The New Marketing Tactic You Should Budget For Right Now

What’s the one marketing tactic you must budget for this year? 

Here’s a hint: it caused a ton of buzz out of SXSW Interactive. Meerkat, an app that lets users tweet live-streaming video, was on everyone’s lips (and tweets) — that is, until Twitter launched its Periscope app, which does the same thing. Now even newer apps, like Stream and Tarsil (both Android-friendly), are trying to get in on the action, too.

Image: tutvid

Why is everyone so intrigued?  It’s because digital video is the future.  Consider this:

• Digital video is near-ubiquitous. ComScore reports that over 70% of U.S. consumers watch online video; more than half do so every day. The average viewer watches over 10 videos daily.
• The volume of digital video is growing. According to Cisco, video will account for 84% of all Internet traffic by 2018.
• Digital video is going mobile: About half of online video viewers watch on their mobile devices.

It’s not just YouTube videos of boy bands and cute kittens, either. Already, digital video ads account for over 35% of all online videos viewed. That’s good news for marketers, not only is online video popular, it’s also highly effective.  An astounding 80% of Internet users can recall watching a digital video ad in the past 30 days, and nearly half (46%) took some action – including visiting the company’s website, visiting the company in person or buying the advertised product –after seeing the online video ad. In our own research at Cox Media, we’ve learned that viewers are three times more likely to watch an in-banner video ad than to click on a completely flat display ad online.

See the following example from one of Cox Media’s own clients. This is an interactive pre-roll campaign incorporating Cox Media’s Digital Video X. So far, the campaign has received an 0.80% completion rate and 0.32% click-thru rate which exceeds the industry average. Watch the full video here.

Have I convinced you yet that digital video needs to be part of your marketing mix?