Month: February 2022

5 Interesting Holiday Advertising Trends in 2021

The world’s been through a lot in the past few years, and companies and consumers alike have been stretched and changed in many ways. Usually, companies can count on consumers to make purchases during the holidays, and consumers can count on quality advertising and content from companies that want consumers to buy. This has been the symbiotic relationship between the two ever since the power of advertising and the power of the consumer dollar was established. 

Companies need to understand consumers and consumer trends. So how can advertising and marketing agencies and departments prepare for upcoming seasons of holiday spending? 

Holiday advertising trends vary from year to year. But after nearly 3 years of COVID-related delays, stresses, and scares, it’s safe to say that advertising during the 2021 holiday season has been quite different compared to previous years. 

Advertising During the Holidays

During times of distress, advertisers tend to take one of two routes: pull back on advertising or pour more into it. We’ve been living in what could be considered a long-term period of distress, and many companies have suffered in some way or another. How should a company decide whether or not to pull back or jump in with both feet? Ultimately, the companies that recently put more money into advertising saw a greater pay-off. 

Apart from being willing to pay it forward to get results, advertisers and marketers alike will need to keep a few other things in mind when reviewing holiday marketing trends in 2021 and how those same trends will exist in the new year. 

2021 Holiday Marketing Trends

Take a look at some of the trends we’ve seen in the 2021 holiday season, and that you’ll likely want to keep in mind moving into 2022. 

Prepping for Big Spending from Customers

The Christmas season tends to be a time of big spending, more so than any other time of the year. Spending was up in 2020 for the holiday season, which was surprising considering it was during the height of the COVID pandemic. It could mean greater numbers for 2021 as well. Keeping that in mind, and understanding that advertising is always an investment, investing in quality and quantity advertisements for your business will be worth it. 

Using Famous Christmas Movies and References

It’s always a good idea to reference pop culture in your ads. Whether you’ve got a TV commercial spread or are planning to do your advertising through podcasts, any effort you can make to reference a beloved Christmas movie, story, or character in your advertisement will get attention. It can be positive or negative attention—it’s up to you and the story you want to tell. 

Focusing on Story Instead of Marketing Push

Maybe we all got a bit more sentimental during our long time stuck in our homes. Or maybe being stuck at home allowed us to reassess our values. Whatever the reason, the important thing to remember when creating an advertisement that references popular characters or shows is to focus on the story. Consumers want substance. Some advertisements get too caught up in pushing their product. The most effective advertisements are the ones that communicate a good story well. 

Emphasizing E-commerce Shopping

E-commerce shopping hasn’t declined in popularity, despite the renewed ability to shop in person. Customers have never been more willing to spend money online. Put in the effort to make your online shopping experience as intuitive and easy for your customers as possible. This doesn’t mean skipping out on making your in-store experience a good one—you should still make your storefront welcoming. 

Increasing Interest in Home-Based Products and Gifts

Customer interests have shifted over the years of the pandemic. We’ve all spent a lot of time at home recently, so consumers will be interested in home improvement products, tools, and personal care. Anything you can offer to enhance their home-based quality of life will likely be popular in upcoming seasons. The more you can understand this, the better you’ll be able to target customers with your advertising campaigns. 

Optimize Your Ads with Channel Factory

We’re keeping an eye on ever-changing trends for you. Contact us today to learn how we can build customized YouTube advertising solutions to enhance your brand sustainability.

The Future of Video Ads

Youtube video ads and video for social media ads are becoming increasingly popular in the advertising world. You can hardly watch something online these days without first seeing an ad. But are they just a passing trend?

We’re happy to report that the future of video ads is incredibly bright. In fact, Youtube video ads should absolutely be a part of your advertising strategy if they aren’t already. Here are just a few reasons why video ads are the future of marketing.

BENEFITS OF VIDEO ADVERTISING

Here are just a few reasons why video ads are the future of marketing.

1. Video Ads Humanize Your Brand

More and more, we see that consumers prefer and respond better to a more personal approach to advertising. Video advertising is the perfect medium for this more personal, human method.

Video ads allow you to tell a story and influence your audience’s perception. You can show them around your warehouse to see the quality of your product firsthand or create a vlog to experience a “day in the life” with you. You can help your audience see you as human and relatable through video.

Forbes reports that customer testimonials, tutorial videos, and demonstration videos are the three most effective types of video marketing. Having influencers and consumers create testimonials, or how-to videos of your products associates an already trusted face to your brand. Rather than feel marketed to, consumers are more likely to feel that they are receiving a recommendation from a friend.

2. Video Ads Are Infinitely Shareable

Video ads are the future because they can be shared and gain traction on their own. Incredibly, 92% of mobile video consumers share videos with others. Video advertising is the most likely content type to be shared on social media.

These are organic (free) engagements that push your content to more and more people. Not only can they be shared over and over, but when a video gains traction, your advertising costs can remain low because you aren’t paying users for engagement. A good video ad will spread by itself.

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of video ads is the lasting impact they can leave. A Small Business Trends article reports that “80% of users recall a video ad they viewed in the past 30 days.” If you can create a video ad that goes viral or becomes a meme, your ad could remain popular on the internet for a long, long time. A Small Business Trends article reports that “80% of users recall a video ad they viewed in the past 30 days.”

3. Video Ads Provide a Better Return on Investment

The most compelling argument for Youtube video ads is in the numbers. Here are just a few statistics that demonstrate how profitable videos for social media ads truly are:

  • 88% of marketers are satisfied with the return on investment (ROI) of their video marketing efforts on social media. Here are just a few statistics that demonstrate how profitable videos for social media ads truly are:
  • 77% of consumers say they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a video.
  • Businesses using video grow company revenue 49% faster year-over-year than organizations without video.

How could video not be the future of video advertising with numbers like these? It’s simple. Videos drive sales.

Find the Content for Your Brand

The future of TV advertising is changing because video ads have evolved to be much more personal than TV ads have ever been. It’s so much easier to target demographics and create personal and humanizing ads that your audience can identify with.

Before, audiences could only engage with TV ads by watching them when they ran during commercial breaks. Now, people can share, like, and comment on video ads.

It’s safe to say that the future of video ads is incredibly profitable and is perhaps the most effective advertisement mode on social media.
For more information about using YouTube video ads as part of your advertising strategy, check out the rest of our site or contact us today.

5 Super Bowl Ad Trends You’ll See in 2022 and Beyond

The Super Bowl is just around the corner, which means a new slate of iconic (and expensive) Super Bowl ads. Super Bowl advertising prices are surging even higher than their all-time high from 2021 with NBC charging 6.5 million dollars to air a 30-second ad in 2022. 

In some ways, those prices aren’t surprising. We found that 62% of all videos posted on Youtube about the Super Bowl are about the ads, not the football. In other words, Super Bowl ads stick in viewers’ heads which is just part of the reason marketers scramble to get a piece of the airtime. 

Looking at those Super Bowl advertising statistics, it’s clear that these ad campaigns remain prohibitively expensive. However, we’re also seeing changes in certain Super Bowl advertising trends, such as increasing inclusivity and diversity and pushing for engagement across multiple screens and platforms. Here are the five Super Bowl ad trends to watch for. 

1. Sitting Out, Staying Flexible

The pandemic has been hard on everyone, especially businesses. 2021 saw a significant decrease in the number of big name-brand companies that chose to advertise compared to previous years. For example, only three automakers ran commercials. 

The trend of big names sitting out continues. Soft drink giant Coca-Cola will not be running a commercial for the second year in a row. The candy company Mars Wrigley has also announced plans not to air ads as they had in the past. Three car companies—Jaguar, Hyundai, and Lexus have also announced they will not be showing commercials in the 2022 Super Bowl. 

Many other companies that have announced plans to return to the Super Bowl after a break have had to remain flexible while preparing their commercials. Advertisers need to bear in mind that the NFL has prepared contingency plans if COVID restrictions make the game an impossibility in California. 

Companies that have historically advertised in the Super Bowl but have elected not to do so have a unique opportunity to reassess their marketing strategies. 

In 2021, Avocados from Mexico chose not to run ads because they realized that people wouldn’t be throwing watch parties and eating chips and guac. They reinvested their ad budget to focus on YouTube cooking channels. 

And in 2022, a spokesperson for Mars Wrigley said, “We will not be producing an ad for this year’s Super Bowl, and instead plan to deliver better moments and more smiles to our consumers by celebrating our brands in other ways.” 

We predict that in later years, more big-name companies will choose to spend their marketing budgets elsewhere. 

2. Pandemic Awareness 

Economics isn’t the only reason certain businesses aren’t running ads in 2022. Viewers are exhausted by the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, and the goofy ads that might have once gone viral can seem a bit trivial and tasteless. 

Some companies that have elected to sit out the Super Bowl have done so in the name of safety, donating the money they would have spent on ads to COVID-19 research instead. 

Though they might not be showing commercials during the game, that doesn’t mean there’s a lack of marketing strategy at play. In 2021, companies that didn’t run ads received attention and acclaim for their conscientious decision. In essence, they received free press by not running an ad. The same continues into 2022, when the absence of a large company, such as Coca-Cola, is enough to make the news.  

As long as the pandemic continues, we can expect to see some companies choosing not to participate in the Super Bowl for the time being.

3. New Blood

Thanks to the gap created by the absence of giants such as Coca-Cola, Hyundai, Tide, and more, there’s space for newer companies to make it into the Super Bowl ad scene. 

While we aren’t seeing quite as many new companies as we did in recent years (a total of 19 companies debuted an ad at the Super Bowl for the first time in 2021), we are still seeing a healthy amount of newcomers entering the 2022 Super Bowl game. 

In 2022, viewers are seeing commercials for the first time from Irish Spring, cryptocurrency company FTX, Monday.com, Hologic, K-drama streaming site Rakuten, and a few more. 

We’re expecting to continue this trend as bigger names drop out and create space for smaller ones. 

4. More Diversity and Inclusivity

We continue to see advertising agencies adopting more diverse and inclusive stances in their advertising. Better representing the diverse American population, Black and Indigenous people of color (BIPOC) are making it into commercials for the 2022 Super Bowl. 

Just a few examples: 

  • Rapper Megan Thee Stallion will be appearing in Frito-Lay’s ad. 
  • Idris Elba is the spokesperson for Booking.com’s commercial.
  • NFL players Jerome Bettis and Victor Cruz are appearing in spots for Pepsi.

Audiences respond extremely well to diversity in advertising and even advocate for it. Super Bowl advertising will only continue to represent diversity better and more accurately. 

5. Push for More Engagement

With each passing year, the Super Bowl is being watched on small screens just as much as on flatscreens. More and more viewers will be watching from their smartphones or will have their smartphones nearby, presenting a unique marketing opportunity. 

Audiences’ tendencies toward multi-screen viewing are something that marketers are hoping to tap into by challenging audiences to like, share, or otherwise interact with brands. Platforms such as YouTube can run ads in real-time in parallel to Super Bowl ads for extra impact. 

This is a trend that will only intensify in the years to come as technology makes it even easier to connect with viewers. 

Find Brand Ambassadors

As trends change, your marketing strategies need to adapt. Channel Factory makes it simple to find the right brand ambassadors for your company. 

Contact us today to learn more.