3 Strategies for Creating an Integrated Video Campaign

If you’re familiar with the TV ad scene, you’ve noticed it’s been a rocky year, and budgets have uncomfortably tightened. All this change is not just in your head; according to research from eMarketer, TV ad spending in 2017 dropped for the first time since 2009. However, digital ad spending has reached new heights at $107.3 billion. This dramatic shift is showing a reality that digital marketers have felt for a long time.

Today, TV is demanding more and providing less. Ad-buying agency Magna reports that, in the last four years, TV ratings have dropped an astounding 33% while ad prices have defied these plummeting audience numbers and increased 20%.

In the face of such a disparity between TV ad spending and the return—or lack thereof—on that investment, it’s more important than ever to design integrated video campaigns that use both TV and digital ads in conjunction to produce desirable results and meet business and campaign objectives.

Maintaining Integrity During Integration

Creating an integrated video campaign can be a challenging endeavor because different styles of video cater to specific platforms. Whereas a TV spot generally follows a classic story arc condensed into 30 seconds, a pre-roll ad gives the viewer the option to skip it after just five seconds of viewing. If you want viewers to quit scrolling through their Facebook news feeds and focus on your video, you need to make the first few seconds enticing enough for the viewer to watch the rest.

How do you create a video that works for all channels? You can’t. With integrated campaigns, marketers all too often try to use one video to fill multiple roles. They create a beautiful TV spot. Then, they attempt to transform it into a direct response channel, such as paid social or pre-roll. To have a truly integrated campaign, repurposing videos won’t cut it anymore.

3 Ways to Create Effective Integrated Video Campaigns

I would love to be proven wrong and find one video that meets all needs and performs on every channel. But until then, here are three strategies that have worked for me to efficiently and effectively create videos that deliver across the entire marketing funnel:

1. Brief Teams According to the Funnel (Not per Channel)

Briefing your teams by stage of the funnel is the easiest way to ensure that the campaign feels cohesive across many different channels. An integrated campaign starts at the top of the funnel, where marketing teams responsible for items such as TV spots and banner displays should be briefed together. Overall, this brief should focus on how to get potential customers intrigued enough to take the next step. This next step might be visiting a website, or it might be learning more on another channel.

Next, mid-funnel methods include everything from paid social to influencers and even landing page content. When customers arrive here, it’s safe to assume that they already have a certain level of intent, so you need a different approach than the one used in the top of the funnel.

Finally, figure out what converting a customer looks like for your company and goals. For example, when a product is in a customer’s virtual shopping cart, you could break out testimonials, referrals, or other campaign components to influence him or her to add more or similar items.

2. Pressure Test Your Tagline

Marketers are often quick to adopt a tagline that seems to embody the brand. This decision should only be made after extensive testing across tactics. The tagline needs to work across every channel, including online and offline. For instance, Lyft’s “It matters how you get there” tagline works in a TV spot, a paid social ad, after an app download, or as part of a referral campaign.

A tagline must also stay relevant with respect to different stages of the funnel. LinkedIn’s “What are you in it for?” tagline doesn’t just work for creating high-level awareness. It also remains effective when a user has upgraded to a paid account, and it continues to make sense for a business that’s looking to hire new employees. Remember, for an integrated campaign to work no matter where content is placed, it needs a tagline that can go the distance.

3. Think Tactically About TV Spots

When filming assets for an integrated campaign, it’s typical for a marketing team to think about both the TV spot and the corresponding digital videos at the same time. However, other simple steps are often forgotten. Think of it this way: A video shoot is a perfect time to have other members of your team on set who are focused on paid social advertising or website visuals.

Creating a video advertisement results in a huge amount of content that can produce an integrated campaign far beyond the one or two ads being filmed. As customers move further down the funnel, they’ll recognize certain aspects from the TV spot. These moments will result in a much more in-depth experience. Video assets are expensive! Leverage them in a way that produces related content for all of your channels.

Achieving integration is not without its challenges, but the results are well worth the extra effort. In an age where TV ads are becoming simultaneously more expensive and less effective, it’s essential to integrate your video advertising efforts to achieve maximum ROI. Doing away with costly silos in your marketing department is the best place to start. Then, ensuring your tagline can function in any scenario and learning to double (or triple) dip when creating your TV spots. This will prepare you to maintain integration across all channels and at each stage of the sales funnel. Now that you know the steps, it’s time to start integrating!