The reason behind advertisers' big investments in long videos: user addiction

Unlike YouTube and Hulu, which have distinct content positioning abroad, Chinese video players who believe in the traditional philosophy of "every inch has its own strengths and weaknesses" seem to "want everything". The old video giants once formed a "hybrid model" of long and short videos. However, as websites such as Ku6.com and 56.com, which are good at UGC short videos, are gradually marginalized by capital and advertisers, and iQiyi, which is backed by its "rich dad", and LeTV, which has successfully counterattacked, have emerged with big dramas and variety shows, long videos play a more decisive role in the fierce video competition.

Long videos are the ultimate weapon in the video war, which is fully reflected in the online video media data for the first week of June recently released by iResearch: Youku, a comprehensive video website that has long occupied the position of the video leader, still occupies the top spot in terms of average daily number of visitors, but has slipped to third place in terms of total weekly viewing time, surpassed by long video players iQiyi and LeTV. The number of visitors represents the coverage of users, while the time represents the quality of users and the expandable space for user operations. These two core indicators test the platform operation capabilities of online videos.

However, Tencent Video, backed by the powerful Penguin Empire, has been wavering in its long and short video strategies for a long time, and both indicators are not optimistic. Pony Ma, who is invincible and the leader in many fields, needs to spend more time on the video field.

Figure 1: iResearch iUserTracker online video media weekly total browsing time ranking (2014.6.2-6.8)

Figure 2: iResearch iUserTracker online video media daily average reach ranking (2014.6.2-6.8)

If the video industry is compared to the concubines in the harem, long videos are like the "male" princes they gave birth to, while short videos are more like princesses who only add to the fun of the royal family. Therefore, the huge advertising "favor" that long video content is showered with also makes short video drool with envy and jealousy: "Where Are We Going, Dad 2" exclusively broadcasted by iQiyi has received more than 100 million yuan in advertising revenue from only two major sponsors, Yinlu and Blue Moon, while first-tier advertisers such as Vipshop, Liby, JD.com, Estee Lauder, Clarins, Microsoft, Crest, General Motors, and Ford have also dug into LeTV's "I Am a Singer 2", with a total investment of nearly 200 million yuan.

However, Youku, a comprehensive video website, has rarely seen such a large-scale "flip" action from advertisers recently. In the competition for single-project advertising revenue, it can only lament with self-pity: I can't do it!

Behind the worries of Youku's boss is the huge difference in the value of long and short videos. Tudou founder Wang Wei's confusion that "UGC content is industrial wastewater and cannot be monetized" remains unsolved. Advertisers have invested the "head budget" of video marketing in long video content. If there is any surplus, they will distribute the remaining pocket money to short videos that contribute long-tail traffic.

There are two subjective and objective reasons why advertisers are scrambling to get involved in long video content at great expense: advertising habits and user addiction. To put it bluntly, many people go to KTV to find a familiar "princess" first. In the mixed environment of Internet advertising, advertisers also like to find old acquaintances with good looks and skills to reduce the cost of trial and error. They have tasted the sweetness of variety show marketing and drama marketing on traditional TV, and have summarized a very complete content evaluation, advertising placement, and effect monitoring system. These experiences and methodologies can naturally be transferred to long video marketing.

As long video websites have been hyping up major projects, integrating marketing, and implementing multi-screen linkage, the new media marketing system is also becoming more and more perfect. In this sense, long video content takes on the advertising value transfer in the environment of the rapid aging of TV audiences, and undertakes the industrial mission of "continuing the family line". It is more like the natural evolution of TV content and TV marketing, with a good genetic foundation and adaptability to the new environment.

However, the natural evolution of content is actually a very superficial reason. There is actually only one deeper reason: users' addictive dependence on long videos, that is, the total browsing time of users mentioned by iResearch in the previous article. In fact, advertisers are very simple, and they only consider where users are and how deeply involved they are. However, a single episode of a big drama or variety show can attract users to watch for a long time to increase brand exposure opportunities, creating more relaxed time and space for advertisers to approach consumers. On this basis, long video content can form user stickiness, and multiple viewing behaviors in a certain period of time guarantee the frequency of brand exposure, creating a variety of rich advertising carrier forms including title, pre-roll, oral broadcast, standard board, pause advertisement, corner mark, mid-insert advertisement, and video e-commerce solutions, which can easily capture the user's mind and form a deep memory. Of course, the fatal temptation is not only these. With its attributes of "big creativity, big production, and big influence", long videos have become the object of heavy publicity by production companies and video websites. They are more likely to cause social topics and trigger phenomenal innovation, providing fertile soil for brand event integrated marketing to take advantage of the east wind.

Unlike KTV station selection, advertisers’ long videos are not only fun to watch, but also must have marketing effects that can dazzle the boss’s eyes to improve KPI. “Where Are We Going, Dad 2” has just started airing, and the current results are still being counted, but according to the effect data of LeTV’s “I Am a Singer 2” provided by iResearch: all 26 brands during the marketing period exceeded expectations in completing KPI, and the average exposure overflow of different advertising products ranged from 32% to 118%, and the ROI exceeded expectations by 224%. The effect of the chief sponsor Vipshop also left short videos far behind: users’ search behavior, purchase intention, and recommendation after watching the advertisement increased by 8.4%, 9.9%, and 8.8% respectively, all of which were about 50% higher than the average growth level.

It is not difficult to find that in the era of video melee with high-quality content strategies, the unique advantages of long videos will attract more and more users and drive brand effects, while user stickiness and rich advertising presentation forms will attract advertisers to invest more budgets. The abundant cash flow transferred from TV advertising budgets to long video advertising budgets will promote the healthy development of the video industry.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.