[Case] ​​How to create video ads that better understand young people?

The trend of short videos has not only ignited the capital market, but also constantly stirred up the product layout of Internet platforms. For example, Google recently announced that it will cancel the 30-second pre-roll non-skippable ads on its YouTube in 2018. YouTube has also released a new advertising format specifically for mobile devices, each of which is only 6 seconds long. Prior to this, WeChat Moments also launched 6-second or 15-second short videos.

Video duration is getting shorter and shorter, which is inseparable from the increasingly fragmented reading and listening habits of young people. How to catch the user's attention through a dozen seconds or even a few seconds of video content is also increasing the requirements for creative people. But does this mean that long storytelling videos have lost the favor of young people?

The answer is no. For brands that want to fully tell their brand stories, enhance their brand tone, or convey their brand concepts, long videos or micro -films are still indispensable carriers. The question then becomes: How should brands effectively communicate with their target audiences through longer video stories?

For brands that want to "hook up" with young people, QQ Space, the most active social gathering place for those born in the 1990s and 1995s, is probably one of the platforms that cannot be ignored. According to the "Post-95s" mobile phone usage survey report released by Baidu in 2015, QQ Space accounts for 51% of the information acquisition channels for those born in the 1990s and 1995s. QQ Space has also launched multiple forms of feed stream advertising, including multi-image carousels, brand page cards, immersive video streams, etc., to meet the brand's diversified communication needs.

The video story ads that appear in friends' dynamics are long video ads launched by QQ Space to meet the needs of deep brand communication and wide interaction. They break the 15-second short video length limit and integrate brand micro-films into the friends' dynamic feeds, allowing young people to deepen their understanding and resonance of the brand while actively obtaining information and exploring the fun world.

1. Why do these stories resonate here?

QQ Space, which emerged in 2005 and has grown with generations of young people, has attracted young people to its platform through its youth-oriented initiatives covering music, games , animation, literature and other fields, as well as its rich social elements. What kind of stories or content do young people like? QQ Space has a lot of experience: it is in line with users' interests, can trigger emotional resonance, and naturally is loved by young people.

The short film "Candy Paper Lovers" by Doublemint tells the story of a pair of lovers who met on campus and decided to stay together for life. Every important moment is witnessed by the candy paper of Doublemint, which conveys the brand concept of Doublemint - "Meaningful Connection" to the audience, allowing each other's hearts to lean on each other.

In this 2-minute micro-film, Candy Paper not only records the youthfulness and sweetness of campus romance, but also carries the love and sorrow of the two people after they enter the marriage hall and society. It also evokes the unique memories of many young people who have gone from their youthful campus to starting a family and a career. Some users left messages lamenting: "The best time in life", "No matter how much hardship we go through, we should never forget our original intention."

The video was broadcast on QQ Space for twelve days, with a total of 6.66 million video views. The heartwarming story content resonated with young people, triggering 191,700 user interactions such as likes, reposts and comments, and the ad click-through rate exceeded 5.4%.

2.What kind of brands are suitable for QQ Space?

QQ Space previously used Tencent DMP population portrait data to find that those born in the 1990s are much more interested in celebrities and music than those who are not born in the 1990s. The "Mysterious Aesthetic Views of Post-95s" released by QQ Big Data also shows that nearly half of post-95s have spent money on celebrities. In December last year, "5" sugar-free chewing gum invited spokesperson Aarif Lee to do a live broadcast on QQ Zone. Through Tencent DMP, it found a target audience of 40 million people who love music, live broadcasts, and Aarif Lee, including 12 million die-hard fans of Aarif Lee. Fans were invited to participate in the live broadcast one-on-one through brand page card ads. On the day of the live broadcast, Aarif Lee received more than 520,000 customized "5" sugar-free chewing gum gifts on QQ Space.

Seizing the opportunity, the "5" sugar-free chewing gum cooperated with QQ Space Travel Album in early January this year, and played a video of Aarif Lee bravely setting out to explore the desert. Through Tencent DMP's multiple tags, precise groups of people were selected. Not only fans of Aarif Lee, but also users who are interested in outdoor adventures and travel were included in the customized group package for this advertising . Through the customized travel album H5 on the landing page , users were able to generate their own personalized travel memories.

In places where young people gather, brands that do not target young people as their main audience will be the right fit. If your impression of the daily chemical brand Tide's advertising is still stuck on the TV commercials that interview celebrities on the street, you may want to change your mind. Tide's story video advertisement on QQ Space this time completely breaks through traditional creativity. Not only did it invite young people's favorite star Zhang Yixing to star in the advertisement, but the plot setting is that Zhang Yixing plays the heir of an antique shop and uses Tide laundry detergent to solve the mystery of the ancient paintings left by his master. The cinematic images and plot are fascinating. During the campaign, the video playback rate reached 82%, and the click-through rate of videos jumping to purchase ads reached 3.51%.

3. Besides storytelling, what else can brands gain here?

Nowadays, whether it is video websites, e-commerce platforms, or social platforms, they are all leveraging more attention economy through video content. However, one of the pain points of brands is that the scattered and short-lived attention span of users makes brands not satisfied with simple exposure. How to achieve the accumulation of brand assets from Paid-Earned-Owned? Social networking has always been a shortcoming that many platforms want to make up for, but QQ Space, as a social platform, has inherent advantages.

In terms of details, a brand's video advertisement is also an information flow . The video's playback volume and page views will be displayed in real time. Users can forward, like, and even reward it. They can also follow the brand's public space homepage. These rare digital assets pave the way for the brand's long-term fan marketing .

For example, Tencent Charity’s very touching story “Ear Mountain” unfolds from the perspective of a new female teacher who teaches in the mountainous area, making the QQ space, which is mostly populated by college students, more immersive. In the process of adapting to the teaching life, the female teacher understands the left-behind children’s desire to communicate with their parents far away, and helps them fulfill their wishes, which is in line with the title “Recharge for Love” and also attracts more young people to pay attention to this group and participate in the charity of recharging for love. During the five days of broadcasting, the number of fans of Tencent’s public welfare brand public space increased by nearly 20,000 in a short period of time.

4. Summary:

If you carefully watch the several brand micro-films mentioned above, it is not difficult to find that the brand or product information in the video is either weakened or transformed into story props and cleverly combined with the content, rather than being rigidly implanted. This is the new requirement for brand content in social scenarios. Brands have also made the same change in order to bring users a better viewing experience, rather than to highlight the brand, which makes the plot become far-fetched and counterproductive.

Young people like to get information, express themselves, and share and interact with friends in QQ space. Only by understanding young people better can brands integrate into their discourse circle or create a better content experience for them. This is the correct way for brands to "hook up" with young people in the era of social media + video.

Finally, let's get back to QQ Space. This social network has always had strong vitality since it was launched in 2005. Its competitors have changed one after another, from Blog, Renren , to Kaixin.com, but QQ Space is still the most dynamic social network in China. QQ Space now has 638 million monthly active accounts, of which mobile accounts for more than 90%. In the context of mobile being king, QQ Space, which has been testing information flow advertising since 2014, is also constantly enriching the forms of advertising products, from single picture and text information flow to multi-picture carousels, brand page cards and other forms, from short video information flow to better experience video story ads, in order to better adapt to the mobile reading experience, H5, and the abundance of e-commerce purchase links also meet the brand's needs for multi-channel communication and effective communication. In social scenarios, a closed loop of communication is achieved from brand exposure to word-of-mouth fermentation and finally to sales conversion . If we talk about the advantage of QQ Space, it is probably that it understands young people better.

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

The author of this article @sherry compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting! Site Map