: Enthusiasts community
• Build and maintain buzz: Events community
• Create excitement: User-generated content or contest

A note about virals: As much as you may desire a “viral-something” (video, site, email, etc.), please keep in mind that “viral is a result, not a goal/strategy”, as Scott Monty stated in his recent tweet.  Also keep in mind that something will only become viral if your prospect thinks it’s worth passing along to other like-minded individuals, and so on.

2.  Realize and accept that everyone now has a voice. This mean your employees and customers as well as your detractors.  Technologies collectively known as Web 2.0 have spread widely among consumers over the past five years and today, everyone has the potential to be a content creator. Social networking websites (e.g., Facebook, MySpace, etc.) attract more than 120 million unique visitors per month and more than 82 million people in the US created content online last year.

Therefore, if you want to succeed in this new social world, you need to engage the people you want to reach by meeting them on their own turf, or by creating a turf that you make available for them (e.g., community).

3.  Don’t fall for ‘build-it-and–they-will-come’ syndrome. We have seen so many programs where a company focuses solely on a splashy design and tools and forgets to pre-populate their community with valuable content. We have also seen programs launched with promising content only to find out later that there are no updates as well as those without a proper marketing plan behind it to gain traction and visibility.  Please keep in mind that when a potential member comes to a community, the only way to have them join, share and return again is through fresh, compelling content.  Additionally, build out a support plan and schedule to promote your social media effort (e.g., SEM, SEO, social media seeding, PR, display ads, integrated into appropriate offline messages, etc.).

4.  Social Media is more than a campaign. It’s about having a holistic marketing program that includes leveraging social technologies over the long haul. It’s about socializing with your brand fans through commitment, integrity and honesty. At the end of the day, social media is about building relationships—this means you don’t just show up one day and then disappear when your campaign is over.   Just like in a real relationship, you have to treat social media users as you would treat the people in your life. Get to know them, interact without promoting and earn customer trust through transparency.

5.  Find the team to champion your SMM effort. Identify and enlist the right people in your company to spearhead the social media program. These people need to believe in the initiative and have the experience, energy and passion to engage others in the effort.  Additionally, choose a social media-marketing vendor to help you bring your goals to life and deploy the appropriate technology solution.  There are only handful of companies in the world with the right suite of in-house resources to effectively and efficiently support/operate a social media program.

The above is just a sample list taken from hundreds of suggestions. To find out more, feel free to contact us or explore some additional information on the following posts.

-  Ron Jone’s Social Media Marketing 101 – Part 1 and  Part 2
-  Adam Ostrow’s (Mashable) What are the Benefits of Social Media Marketing
-  The McKinsey Quarterly’s Six Ways to Make Web 2.0 Work

While some marketers can afford sophisticated software, tools, dedicated internal teams and outside partners to analyze their efforts, most are still trying to get the basics of measurement right—the fundamental steps and process. In many cases, the following six steps can create sound marketing and media plans that repeatedly deliver results.

1.  Develop and agree on the measure of success based on the campaign objective. As simple as this sounds, campaigns are often launched without a clear definition of success metrics. No matter how complex and outrageous your business plan may be, from 30,000 feet every aspect of advertising can be broken down into a combination of four primary marketing objectives:

• Driving sales (online, offline or both)

• Getting leads

• Creating brand awareness

• Fostering relationships / engagements

Establishing your campaign and conversion goals in advance will save you from many costly mistakes.

2.  Benchmark. Based on your past initiatives, place a value (scoring system) against your success metrics—a number that will differentiate success from failure. For example, is a cost per sign-up of $100 a success or not? If you do not have historical data to benchmark, initiate a small test program to gain insights prior to fully investing your budget.  See Step 4 for testing options.

3.  Establish reporting standards and processes. Often times the most critical component of an online initiative, reporting, ends up getting the least attention or even completely ignored until well into the schedule. This may result in making costly mistakes and/or missing out on valuable insights. As Robert Blakeley from WebMD puts it, “Analytics helps your team understand how well your online investment/campaign is doing and how you might be able to do better. But that understanding is not useful to the business if the insights are not shared in a way that the rest of the organization can focus on and get behind. Getting their attention usually means making Web Analytics part of your regular business process. Part of that regular process is the reporting.” Blakeley’s An Approach to Reporting offers valuable suggestions, tips and examples on reporting best practices.

Based on your goals, success metrics and benchmark, the variables you measure and your KPI will vary, as no two organizations and/or campaigns are alike. Below are links to industry standard analytics definitions and online advertising terms that will help you select which variables should be incorporated into your measurement and reporting.

• WAA’s Web Analytics Definitions
• IAB’s Interactive Advertising Terms

4.  Select the right tracking tools. A key factor in analytics is to find and use the most accurate and consistent data to monitor and measure your online performance over time. Online measurement and tracking breaks into two areas:

• Website Analytics: If you do not have good software and tracking tools in place, Brian Gilley from Social SEO has an expanded list of web stat applications that are available in the market.  It’s free, easy to use, scalable and offers high-end analytics tracking to understand your visitor’s path and their usage of your website.

• Online Ad Serving and Tracking: There are a number of ad management solutions on the market offering integrated ad serving, tracking and reporting (search, display, site sponsorship, etc.) as well as various targeting features to help you measure, monitor and optimize your campaigns.  For ad serving service, iMediaConnection has a great post on How to Pick an Ad Server.  Although this article is from 2006, it still offers excellent tips and suggestions.

5.  Test. When and where possible include a portion of your marketing/advertising/media budget and plan towards testing creative execution, sizes and media placement— especially if it’s going to be a long-term and/or ongoing program. Again, there are no two similar situations in online marketing and even the most seasoned marketer cannot predict a consumer’s behavior and actions regardless of how brilliant and flawless the campaign/execution may be. There are many ways to test your online components and here are two of the most commonly used methodologies:

• A/B Testing: As its name implies, pits one version of variant against another. Used to test simple alternatives, such as color, copy, and position of an image to see which converts better.
• Multi Variant Testing:  All elements of a web page or online ad are interrelated; images, colors, headlines, copy, call to action, etc. Multi variant testing determines which combination of elements work best together.

A rule of thumb with research is to keep it simple. We often see tests failing because people make it unnecessarily complicated and become overwhelmed with the sheer number of variables. Instead, focus on measuring one or two variables at a time to keep things manageable. Additionally, create an action plan before testing. Consider in advance the potential outcomes and the steps you will take for each, as this will prepare you for immediate action.

6. Be flexible and ready to respond. Numbers are wonderful and no one loves them more than we do. However, they are just numbers and can have many disadvantages. Numbers unfortunately do not explain the qualitative human factors and at times the conclusions may not make sense. Additionally, it is easy to get trapped at a granular level and become distracted from the bigger picture. The bottom line is that all the data in the world won’t do you any good unless you use it as a means to learn and improve upon it. So be persistent, open-minded and tackle each element one at a time.

What we have outlined above is by no means conclusive, but a list of basic steps and practices to help you map out a road to a successful Analytics and Measurement process. Although these are fundamental steps, getting them right is much more difficult than it appears and without them, all the sophisticated and exciting new measurements will amount to nothing. Whether you’re considering implementing your first online ad campaign or your 100th, working through this basic checklist can be an invaluable tool for your organization. Make sure you’re asking the right questions at each step to ensure you integrate the solution best suited for your unique needs and business challenges.

During a roundtable at our Fuel for Thought event, we discussed on a topic we often get asked by clients.

How can marketers incorporate the consumer’s point-of-view as a regular part of strategy sessions, extending beyond consumer-generated content, consumer-created advertising, corporate blogs and focus groups?

Being able to monitor, measure and implement consumer’s point of view has never been more important as the web is constantly opening up new avenues of conversation and new ways for consumers to voice their opinions on your brand.  There are various resources and tools available in the market (more on this later).  However before employing strategies, plans and applications, the first step is to commit to a long term brand initiative.

Strategy + Consumer Participation ≠ Success

Commitment + Strategy + Consumer Participation = Success

In other words, getting your consumer participation into your marketing and business strategy is not the silver bullet.  It’s the commitment you make as an organization to an honest open discussions, marketing efforts, measurements and integration over time that will deliver success.  This involves finding the right partners, monitoring conversations, measuring your buzz level, integrating offline/online efforts, properly setting website usability and conversion metrics, preparing your customer service and commitment to improve your initiatives beyond the test and launch stage.  Our good friend Adam Broitman has an excellent point-of-view on this.

Just like any relationship, an organizational commitment to honesty and perseverance fosters brand trust.  Wouldn’t you like to hear consumers say the same things about your brand?

I’m a firm believer that challenges open doors to opportunities, and opportunities bring innovation with possibilities to further advance and emerge as a leader – as many brands did during the Great Depression.

As eMarketer CEO/co-founder Geoff Ramsey puts it, “Consumers are still consuming.” They are still out there, looking for deals and recommendations to make product choices. They are relying on all available resources to find what is right for them. For marketers, the good news is there are more options than ever to make a connection with customers.

Below is a compendium to Geoff Ramsey’s presentation at the Fuel for Thought event in November. It’s based on his recent whitepaper Digital Marketing Now: Seven Strategies for Surviving the Downturn that is available for free at eMarketer.

That’s it for today.   I hope we sparked some new ideas and look forward to seeing your test programs in market.