Video advertising: how to make an effective creative

First of all, you need to determine which tasks your reel needs to accomplish – raise brand awareness (branding) or increase the number of actions users complete (performance).

Aimed at increasing brand recognition, company reputation, and loyalty to the product. Because of this, to achieve image goals, it's a good idea to use emotional elements that emphasize the brand or product's personality, as well as triggers that can help users with recall.

Let's take a look at examples of emotional triggers in popular advertising reels:

1. Raffaello created a series of videos about love without stereotypes or stigma. As a trigger, this reel uses looks that society may consider unusual. The brand challenges stereotypes, which users remember, and it generates an emotional response.

2. Brands may also use current events as triggers. As the coronavirus pandemic developed, brands instantly reacted to the situation and began supporting their audience. Companies began creating reels with calls to stay at home.

Ikea Spain quickly created a video called #Stayhome (#YoMeQuedoEnCasa), where the company called for users to stay at home and reminded them how important it was.

Vodafone CSP expanded on the idea that we can stay at home and be together at the same time.

In Russia, competing TV channels shot a video talking about what you could watch on the competitors' channels.

Ads like these are not aimed at instant conversions, but at building long-term relationships and more loyalty to the brand. This is why image communication needs to give consumers insights into the brand's mission and advantages, and anchor it in their minds.

This type of campaign should use a plot that discloses all the advantages of the product, shows it from different views, and give the user a unique marketing offer/promotion. Reels include a call-to-action button that takes users to the targeted action when clicked – a purchase/request for a test drive/subscription to updates, etc. Samsung, for example, did this to promote its new smartphone.

Online retailers also often use video ads for performance purposes, and embed limited-time promo codes, special offers, and contests into reels, which let them assess how effective the advertising reels are.

With digital channels, you usually already know which reel duration to use, because in most cases it's dependent on the technical requirements of the format for the platform where you publish the ad.

For in-stream campaigns, reels shouldn't last more than 15–20 seconds (excluding special native stories – one example is given in the "Storytelling" section). If you manage to fit your basic message and get your idea across faster, you'll have a higher chance of being remembered by the audience, and users will probably watch your entire video.

n out-stream campaigns, reels shouldn't be longer than 7–10 seconds, because users can skip ads in their feed quicker. So the more concise your video is, the higher the chance users will watch the entire video. If you use this format, it's most effective to put your offer and your brand in the first 3–5 seconds of the reel.

One of our clients, canned vegetable producer Green Ray, launched an out-stream reel to promote a new product:

And Ikea released a series of reels called Not Children's Anymore that were 6 seconds long. Each reel presents a single product, but all the videos are united by one concept.

The duration mentioned above is effective for standard ad placement strategies. But in some cases, you can try combining approaches to your video ads based on telling a story. For example, launch a short ad reel announcing a more in-depth video, like one of our agency's clients, Uncle Vanya brand (Ruspole Brands), did.

The team launched a series of shorts called "Ivans who remember where they came from", which attracted the attention of millions of viewers and received many positive reviews. There was a short teaser for each movie. The project generated buzz in the digital market, because the reels were about 15 minutes long on average, while most videos at that time were no longer than 2 minutes. And even though, year after year, the trend is to make shorter and shorter promo reels for higher effectiveness, Uncle Vanya launched a second season of the project and increased the average reel duration to about 20 minutes. It got results comparable to the first season results.

This way, you can create a range of options and target different audiences, then show the end of the story to those who watched the full video. In this case, the campaign will launch in several steps. Compared to publishing just a basic reel, launching a reel series united by one story will get better results.

However, you should realize that this risky strategy of launching long videos doesn't work for every business segment – it's a good idea to test several short reels united by one story first.

Most videos on mobile are played without sound. We recommend adding subtitles to all promo videos to increase the number of full views and engagement.

Discovery Digital Networks conducted an experiment showing that adding subtitles to videos resulted in a 13.48% increase in views after 14 days. This proves that adding subtitles to reels increases your audience's engagement and ensures more views.

Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is a pleasant, relaxed feeling caused by audio and visual stimuli – whispering, flowing motions, rustling, and crackling.

Most brands use this phenomenon when creating promo reels. Video with all kinds of sound triggers imaginable – crackling, loud breathing, rustling – are becoming popular online. This Coca-Cola video ad is an example of a successful ASMR creative.

Another trend is to intentionally ignore strict rules and create unique content. Adding a memorable motif or rhyme to a creative is an idea that has gotten excellent results. Dr. Oetker used a creative like this in a reel series for Feliciana pizza.

The amount of content grows each year. Create personalized content and aim it at an audience relevant to your product to avoid getting lost in the constant flow of ads. myTarget provides about 400 targetings and advertising technologies to help with this. Combined with high-conversion formats, they let you show your offer to a maximally-targeted audience.

Accordingly, launching a video ad requires determining the goals your creative has (branding or performance), your reel publication strategy (duration, creative concept), and your target audience.

The recommendations in this article are based on the experience of Whilemobile brandformance agency and myTarget advertising platform. You can use them as a foundation for launching an effective campaign, or you can come up with a new creative strategy and test out an individual approach.