Digital Video Marketing  
Through Storytelling


Whether it’s the mass market or the farthest end of a long tail, digital video can give you the opportunity to gain highly targeted new prospects and also to improve your relationship with existing customers. Good marketing is storytelling and there is no better medium for that than video.


YouTube and Going Viral
A dedicated YouTube channel builds brand awareness, develops relationships, forms communities. Objectives should include a targeted distribution strategy that guarantees exposure to the desired, most relevant audience. Once you target this audience it will grow exponentially on itself.


A dedicated YouTube Channel can create connectivity when integrated with P2P sites such as Facebook, Twitter, iTunes, Linkedin, Ask, blogs, wikis. A targeted distribution strategy should utilize video search engines and mobile optimization. Online video seeding can also be accomplished through distribution services like Brightcove.


One of the major driving forces behind making a video go viral is embedding. Users are able to share your videos and put them in blogs, social networks, even emails.


All of these efforts will come to a tipping point for your campaign. A key marketing objective should be to achieve a viral impact through user recommendation or “word of mouse” spreading the content exponentially.
The community is in control. It is important to let go of this control. Encourage your audience to share your content and with gentle monitoring and guidance give the community the opportunity to keep the conversation going by sharing your content.


Storytelling
Facts and figures about your company still matter but storytelling will engage your prospects. It takes stories to connect with customers on an emotional level. You need to understand how your brand's products and services meet a customer's emotional needs. Documentary style authentic, personal profile videos will illicit an emotional response with your target prospect.
Video storytelling grabs your attention from the start, pulling you in and taking you on an adventure along with characters and situations you can believe in and associate with elements of humor, drama, spectacle, action or mystery. All the while cutting through any marketing hyperbole and inwardly focused messaging because good storytelling is about engaging with an audience and tapping into their needs, passions, and fears.


Case Studies
The College of William & Mary showcased personal and inspiring student stories on YouTube and other marketing channels. It only took six months for W&M applicants to increase by more than 100%. Other companies successfully using advertainment by telling a personal story through video are IBM, Kleenex, Dove, Hitachi, Kashi and Donovan.


Bottom Line
Show, don’t tell and one last thing, make sure your message and story is consistent regardless of where it’s delivered. Inconsistencies degrade the power of the story and cause mistrust. Every brand has a story. Tell it well, and you'll give your customers a reason to believe in you.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) Michael Learmonth

Expect this to happen with increasing frequency: A major marketer not known for online antics hits the top of the chart via massive offline promotion. In this case, it's Walmart with one of its more popular TV spots getting nearly 1.7 million views on the web last week.

The Walmart spot was one of three new videos on the list. Also new is the first Super Bowl teaser to make the list, an ad from Bridgstone, which is sponsoring the halftime show with The Who.
http://adage.com/images/random/0210/viral-walmart-clown-100.jpg

The third spot to join the list comes from Nolan's Cheese and contains several creative elements that help illustrate why it's there: cuddly rodent in peril -- shock -- and, well, watch the video. The staff at Visible Measures has been watching this one build viewers for a few weeks before it arrived at No. 8. Obviously, this video had to earn its way on the list and it will be interesting to see how long it sticks around.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiFWZ8MC2cE

The other seven entries on the list are veterans, and part of substantial ongoing online campaigns. Worth noting, again, the staying power of Evian's skating babies, which have spent 30 weeks among the top 10, usually at No. 1. Evian's campaign, while down 13% this week, has racked up -- wait for it -- 71.6 million views overall.

Visit Michael Learmonth's post at Ad Age to view all top 10 Viral Videos