20 rules for short video ads to go viral!

Brand advertisers want to achieve results, and performance advertisers want higher conversion efficiency. How can the booming short video advertising achieve brand and effect integration? Let’s take a look at the 20 rules for integrating brand and effect in short video advertising.

1. The tone of the advertising content is consistent with the target audience. The most basic principles, no need to elaborate.

2. The advertising content is in stark contrast to the original content, and can stand out in the information flow and catch people's attention. For example, animation is a type of content that accounts for a relatively low proportion in the entire short video traffic pool, but Zhihu happened to shoot a series of animation advertisements, which instantly attracted the attention of users and achieved excellent communication effects.

3. Advertising content should be as similar to native content as possible and hidden in the information flow, which can also achieve the effect of touching the soul. Popular memes are born on short video platforms every day, such as the Husky demolishing the house, a close-up of two hands chatting, the Wudang King paying homage to the old Taoist priest, etc. The audience itself has expectations for this kind of content. Advertising content is disguised as similar native content, which makes it difficult for users to immediately identify it and is easy to achieve good results.

4. Be straightforward at the beginning. That is the "golden 3 seconds" principle. The first sentence of the video should guide the audience into the plot, use the least dialogue to build the most intuitive scenario, and put the user into context as soon as possible. For example, "Sister, we are out of rice, please buy some", the popular scene "Daily Life of Sister and Brother" is presented to users right at the beginning, which naturally attracts them to watch and ultimately achieves the purpose of conversion.

5. Great efforts can bring about miracles. The actors' lines and performances can be as exaggerated as possible, and even a little awkwardness is fine. Exaggeration can leave a lasting impression on the audience and prevent them from pondering the logic of the plot and the necessity of the product. The currently popular "Awkward Little Theater" advertisement follows this principle.

6. The excitement is in the early stage. The beginning of a traditional story narrative requires a lot of preparation and finding rich clues to lay the groundwork for the subsequent plot development and climax. But in the short video ecosystem, allowing viewers to access the climax of the story earlier can reduce churn. Take the tried-and-tested "secret money" gag as an example. Imagine if a short video started with "the wife discovered that her husband had hidden secret money, and the two were on edge", everyone would be curious about how the story would develop next.

7. The pace is fast to the extreme. People’s work and life in modern society are in a fast-paced state, and the field of content consumption is also showing a “fast” trend. The video has a fast pace and tight plot points. When users see such a video, the only word in their mind is "cool", and they are more likely to accept the advertisements that follow it.

8. Only when the content creates an atmosphere can the video completion rate be high. This term is relatively abstract. The general way to judge is to see whether the user has the desire to swipe away - if not swiping away, it means there is an atmosphere, and if swiping away, it means there is no atmosphere.

9. The cost of understanding is low. Short video ads are in a sea of ​​native content. Because native content is easy to understand, ads should avoid being abstruse and difficult to understand, otherwise the bounce rate will be high.

10. Organic combination of advertising and content. A short video advertisement usually consists of two parts: the content guidance part and the product integration part. The two should not be clearly distinguished as “a meme is a meme, and an advertisement is an advertisement”. It is better to mix them together so that the audience cannot tell them apart.

11. Meet the needs directly. Marketers sometimes like to hide hidden meanings in their creatives, but unfortunately many users don’t get it because viewers often don’t deeply appreciate the hints and potential meanings of the video. So we should not beat around the bush, but go straight to the "selling point" based on the product's features. For example, a line in a cosmetics advertisement, "Are you afraid of oily skin in the summer?" can immediately attract users who have oil control needs.

12. The effect should be obvious. For example, in advertisements for beauty products, there should be a clear difference between before and after makeup to increase the conversion rate.

13. Don’t brag about your selling points. Some advertisements, in pursuit of the temporary beauty of front-end data, boast about their products in their content. For example, some coupon ads claim that "you can buy a skirt for one dollar". Users download them excitedly but then find out that they have been deceived and are unlikely to stay. Therefore, please be sure to grasp the promotional points in light of the actual situation of the product, be realistic, and do not exaggerate the functions and effects so that users build up high expectations and then cannot be satisfied, resulting in low product retention and activity.

14. The operation is clear. Even the smallest function or the shallowest entrance in the eyes of advertisers is unfamiliar and vague to the vast majority of end users. We should regard the audience as "Internet newbies" (no derogatory meaning), and patiently show them the simplest downloading or searching steps in detail.

15. Finish quickly. The so-called "strike while the iron is hot" means that after explaining the demand points or imitating the original content to display the product part, you should end it quickly to guide the conversion and do not give users time to think seriously.

16. The main focus of advertisements for Internet service products is on the overall practicality of the main product or the necessity of segmented functions. What kind of services can the product provide to users and what pain points can it solve? According to the type of product or service, we can identify the target group and gain resonance with users who are troubled by the corresponding problems, and make solving such practical problems the key point of marketing.

17. Cultural and entertainment categories are the most plot-oriented. This type of product advertising relies more on plot guidance than other industries. It requires the construction of detailed descriptions of different usage scenarios and groups of people, and the design of plots based on characteristics to guide users to complete conversions.

18. The most important thing about online games is the “feeling of satisfaction”. Because the product usage scenario is single and the user's need to kill time is very clear, this type of product is suitable for creating a refreshing atmosphere in a short period of time, and attracting users with experience and visual stimulation at the first time, and everything else can be discussed later. The same reason applies to game manufacturers who are teased as "making CG with their hearts and making games with their feet".

19. Content creativity faces upgrades. As users' aesthetic tastes continue to improve and they become resistant to homogenized content, practitioners need to carry out diversified innovations in content. Not only should they continue to improve in terms of storyboard design, scene actors, and post-production packaging, but they should also have a cross-dimensional thinking mode to win the favor of users with bolder and more novel ideas.

20. There is great potential for rich interactive experiences in the future. With the platform's more diversified interactive experience design, users can participate more deeply in the fresh gameplay and more intuitive visual presentation brought by short video content. On the basis of improving interactivity, short video ads can add richer gamification experiences, combine smart technology, VR, and AR technology to provide users with multi-dimensional content display space, and increase users' tolerance for short video ads.

Author: Network

Source: Internet