Digital Marketing Revolution: Unleashing the Power of Video | Chatting with Luke James Digital

Summary:

In this video, Jasper from Yellow Glove Productions interviews Luke from Luke James Digital about video advertising across digital platforms. They discuss how the advertising landscape has changed, with more focus on digital platforms rather than traditional TV advertising. They also talk about the importance of ad frequency and the need for consumers to see an ad multiple times before taking action. The conversation then shifts to different platforms, such as Sky's Ads Smarts, YouTube, and TikTok, and how each platform offers unique opportunities for targeting and creative messaging. They also touch on the rise of shorter, non-skippable ads and the importance of adapting content for different platforms. The discussion concludes with the recommendation to start with established platforms like Facebook and Instagram before exploring newer platforms like TikTok, depending on where the target audience is.

Jasper (00:00):

Hi there. I'm Jasper from Yellow Glove Productions and I'm here with Luke of Luke James Digital, who I've chatted with before on the channel. And today we're going to talk about video advertising across digital platforms. Yeah. So yeah, I think we can all agree that the game has changed when it comes to advertising with video. Obviously used to think advertising it would be tv, but now you've got all sorts of different digital ways that you can do it.

Luke (00:27):

Absolutely, and I think as I've been doing this 10 years now, and I've always been in the digital world, but the conversations that I have with marketing directors has changed a lot. So I was having lots of conversations as to tell them why they possibly shouldn't do as much TV advertising, but I'm not having that conversation as much anymore. What the conversation I'm having is what different platforms we can use and how we can create that ad frequency across different platforms. If I'm a marketing director, I want my message for my brand to be seen by my consumer over multiple different platforms. So that's how we start talking about this ad frequency, and I think people say now that a consumer needs to see an ad 12 times before they even start considering getting down to that consideration and purchase within the funnel.

Jasper (01:29):

Those almost what they call touch points have gone up and up, I feel. I think I used to hear it, it was like four times, then it got seven, and then it's saying 12 now, and

Luke (01:40):

Yes. Yeah, no, I saw some data out not long ago, a couple of months ago, about 12 times. And that will continue to go up as

Jasper (01:49):

Why do you think that is? Well, it's

Luke (01:50):

Because we are consuming more media as humans. So we wake up in the morning, the first thing I do, I dunno about you, is go on my phone, get on Instagram, then I go to TikTok, then I go to Facebook. We are consuming so much information that we have to see that information more for it to resonate with us as consumers.

Jasper (02:12):

And do you think, or have you experienced even, is that providing more of a challenge? Are you finding your customers, your clients are wanting something more different that stands out? Or are you finding they want to fit in with trends? A mixture of both. A

Luke (02:29):

Mixture of both. But what you've got to remember is no matter what platform you are going to be on, it's about the creative. If you've got rubbish creative, it doesn't matter how many times I put it in front of that consumer, they're not going to resonate with it. So I suppose this goes back to marketing 1 0 1 of start with the consumer, who's your consumer, and then from that build out really strong creative. So yeah, no, that's kind of what I think about that.

Jasper (03:03):

Sorry. So let's talk about what different platforms there are. So the big one we talked about just before the cameras started rolling was Sky's Ads Smarts. Was it? Yeah, there we go. I remember the

Luke (03:16):

Name. I quite like this because it takes traditional TV advertising, which I have an opinion on, and it takes digital advertising. It kind of blends them into one. So everyone that's using Sky, they have demographic data on those customers. So then I can actually target who sees my ad through Sky Ad Smart. The thing that kind of scares me about TV advertising is I don't really have that control over the audience. I don't have control over who's watching ITV at seven 30 on a Saturday. I don't have that control, but actually it allows me to have a bit more control over the consumers that are going to see my message. So it is a blend of TV and digital advertising, which is primarily more targetable.

Jasper (04:19):

And I suppose it makes it a bit easier to pitch as well when you can have that control over who's going to see it and then I guess it just becomes, let's make something that's really good creatively.

Luke (04:33):

Yeah. Well I think marketing directors, they want to know that if they're spending money on an ad campaign, that the right people are seeing it, if they're spending 60,000 pounds on amplifying their message that it's going to the right people. So it allows us to do that and it allows us to do it in a natural TV setting if that's what a client wants. We have clients that we are working with together that want to be on YouTube and doing YouTube bumper ads, six second ads that we are working on together. So it does depend, doesn't it? I think from that perspective as to where our clients want their message to be heard, but also as an ad agency, we need to be giving them that insight as to where they should be putting in their ad budget as well.

Jasper (05:30):

And you mentioned their bumper ads, so can you tell me a bit, is that a off the back of a bigger ad?

Luke (05:35):

We are creating at the minute, a six second ad right at the start of a YouTube ad, sorry, right at the start of a YouTube video. It is quite nice because people are in a relaxed state. They're going to watch their YouTube video and it's a non-skippable ad. It's six seconds. So as long as you've got a really quick message to say and you're really concise with your messaging, it really works. So I think that's a great place to be putting your ad to budget if your consumer is on YouTube, using YouTube and resonates with YouTube as a platform.

Jasper (06:21):

Yeah. And have you been doing more YouTube advertising lately?

Luke (06:26):

Yeah, we've just actually finished a fantastic campaign with Transformers Rise of The Beasts. I've heard of them. The New Transformers? Yeah, the new film. So we ran a collaboration with Golden Wonder Transformer snack, which I even a match

Jasper (06:45):

Made in heaven. It

Luke (06:46):

Is, it's a match made in heaven and Transformers Rise of the Beast. So we did a competition to win a trip to New York. It was a really quick message, win a trip to New York with Transformers snack and Transformers rise of the Beasts. We were able to do that within a six second period and we ran that across YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok and had fantastic success, which is great news.

Jasper (07:13):

What was that challenge like then? Six seconds? Was there only six seconds of ads you were doing or were you doing that on the back of the 32nd, 42nd ad as well

Luke (07:23):

On YouTube was just six seconds. So it is really quick. You've got to get your message across and it is great working with the likes of Paramount because their assets are really, really good. So when you've got Optimus Prime coming in, it certainly helps.

Jasper (07:41):

Definitely a face you can trust, I think. So Optimus Prime, there's no better brand endorsement than that?

Luke (07:47):

Not at all. Not at all.

Jasper (07:53):

Are you finding more of your clients are doing these six second ads that are non-skippable rather than taking the risk maybe of a longer ad that is skippable? Have you found anything in that?

Luke (08:07):

I think it's different horses for different courses and not to be that guy that never answers a question, which is classic marketing, but it depends what you're trying to say. I'm a massive fan of multiple different ad formats across different platforms. And then using your targeting to ensure that you're targeting to the same people so you can have ad frequency across different platforms.

Jasper (08:39):

Yeah, I think that's one thing that people need to realize when it comes to video campaigns as well, and just going across these different platforms. One thing that's going to work for YouTube isn't necessarily always going to work for TikTok. You're going to have to resize everything to fit in with the different button layouts, things like that. Add subtitles if it's on TikTok or YouTube shorts rather than on Facebook. There's so many different ways that you can redo the same video but have it work on a different platform, I find.

Luke (09:11):

Yeah, no, I can agree more. And I think there's a lot of variables across the different platforms that you need to consider. There is nothing worse than a landscape video being reused on TikTok and you've got your big black boxes. So it is about making sure that the content you're creating works on different platforms. I think that's important and consumers want to see that sort of stuff.

Jasper (09:47):

Yeah, it's always important to have that end goal in mind, isn't it? And do you find that a client will come to you with saying they want to do a video a certain way maybe, and you're saying, for example, on TikTok having it in portrait format, you're saying No way is that going to work. You've got to have it Portrait of Wise, this campaign's not going to work.

Luke (10:08):

Yeah, yeah. We are really straight down the line with stuff like that because we want to get it right. If you're going to spend lots of money, let's get it right. And actually, what I've usually found is to get something right usually doesn't cost a hell of a lot more than what you were going to spend anyway. So it is just about ticking all of those boxes right when you get started within the campaign

Jasper (10:36):

In terms of newer platforms. So going from all the years ago to where it was just tv, you could advertise with video on, let's talk about TikTok, which is probably, I think probably the latest big thing in video advertising, even though it's still been around a while. But I feel more and more people, businesses are pushing advertising on TikTok

Luke (10:57):

And rightly so because all of the data's suggested it works. So we are seeing more and more clients come to us every day saying, actually, we want to start using TikTok. There's a lot of rules on how to make a great TikTok ad. So one of the things that they always say is Make tiktoks not ads. And I love that. I remember when it first came out and it really resonated with me and I thought, yeah, that makes sense. That does. So it is not about the polished, beautiful content. It's about real, real life content that creates fantastic ads on TikTok, which is very different from what we've seen in the past on the likes of Facebook and Instagram where it is a lot more polished. And now of course they're starting to move to a TikTok TikTok strategy as well. But it is very interesting to see how that switch has happened and so quickly. I remember when I first downloaded TikTok and I kind of thought, is this going to add to the graveyard of social platforms that lasted about two days Threads? Who knows?

Jasper (12:18):

Not about threads. Not about

Luke (12:20):

Threads. No. Neither am

Jasper (12:20):

I saw a thread yesterday and that was the first I've seen since the day it

Luke (12:24):

Launched. Yes. Yeah, they've lost in about a week, about half their users on Thread. So having a bit of a tough time Zuckerberg. So yeah, sorry, going back to the point that we were making, I think tiktoks really interesting as an advertising platform. The conversion rates for many brands are much higher than they've had on any other social platform. We've also got to remember that TikTok is becoming a bit of a search engine as well, much like YouTube and Google, think of it as a search engine as well as a video platform.

Jasper (13:11):

So are you seeing less established newer brands using TikTok as a platform more to advertise?

Luke (13:21):

Yeah, I think so. And I think what we're seeing is the challenger disruptor brands, which we work with a lot of challenger and disruptor brands that might not have the same ad budget that some of the really big brands have got, but want to be a bit more irreverent. And you can be on that platform, you can be a bit naughty and a bit fun, which is exciting. So no, I think we're seeing some really fantastic brands. Ones that I think are doing brilliantly at the Minute Dash, which is a carbonated drink. They've been doing some fantastic stuff, great PR

Jasper (14:05):

Air Up. Are they one as well? Yeah,

Luke (14:08):

Air Up. They're fantastic. They're spending a hell of a lot, and they are, they're a disruptor. So there's lots of brands out there that they're doing really good stuff on TikTok, and it is exciting. I've been in this world for 10 years now, which carbon dates me, but it's really exciting to see this platform and see it change so much. And Facebook has become a bit stale of late. So to have this platform that comes in and goes, actually, we are going to change this up. We're going to take the rule book, check it out and write our own rule book. That's quite exciting.

Jasper (14:49):

And people are, like we said, beginning to adapt to tiktoks ways. Now with Facebook's own short platform and also YouTube shorts, everyone's just taking in short video a lot, lot more.

Luke (15:04):

Yeah, it is becoming the way that we consume content. It does go back to that as humans, our attention span is getting shorter and shorter and shorter. So how can we keep that attention on a 32nd video? It is a really big challenge for any marketer, but it is an exciting one.

Jasper (15:25):

It is, and I've found now more and more with projects that I am adding key bits of. The video is something that's been done for a good while, but key bits of the video at the beginning and creating that excitement immediately. It's like, oh, but you've got to watch the rest of the video to see why that's happening or what's happening.

Luke (15:45):

Videos need a good hook because you've got anywhere from between one and two seconds to make me not swipe past you. So give me a good hook within the first one or two seconds, and I might stay otherwise as a consumer, I'm off. I'm onto the next bit of content.

Jasper (16:05):

Perfect. So to wrap up, do you have a preference with which one you like to advertise on or have you found one's a better introduction to digital advertising than the other?

Luke (16:19):

I think if you're just getting started on, firstly, it depends where your consumer is, but I think if you're just getting started getting into meta and understand meta first, so that's across Instagram and Facebook and their network and then start jumping into TikTok, I think that that's where I'd probably start. But it does depend where your consumer is. If your consumer isn't on Facebook and Instagram, but is on TikTok, then take my advice and chuck it out the window, because you should be on TikTok, you should be as a brand where your consumer is,

Jasper (17:00):

And we'll see what happens with X as well.

Luke (17:02):

Oh, don't get me started on that one. I've not got enough time. I've not got enough time. I'm done.

Jasper (17:08):

Perfect. I think that's a good place to end. Brilliant. Well, thank you for watching today's video. If you've got any questions about digital marketing, you want to get started with it, do contact Luke. He's your man at Luke James Digital. Thank you for watching, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye for now.

Luke (17:24):

Bye.