Video - Terraforming Internet Marketing

These days, video is the predominant form of content on the web. 63% of businesses, according to research, are putting serious effort to implement video marketing as part of their digital marketing strategies. E-commerce research indicates that 41% of consumers were likely to share an appealing videos with their friends. Most viewers will not spend more than 8 seconds on your page but you could increase that to 3 minutes with a video.
Videos can quickly trigger emotions around your products and services. Emotions drive conversations, conversations drive buying decisions. Samsung's #voiceforever campaign rang in as the top branded video across Facebook, YouTube and Instagram in 2018, garnering 98 million views.

Is video’s dominance built on a big lie?

The scandal around Facebook's false video metrics hit us square in the face last year, so what is the future of social video marketing?

Let us look at some facts that makes video marketing not so attractive.

Video requires an intensive production process, widespread amplification strategy, and the time and commitment of talented creatives.

According to TubeMogul, half of all videos get less than 500 views. One notable example is a beautifully developed video about the Ritz-Carlton Lodge in Georgia, which has received only 480 impressions since December. Similarly, Abercombie & Kent has uploaded 34 videos on its YouTube site in the last 12 months, with an average of 300 impressions.

So why would you actually invest your dollars in a video?

Here’s the why (and how) :

Google : Placing a YouTube video on your landing page can increase by up to 50% the chance of your website being on the first page of Google for a specific search. According to statistics, the number of video searches that include “How to” keyword has grown by 70 percent in a single year.

User-driven content : Poorly designed videos with great content outperform videos. User-generated content is a great way of interacting with your customers. One of the most well-known examples is GoPro Hero Action Camcorders. GoPro allow customers to post videos they recorded to YouTube which the company then uses to market their product.

Influencers : All the people are different, however, there is one common denominator for all influencers – they love to be in the center of attention. Use their ego in order to promote your video simply by mentioning an influencer or discussing their ideas.

Email : In fact, according to Optionmonster, Email Marketing is overwhelmingly preferred to social media when it comes to opt-in, permission-based content. In fact, just using the word “video” in your email subject line can increase your click rates by up to 300% according to HubSpot.

Social :

The inclusion of Video Marketing in Instagram Stories is one of the bigger innovations in the Video Marketing space. When Netflix began as a mail-order video service, now, several years later, Netflix is a powerhouse of video content; and not just other people’s content either.

As of May 2018, Twitch(Amazon’s live streaming video platform)reported having 2.2 million broadcasters and 15 millions daily active users, so there is huge potential for such platforms to blow up even more in the next couple of years.

In a not too distant future user-based internet video content will surely surpass traditional advertising content.

Chief Growth Officer: The Last Jedi?

The C-Suite in an organization is the power center who share common duties, such as strategic planning, in addition to their functional responsibilities. They are no less than “The Jedi”, the main protagonists in the Star Wars universe who are depicted as an ancient monastic, academic, meritocratic and paramilitary organization whose origin dates back to c. 25,000 BBY.
So what has spawned the rise of a “Chief Growth Officer” as “The Last Jedi” to protect and lead the growth of an organization.

C-M-O = A dangerous acronym

At the top of most organization's marketing heap, stands a Chief Marketing Officer or CMO. This is the person who maintains the whimsical vision and executable strategy for the company's marketing plan. Inherent within this title, however, is one of the largest lurking dangers of the business world: a glorified role without any purposeful impact on the bottom-line. Indeed there is no acronym so dangerous in the English language as C-M-O.

Why CGO is the new CMO?

Sales’ is no longer about “trying to flog things” while marketing can’t sit in a silo, free from commercial objectives. It’s about trying to give them high quality advice and be there for them if there are any problems. So, the sales team is really a service team and then a marketing function more than anything else.
“Easy growth” is now a thing of the past. “Companies no longer can rely on traditional methods of incremental expansion and innovation—be it a new category, market, acquisition or distribution channel.
Marketers are simply not seen as growth drivers. Search firm Russell Reynolds, says CGOs aren’t just enhanced CMOs. They are growth-focused brand builders, trusted CEO advisers, and internal connectors who align conflicting agendas.

FMCG companies are at the forefront:

According to Russell Reynolds, these are “first-generation” CGOs. FMCG companies began to appoint CGOs around five years ago. Consumer goods giants including Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Coty and Mondelēz have all hired CGOs to “accelerate growth efforts” or to “bring focus and growth to our platforms”.Another example is Kraft Heinz, where marketing and sales is led by a president of global growth.

CMO was expected to lead the growth:

Over the past decade, marketers have continued to position themselves as experts in advertising, brand positioning, millennials and the latest digital fads – instead of being growth drivers – and this has led to CMO positions disappear.
While corporate leaders look to the CMO for growth opportunities, the marketing function certainly does not own all of the organization’s growth drivers. As many as five C-level executives are responsible for driving new revenues, according to a recent Accenture Strategy report. However, CEOs are most likely to hold their CMOs accountable for missed growth targets.

The expectations from a CGO:

A CGO, thus, primarily infuses a "growth mind-set" in the organization.
As Mondelez International CEO Irene Rosenfeld rightly states,"The creation of the Chief Growth Officer role ensures that growth remains at the forefront of our company strategy. It will bring the same focus and discipline to driving sustained, profitable growth that we have brought to improving our cost structure and expanding margins".

Five questions to ponder upon for a CGO :

1. What’s the plan? The CGO needs to construct and have a firm grasp on the overarching strategic plan of the organization.
2. Why the plan? A CGO needs to understand the essence of the plan – what it was based on – the insights, market trends, analytics and data at its core. They should be mindful of how to gather and incorporate client data, prospect data, competitive intel, and economic insights.
3. How the plan? What is the method by which the CGO will execute the plan? What resources will be incorporated? How will marketing tools be incorporated? What cross-functional planning is required? How does Sales get involved?
4. When the plan? What is the timing for the execution of the plan? How often will it be reassessed and updated?
5. Outcomes of the plan: Will the CGO have a thorough understanding of the dynamic measurement of the plan, on an ongoing basis? Can they articulate the ROI in terms of measurable metrics that have a downstream impact on revenues?

This evolution and elevation of traditional corporate leadership roles to a CGO can give a blueprint for companies to align the senior executives to the urgent need to address sustainable business growth and improving future growth prospects in times of uncertainty.

5 Ingredients to plate your 2018 Marketing Dish like a Pro

“Molecular Gastronomy should not be considered a style of cooking but a new scientific discipline” argues Professor Pete Barham, from the University of Bristol, who has worked extensively with celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal. Why?

Because it involves chemical sciences: agrochemicals are involved in the way food is produced; chemical changes occur during harvesting, packaging and transport to market, and subsequently during processing and cooking and finally, an understanding of neurochemistry when the brain reacts to the presentation and taste of the food.

“Taken to its extreme”, Barham argues, “It should be possible to quantify just how delicious a particular dish will be to a particular individual. Thus, in the future, it may be possible to serve different variations of the same dish to your dinner party guests so that each has their own uniquely enjoyable experience”.

Molecular personalization? Isn't that we want to do in marketing- create a unique customer experience.

With that thought let me list out a few in-season ingredients which will help you whip up your marketing dish make it delectable in 2018 !

Mobile at the core :

There’s no doubt mobile has become core to the digital marketing ecosystem – as a  communications channel, support and service mechanism, purchasing tool and more. But according to Forrester’s 2018 mobile predictions, marketers need to put even more emphasis on understanding how next-generation consumers are interacting with brands via these devices in the New Year. Mobile strategy goes way beyond a responsive website, even if it is designed mobile-first. The caveat of this is that the screen size for these mobile devices are tiny compared to laptops or desktops. It is much more difficult to convey all desired content into a website while still maintaining readability and clarity for such small screen sizes. Having mobile UX in mind, web designers and developers can collaborate and create products that should potentially be very clear and easy to digest in terms of their content, layout, and style

AI at the fore :

“With AI at the forefront, marketers will be better able to understand the likes and dislikes of a customer, determine what specific branded content should be served to that consumer, and track all their interactions through the customer's journey.  

“AI will also be imperative to provide customers with a seamless personalized digital experience in the future, for brands to get cut through, and for marketing to help deliver ROI.”  

Future-facing CMOs will adopt a challenger-centric approach in 2018, investing money where they see most value.

Millenials drive your purpose:

You are going to need to have a very clear brand purpose at the centre of everything to pull this off. Millennials, if they actually existed as a segment, would demand a clear and transparent brand purpose or they would simply not buy from you.

They don’t really care about ‘what’ the product is, they just care about ‘why’ you made it. That makes the millennial segment incredibly hard to market to; partly because they might go into the supermarket to buy bananas and bag of flour but come out with a unicycle and a bottle of brandy, but also because they demand a brand purpose. Who cares how your beer tastes? Why did you make it? And what are you doing about orangutans in Borneo?

Storify it through :

Can you imagine the power of a marketing department exclusively staffed with storytellers? Who needs strategy when you can weave a magical story? Does gross margin really matter when I can tell an impressive tale to explain it all away? And who wants brand managers when fairytales are an everyday aspect of operations?

Gather the advocates:

The strategy of paying a celebrity to syndicate brand content out to millions of followers has left many marketers disenchanted in the last few years. Finding the right partner who can co-create content up to brand standards can be equally difficult. Where brands should invest their time is reengaging customers who already love to talk about their products, developing new ways to build armies that feel less promotional or gamified and more rewarding, focused on building a culture of gratitude within the brand’s social community.

And there you have it, the story to unfold in 2018. Using AI to drive the millenials through a good story in their mobiles augmented by trusted advocacy. Let us check back in 2019 of how all of these shaped up!