The elephant in the room: Video Marketing Examples #24

^{Obligatory disclaimer: This isn't an ad or sponsored content. We simply wanted to share this analysis with you as a great, recent example of video marketing.}

We all know YouTube advertising is a huge deal. We’re talking huge numbers - invested, and returned.

And some brands have really doubled down: acquiring a reputation, along the way, as prolific advertisers.

That manifests in good and bad ways: 

 😃 : These brands and their messages reach lots of people

😬 : Unfortunately, they also annoy plenty of people! Particularly when the message is plain, or repetitive...

Take Wix for example. A company which has invested heavily in video advertising as a key tool to increase adoption of their free website building tool.

Their ads have achieved that goal: unlocking tremendous growth - but also irritated lots of YouTube viewers with, to be blunt, a pretty deadpan and repetitive advertising approach.

In 2020, the company noticed that they were getting a lot of negative comments on their ad videos. People really didn’t like them.

So what did they do with those comments? 

They used them - and turned them into a brilliant, and very different, ad, created cheaply in-house with real employees.

And just get a flavour of the comments on the new ad:

“Wait... Why is this literally the best advert I've ever seen? I was just wandering aimlessly through YouTube, when this popped up in one of the videos. I really enjoyed it and watched it through, and then I VOLUNTARILY searched up Wix advert and watched it again. I must say... I'm impressed.”

“Did I just watch another Wix ad?”

“Now this is an ad I would watch”

“So glad you made this not gonna lie, I was getting sick of those other ones”

“Idk if i should feel happy or sad with myself after watching another wix ad”

“Give who ever made this a raise! 10/10 would watch the sequel lol.”

“Brilliant.”

“i was gonna buy youtube red for no ads. but wix actually made me rethink that”

“Well at Least they've been listening  I watched this one voluntarily all the way Through just to see what it would say  I usually don't get passed 5 secs when wix ads pop up so well played . My only thing about wix and Squarespace ads is they're just too frequent . I always think doesn't wix know that i'm already a customer what a waste of ad money  but ok”

“Totally got me !!!”

“I searched for this ad, and I'd like to say, man you guys are creative! Keep it up wix!” 

“Ok but this is so good omg”

So why did this work? What lessons can we take?

1. Self-awareness. Brands that take themselves seriously are rarely any fun. It can be painful to laugh at yourself but sometimes, self-deprecation is the best way to turn your critics into your fans.

2. Reclaiming your negatives. What do people dislike about your brand, your ads, your product, your service - and how can you ‘reclaim’ it by doing something different? (Video is a great way to do this, because you control every creative decision.)

Above all this story is a reminder: when it comes to video ads, we need to remember, our ads are not the most important thing in our audience’s day.

Realistically, they won’t spend minutes upon minutes watching them. 

We need to be concise, succinct. 

To mix up our messaging. 

And perhaps above all, not to take ourselves too seriously!

Feeling inspired?

Let’s talk about your next video ad campaign...or any other video project you may have in mind!