Unique creative strategy. High performance. Brand uplift. These are the qualities that stuck with us as we dove into our platform to find the top branded videos in 2018.
There were so many great candidates to choose from, but as we searched, it became clear that travel brands had hit their video advertising stride on the open web.
We applaud these brands for their creativity in adapting their videos for a channel that was completely new to them and for producing such valuable content for their audiences.
We were too excited to share these with you to wait until the end of the year (and we know your online video strategy for 2019 can’t wait either).
These videos are great examples of what’s working, and we’ll help you understand exactly why these strategies are likely to work in the future.
#4. Visit Pittsburgh
Visit Pittsburgh set out to do what they do best: attract tourists to Pittsburgh. To do so, they produced a video with a timeless tactic—they wanted people to feel like they were missing out not being there.
Fear of missing out, also widely known as FOMO, had a powerful effect on Visit Pittsburgh’s audience, who responded well to the campaign.
Psychologically, humans all want to feel connected. That’s why FOMO will continue to work for branded videos in all industries.
#3. Israeli Ministry of Tourism
A new direct flight opened up between India and Israel. The Israeli Ministry of Tourism responded with a video campaign to drive awareness.
They got more than just awareness—their campaign actually converted 14% better on Taboola than any other platform.
Their campaign was successful because of their access to large format, non-intrusive and highly viewable inventory on Taboola’s publisher network. This is especially important as our industry reconciles with the need to reach audiences, but in an engaging way and in a brand safe environment. Non-intrusive video formats dial-down the potential to annoy those audiences, which is the first step to success.
#2. Visit Florida
Nobody knows a destination like a local. Visit Florida tapped into this truth with their video campaign, which was successful due it’s authentic look and feel.
They ran a shorter version of the video embedded above to reach their audience more effectively in a native environment.
Taboola’s recent research supports the idea that authenticity works. In an analysis of over 2,000 videos, those with a lower bitrate actually performed slightly better. We attribute this to the videos feeling more authentic.
#1. Dominican Republic (DR) Ministry of Tourism
The DR Ministry of Tourism accomplishes all three of the best practices mentioned above—inciting FOMO, testing video creatives in the places, and accomplishing an authentic feel.
They participated in a brand uplift study with Millward Brown, and found that viewer favorability of the DR grew by 19% after watching the video run on the Taboola publisher network. For Millward Brown, this was evidence that the Taboola large format video placements were both discrete and effective.
It’s also a much higher uplift for the travel industry than Millward Brown had ever seen. Market norms for similar campaigns in the travel destination category saw an increase in favorability of just 1.2%—DR Ministry of Tourism’s video campaign performed 17.7% better than the market norm.
Video Trifecta: Summing Up 2018 Success
There were so many more great examples of video campaigns on the open web, but these were all excellent examples of what can be achieved in terms of brand goals, creative aspirations and audience impact.
As you’re planning your 2019 video strategy, keep these tips in mind:
- FOMO. Create a video about something that people won’t want to miss out on.
- Placement. Do your hard production work justice by running your video in a place where it will reach consumers in the right state of mind.
- Authenticity. Keep it real with viewers for better completion rates.