By Ronda Payne/Special to the Langley Advance

People who fall into their careers don’t normally become award winners.

Yet that’s pretty much how the story goes for Stephano Barberis, a local award-winning music video director.

As Barberis puts it, he went backwards, skipping the teen and young adult years of his working life to take his directorial career back to childhood.

“When I was a kid, I do remember playing with my Star Wars characters and I remember saying to my friends, ‘you can’t stand there, that’s where the camera would be’,” he explained.

“So now, when I look back at it, it just links. I don’t think I’m doing anything different than what I did with my friends. I always was doing these weird skits… and the kids were riveted. I feel like I skipped my teens and 20s and went straight back into my childhood.”

Now, as the winner of 35 awards – 18 of which are from the BC Country Music Association, including the 2017 video director of the year – he sees his childhood awareness as part of the creativity that makes him a sought-out director.

“I’ve done close to about 170 music videos. It wasn’t really intended to be that way,” explained Barberis. “I guess I get so busy with music videos that I don’t have time for features.”

It takes about a month to create a music video Barberis’ way. There’s two weeks or more of pre-production and about two weeks of post-production with a day of shooting in between.

It sounds glamourous and not like something a regular guy living on the border of Langley and Surrey – near Clayton Heights – would be doing.

“When you live in a big city there’s obviously more creative people,” he explained.

“Obviously someone more successful should come out of a big city. But when you’re in a smaller centre like Surrey or Langley, it’s kind of cool [to say] “Oh, I don’t live downtown’.”

That doesn’t mean Barberis has grown used to his own success, mind you.

It was a very unusual beginning that’s lead to 20 years of award-winning music videos.

“I started 20 years ago. The very first music video was directed on the day [Princess] Diana died and I wasn’t even supposed to be doing that. I went to university for a few years to be an urban planner,” he recounted.

“Then I switched to BCIT, the marketing program. I had a job as a marketing assistant for a film production company for the summer. They had this one artist who they didn’t like the treatments for.”

As the story goes, Barberis threw out an idea to use an ice castle, and the artist loved it. The producer, however, shot a withering look to the rookie who opened his mouth in the room of directors.

But because of the saying “the client is always right,” Barberis’s idea stuck.

He described what happened next as feeling like being in film school.

When he initially took on directing, the crew often thought he was the actor, not the director, he was so young.

“So, I was thrown into directing and I had three assistant directors under me because I had no film experience,” he said, noting the story had a happy ending.

The artist for that first video [I’ll Do Anything] was Maple Ridge native, Rick Tippe.

Tippe had him do a number of videos after that, which seemed odd because country wasn’t a genre Barberis had great affinity for.

“Slowly country started noticing I was making country not look like country… I think I changed the way country videos were being made,” he said.

Another early Barberis video was Aaron Pritchett’s You Can’t Say That I Didn’t Love You.

“It went to number three in Canada and it went from there,” he recounted, adding that “Country and rap were the first two genres that embraced me… which is ironic because those weren’t the first two genres that appealed to me.”

He’s directed music videos for Chad Brownlee, Dallas Smith, Karen Lee Batten, Gord Bamford, Dean Broady, and Doc Walker, to name a few.

Regardless of the genre, it’s the creative process that keeps Barberis doing what he does, and doing it well enough to continue being recognized provincially, nationally and beyond.

“I like to make things all the time, it’s like oxygen to me. I think anything I do, I have to create,” he said.

“I wanted to get into advertising, so that’s probably what I would have done, but this is the same thing when you think about it, I’m still advertising music.”

While the recognition continues to pour in, Barberis is not used to the sensation of winning awards.

He describes his first win as shock, but subsequent wins continue to elicit a significant emotional response from the Kitimat-born professional.

“Every time they call my name, my eyes start tearing up,” he said.

“After a couple of times you’d think they’d be tired of me. I keep trying to reinvent myself. Every single video I make like it’s my last video.”

He sees his career as a positive model for local kids, though many wouldn’t know he’s a local.

“I still think I’m under a lot of people’s radar, I don’t think a lot of people know I’m here. A lot of people don’t expect me to be here,” he said.

“I would hope that it gives hope that you don’t have to live in a major centre to be successful. In fact when there’s less of you, you can shine brighter.”

Tourism executives have to strike a careful balance: They want to attract more visitors, but they also must be sensitive to the needs of the local environment and residents.

During a superpanel at Skift Global Forum in New York City in September, tourism leaders from Colombia, Jordan, and Los Angeles spoke about their unique challenges and approaches to keeping overtourism at bay.

The executives said none of their destinations were seeing the kind of crowds that have overwhelmed Barcelona, Reykjavik, or Dubrovnik yet. But they have also been paying attention to the struggles that those and other cities have been facing, and lessons that should be learned.

“We have the responsibility of not making the mistakes that other destinations have made, learning from them, and not just repeating history,” said Julián Guerrero Orozco, vice president of tourism at ProColombia.

He said Colombia is working to attract a reasonable number of higher-spending visitors, instead of a large number of tourists, in order to reduce the environmental impact of tourism.

In Los Angeles, residents are generally pro-tourism. It’s a problem, however, when too many people crowd specific areas — such as places with photo-worthy views of the famous Hollywood sign — and make life difficult for the people who live there.

“We have our pockets of issues like other major destinations around the world that we’re very concerned about,” said Ernest Wooden Jr., president and CEO of the Los Angeles Tourism Convention Board.

Solutions include pointing out alternate locations for photos, providing public transportation, and working with police and fire officials to reduce crowding.

“These are important issues that, unless we’re willing to sacrifice our long-term health in tourism, we’ve got to deal with,” Wooden said.

Lina Annab, Jordanian minister of tourism and antiquities, said Jordan has site management plans for popular locations. While the destination is seeing growth in visitor numbers, she said iconic sites are still relatively uncrowded.

Annab said it’s important to think about overtourism from a policy point of view.

“It did not happen overnight, overtourism in those destinations, and I think there are policy lessons to be learned,” she said. “Sometimes, we tend to focus on marketing only and we forget the other sustainable and environmental issues that need to be taken into consideration.”

Watch the entire interview above, and find more coverage of Skift Global Forum here.

At this year’s Skift Global Forum in New York City, travel leaders from around the world gathered for two days of inspiration, information, and conversation for panels such as this, as well as solo TED-like talks on the future of travel.

Visit our Skift Global Forum site for more details about 2018 events.

Sep 07, 2017, 05:00 ET

Preview: Bitcoin IRA Launches Litecoin, Ethereum Classic, and Bitcoin Cash for Retirement Investments

As social media increasingly becomes the tool of choice for millennials, is it sensible for brands and marketers to base their marketing strategy around user-generated content on these platforms and not invest any money into their strategy?

According to Rohit Sharma, founder and chief executive of Pokkt, a mobile video advertising and app monetisation platform for game developers, he tells The Drum that even though the millennial generation is extremely plugged into social, many companies are plunging headfirst into social without understanding that social simply cannot function as a standalone strategy as it must be incorporated as part of an integrated strategy.

“It is akin to functioning with tunnel vision, or with blinkers on – you end up overlooking other channels that could deliver greater reach, engagement, and which ultimately drive the bottom line,” he adds.

Sharma believes that social is prized for how easily it lends itself to native and while there are channels that might do this just as well, or even better. For example, he says by engaging the user in a mini-game within a game, in-game advertising is the perfect example of native, with a far higher guarantee that the user will actually see and interact with content, instead of simply scrolling past as they might do on a social feed. “Furthermore, the nature of the games in question often allow for short, predictable breaks – easy spaces for advertisers to communicate their message without being annoying or interruptive,” he adds.

However, there are some brands who buck the trend by putting their trust into social media. Take GlampingCity for example, a company that combines glamour and camping for people who want a hotel-style accommodation, but with the feel of outdoor camping.

Its entry into Singapore was initially met with scepticism, but the trend slowly caught on when the company started posting picturesque photos on its Instagram page, taken by its staff and local social media influencers that it collaborates with.

Aside from its Instagram page and a website, GlampingCity does not have any budget allocated for ad spend and marketing strategy, according to founder Ryan Lam, adding that glamping caught on fast in Singapore through word of mouth and social media because people were posting about their experiences with it.

Night shot taken by the talented @xavlur ✨

A post shared by And so the adventure begins ✨ (@glampingcity) on Aug 24, 2017 at 5:03am PDT

Lam, who was speaking to The Drum on the sidelines of the 2017 ACI Asia Business Summit in Singapore, also reveals that 50% of the photos on the company’s Instagram page is from his own team. “This business is very new, so we have not approached anyone (influencer) yet, all of our collaborations and partnerships, it all came naturally. I spent zero dollars on marketing. I only spent on logistics. The publicity came naturally.”

“I don’t plan to pay influencers, the genuine ones, maybe, not those that are looking to do it for their own benefit,” he adds.

Bart Mroz, co-founder and CEO of Sumo Heavy, a ecommerce consulting company, tells The Drum that he agrees with GlampingCity’s social media heavy strategy as he feels that social should be a main priority for the production, distribution and syndication of content when it comes to marketing to millennials as they are changing the ways brands market.

Brands like Sephora and Nike, have also been successful in marketing to millennials by using Instagram to post visually stunning photos that clearly reflects brand identity and draws users in, according to Mroz, noting that Nike has become the 19th most followed account and the fifth most used hashtag, while Sephora has increased its engagement rate and now boasts nearly 13 million followers.

Mroz however, adds that in order to effectively use social media, brands still need to put money into these platforms. “You won’t see the needle move much if you don’t invest. Marketers need to shift their spending from traditional channels like TV, print, and PPC to social media. For example, Facebook and Instagram are both strong channels because of their high engagement rates, robust targeting options, and popularity with this demographic.”

Noting that 41% of millennials use Facebook every day, which makes it still the number one marketing channel, and that Instagram and Snapchat are catching up because the platforms are very different in style and have features that attracting more millennials, Mroz says: “Therefore, brands should still focus on Facebook, but pay much more attention to platforms like Instagram and Snapchat to better engage with this target audience in the long-run.”

LogMeIn, Inc. announced that it has launched GoToStage, an all-access, on-demand video platform designed to help marketers achieve their most critical outcomes — to generate awareness and demand.

GoToStage capitalizes on the unique leadership position of GoToWebinar’s tens of thousands of recorded assets and millions of annual webinar attendees. The new platform brings convenience and flexibility to host, promote and view webinars on-demand to ultimately drive more business.

Launching today in beta, GoToStage enables customers to leverage recorded assets to generate more qualified leads that turn into business. As video is becoming a core component of modern marketing, and organizations are seeking more advanced distribution, personalization, and interactivity, GoToStage allows companies to create a customizable branded repository for their content. With one-click uploads for GoToWebinar customers, marketers and content creators can upload webinars to their own branded and curated channel page for easy sharing and organic discoverability allowing them to reach new audiences while using existing webinar recordings. GoToStage viewers will be able to search these channel pages to find content by topic or brand.

“Instead of a one and done approach to live webinars, GoToStage gives our customers the option to promote valuable content on a platform that can reach millions of new prospects and continuously generate new leads without lifting a finger,” said Chris Battles, chief product officer, LogMeIn. “Businesses that want to capitalize on video to better connect, engage, and convert customers and support the entire buyers’ journey need to harness their own video content channels without simply relying on video-sharing sites. We see GoToStage as a community for professionals who want to learn, explore, and reach their goals. With everything from major industry trends to unique topics, GoToStage users can find the engaging content they’ve been missing.”

In addition, GoToStage intends to add deep reporting and analytics to allow users to track views, videos watched, attention span, get lead contact information and more. Users will also be able to opt into automated subscription emails and recommendations for additional content they may find interesting.

“GoToStage is about to change the way we think about webinars as a way to drive new business,” said Amanda Morgan, marketing manager at GoAnimate. “Creating a webinar is no small task for our team. With the introduction of GoToStage we love that the time and effort that goes into putting that webinar together can continue to pay off long after the live event is over. With GoToStage, we’re excited to be able to expose our content to a whole new audience to bring in leads we wouldn’t otherwise have.”

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(Business Wire)–YuMe,
Inc. (NYSE: YUME), a proven partner for video advertising leadership
and innovation, today launched its People-Based Marketing Suite to
enable cross-screen audience targeting, sequential messaging, and
attribution for U.S. audiences. YuMe’s brand and agency clients can now
create custom, screen-agnostic audiences intended to target consumers
using device identifiers across online, mobile, tablet, smart TV and
connected TV (CTV) devices, creating a seamless digital advertising
experience at scale.

“We believe the future of our industry hinges, in large part, upon the
adoption of data-centric, people-based marketing strategies that place
consumers first,” said Michael Hudes, Chief Revenue Officer, YuMe. “We
are proud to introduce our new solution to help brands not only target
and reach their consumers, but influence them with relevant messaging
that builds upon interactions and prior messaging exposure. By including
first-party, people-based data within our programmatic media buying
technology, we expect to deliver higher performing branding campaigns
for our clients who are retargeting and increasing engagement.”

The YuMe People-Based Video Marketing Suite offers advertisers the
following benefits for United States audiences:

• Cross-Device Custom Audience Segment Creation and Targeting
• Screen Agnostic Sequential Messaging
• Universal Frequency Capping
• Cross-screen Attribution and Reporting

Hudes continued, “To help us deliver on our people-based video vision,
we’ve partnered with Drawbridge to leverage their Connected Consumer
Graph^® and ensure we have critical data underpinning our
solution that allows us to connect audiences across PC, mobile, and
connected TV.”

The Drawbridge Connected Consumer Graph includes more than 1.3 billion
consumers across more than 3.3 billion devices – representing 75% of the
global active devices used to access the internet. In addition to its
scale, the Drawbridge Connected Consumer Graph is also extremely
precise, having been found by Nielsen to be up to 97.3% precise in
connecting consumers across devices. Drawbridge works with a breadth of
agencies, enterprises, and brands – including Publicis Groupe,
Foursquare, Samsung, LiveRamp, Adform, Throtle, and MC Saatchi Mobile.

“We believe digital video is the next big market for people-based
marketing, as video migrates from brand-only campaigns, to an essential
strategy for retargeting and direct response,” said Winston Crawford,
COO, Drawbridge. “We are happy to partner with YuMe to bring to market a
strong cross-device, people-based identity management solution to the
digital video landscape. With our Connected Consumer Graph underpinning
YuMe’s new product suite, advertisers can now more easily reach their
ideal audiences.”

The YuMe People-Based Marketing Suite is part of YuMe’s broader
portfolio of programmatic and managed-service media buying solutions,
and is available now for audiences in the United States. To learn more
about the offering, please visit http://go.yume.com/l/21392/2017-10-27/588jmq

About YuMe

YuMe is a proven partner for video advertising leadership and
innovation. We provide superior brand solutions with data-driven
audience insights that increase engagement and sales. YuMe’s
programmatic, audience-based technologies and unrelenting service
deliver a complete marketing solution to engage audiences wherever they
interact with content that matches their needs and interests. YuMe is
headquartered in Redwood City, California, with worldwide offices. For
more information, visit www.YuMe.com,
follow @YuMevideo on Twitter (www.twitter.com/YuMevideo),
or like YuMe on Facebook at www.facebook.com/YuMevideo.

About Drawbridge

Drawbridge is the leading people-based identity management company that
enables brands and enterprises to create personalized experiences for
their customers. The company uses patented large-scale AI and machine
learning technologies to build democratized data solutions that are
driving the intersect between mar-tech and other categories with
applications including advertising, personalization, content management,
product recommendations, authentication, and risk detection. The company
is headquartered in Silicon Valley, is backed by Sequoia Capital,
Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, and Northgate Capital, and has been
named to the CNBC Disruptor 50 list, made the Inc. 5000 list for the
past two years, and was listed on the CB Insights AI 100 list of the
most promising artificial intelligence companies. For more information
visit
www.drawbridge.com.

Forward-Looking Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including those
in management quotations. In some cases, you can identify
forward-looking statements by the words « may, » « will, » « expect, »
« intend, » « plan, » « objective, » « anticipate, » « believe, » « estimate, »
« predict, » « project, » « potential, » « continue » and « ongoing, » or the
negative of these terms, or other comparable terminology intended to
identify statements about the future. All statements other than
statements of historical fact are statements that could be
forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements
about the impact and value of cross-device targeting, and the benefits
derived therefrom; market trends; and quotations from management. These
forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties,
assumptions and other factors that could cause actual results and the
timing of events to differ materially from future results that are
expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. These risks are
discussed under « Risk Factors » in YuMe’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q
for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 that has been filed with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), and in our future
filings and reports with the SEC. The forward-looking statements in this
press release are based on information available to YuMe as of the date
hereof, and we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking
statements.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171101005203/en/

Seismic Marketing for YuMe
Vikki Herrera, 408-206-7009
vikki@teamseismic.com

Rocketfuel Entertainment, formerly known as Astro Digital Publications, has launched three divisions – Rocketfuel Network, Rocketfuel Talent and Rocketfuel Records. With the new divisions, Rocketfuel is able to strategise and execute influencer marketing campaigns for brands and produce viral content.

Its services for brands include branded content, social media marketing, video production, endorsements and talent management. Rocketfuel Network collaborates with content creators to produce digital content and creating new intellectual property. Rocketfuel Talent, the company’s talent management arm, currently represents Malaysian stars including Zizan Razak, Lisa Surihani, Aaron Aziz and Hisyam Hamid. Its talent academy aims to train and develop celebrities for the local and international stage. Rocketfuel Records, an independent music label in Malaysia, currently works with artists such as Hazama, Syamel, Hafiz Suip and Stacy.

“Today the approach to influencer marketing is fragmented. Rocketfuel aims to inject a more cohesive and holistic approach that is missing in the marketplace; a laser-focused entertainment talent house that offers marketers the most influential brand ambassadors who have the widest reach on digital platforms and social media,” Murali ‘Moots’ Marimuthu, VP of Rocketfuel, said.

“While celebrity endorsements sell like hot cakes and inspire consumer confidence, Rocketfuel aims to go deeper by striking meaningful collaboration with brands, aligning values and bridging gaps in communications through targeted messaging that inspires actions,” he added.

This post is sponsored by YouTube Malaysia.

Over the years, advertisers have seen the effectiveness of long-form videos in brand building and storytelling. But in today’s era of multi-screening, short-form videos are becoming the industry standard in capturing audience’s waning attention. So where does this leave video ad creators – short or long?

Here’s the thing, they both work and they work best together.

Over the last five years, nowhere has the rise of mobile-first consumers been more apparent than in Malaysia, and more broadly, Southeast Asia. With 88% of the population now owning smartphones, mobile has become Malaysians’ primary access point to the internet today. And whilst connection to devices and time spent online have increased, attention spans have not.

To address this trend, there has been an industry shift towards short-form videos, such as the six-second bumper ads. Between the first two quarters of 2017, the use of bumper ads has increased 70% globally, and nine of the top 20 ads on the Bumper Ads Leaderboard this year originated from Asia Pacific.

Many of the brands that have shifted to short form have conducted studies demonstrating increased brand awareness and consideration due to short-form videos. Fueling this further, YouTube has announced plans to sunset unskippable traditional 30-second spots.

However, long form has always been the preferred video ad format in Malaysia, with brands taking advantage of the longer duration to build emotional and complex narratives that drive long-term brand engagement. As a matter of fact, five of the 10 ads on the Malaysia YouTube Ads Leaderboard halfway through 2016 were over two minutes long. But, with attention spans finite (or even decreasing) and screens getting smaller, is long form alone a long-term solution?

Better together

In short, all signs point to long and short forms each having a place in the marketer’s toolkit. However, each form must respect consumers’ preferences at the specific stage of engagement.

During the early shifts to digital, the power of digital channels was that they provided a deeper level of engagement, inviting television audiences to choose to lean into brands that resonated with them by leading them online to find out more. For example, a traditional 30-second TV spot could lead to an optional, more engaging piece online that expanded the brand narrative with the audiences who had voluntarily chosen to seek more about the brand.

With a billion hours of watchtime each day globally on YouTube, it’s clear that consumers’ appetite for digital video is not slowing down. Brands need to ensure that they apply the same strategy that enables them to build and earn meaningful attention online. The strategy of forcing views of longer ads may not only disrupt the viewer’s experience, it can make building a lasting relationship impossible.

For example, we have seen that 30-second unskippable ads have a 35% higher abandonment rate than skippable formats. Consumers today have strong preferences and the power to act on those preferences. If ads do not resonate or aren’t relevant, viewers will not pay attention.

Make short videos unskippable for awareness, long videos skippable for further engagement

First, a brand must respect consumers’ preferences by building awareness with short form and inviting deeper interactions with longer form. This means that the initial outreach is with skippable short form, such as six-second spots, to deliver awareness of the brand message, while being minimally obtrusive. Then, give the audience that have seen your initial short-form ads a choice to view a longer brand message with a skippable format.

This pairing of lengths and sequencing leads to a win-win. Audiences have a positive experience with the content they are initially viewing, and marketers ensure their campaigns are efficient by only paying for ads that reach the customers who choose to watch them.

Success takes multiple forms

When Netflix Asia Pacific launched Orange is the New Black across Asia Pacific, they took a concerted strategy to tease, amplify, and echo across ad lengths. The campaign included 30 and 15-second skippable ads, along with six-second unskippable bumper ads. All three ad lengths performed well, achieving a +50% lift in ad recall. The bumper ad drove the highest product awareness, with a 19% lift, well above the 10% lift that is considered rare to exceed. The interplay of formats allowed Netflix to engage, re-target, and re-engage their audiences in the lead-up to the show launch.

McDonald’s Malaysia took a similar approach to Netflix, using shorter 12-second ads to tease and build awareness, paired with a 46-second spot that invited further viewing when they launched the Spicy Korean burger. The content was inspired by Korean dramas and built out a series of videos based on the different characters, which allowed viewers to go deeper into the story. Ultimately, the longer spot drove over five times more views than the short form and had a 20% higher view-through rate than the industry benchmark. McDonald’s had so much success with its launch campaign that their stores ran out of the new burgers.

Lastly, Celcom, a long-standing Malaysian mobile telecommunications company, sought to use a series of short videos over the course of the month of Ramadan to build emotional connections with its customers. The 30 short-form videos led to a longer story that was released after Hari Raya. This campaign led to over 8.3 million views, 3.3 million of which came on the nearly four-minute end-of-campaign video.

Celcom’s use of long and short videos allowed it to extend its campaign, keep its viewers engaged over the course of Ramadan, and more importantly, drive strong ad recall with a 13% uplift, the strongest among males aged 24 to 34 years old. The campaign directly impacted the business, driving a 337% increase in post-paid signups and over 30,000 redemptions of their 1GB Video Walla Hari Raya offering.

It’s easy to get started

The stories that marketers can tell with videos are no longer restricted by length, therefore, it’s easier and more cost-effective than ever to incorporate digital video into campaigns. The most advanced brands are now using long and short to tell a richer story, over a longer period of time, whilst respecting viewers’ preferences. But, even smaller marketing teams with limited assets can get started easily at a minimal cost. So, how does a marketer get started?

• Limited to no video assets: Start with short form, which is fast and cost-effective to develop

Leading beauty brand Clinique faced a challenge because only top-tier launches benefited from a full range of creative assets. This left their team needing a to find a way to do more with less. Six-second bumper ads tend to perform best when they have a singular focus, which is a technique that Clinique’s creative team already used for their print ads. So, they decided to test a new approach that would transform print ads to bumper ads, therefore saving creative resources, time, and money.

Clinique launched three ad variations, and the topline results showed a relative ad recall lift of 69.4% and product awareness lift of 26.1%, which Clinique considered best in class for the beauty category. “Balloons,” the version that most closely resembled its original print ad, was the top performer of the three, driving 42.8% relative lift in product awareness. Among Clinique’s target audience ages 18 to 24 years old, “Balloons” delivered a 93.7% relative lift in product recall and a 41.7% relative lift in product awareness.

• Current assets made for multiple marketing channels: Plan a campaign based on broad reach non-skippable short-form ads paired with skippable long-form ads

Fox Networks Group Asia (FNG), one of the most established TV networks in the world, is a great example of a brand that has great creative assets. Amid increased competition, they wanted to establish themselves as a leader in the digital revolution. The first step was a rebrand of Fox Movies Premium to simply Fox Movies, and they chose YouTube to communicate this update.

FNG took a very thoughtful approach, mixing ad lengths and focusing on sequential storytelling with an engaged audience. They started with 25-second skippable ads targeting movie lovers. Then they launched one-minute long trailers, again targeted to movie lovers. This combination of well thought out formats and targeting led to viewers watching 55 out of 60 seconds of this trailer on average.

FNG also used remarketing to reach viewers of previous ads with specific call-to-action videos. Just before new titles were launched, they’d broaden their reach, with YouTube mastheads and six-second bumper ads to maximize reach. This layered strategy led to incredible brand gains. The bumper ads achieved 23% incremental reach among movie lovers, and brand favourability also took off, increasing by 19% in Hong Kong.

The bottom line: planning, patience, and adaptation pays off

In a limited attention world, marketers’ strategic capabilities will have to be sharpened to ensure their brands earn the attention they seek. The successful teams will do this by building their brands incrementally over time; starting with small requests for attention across a broad audience, and then working their way to up to larger requests across those who are most likely to want to lean into their brand messages.

Harvard Business School professor and brand consultant, Thales Teixeira, calls this the ladder of engagement. As Teixeira points out, there isn’t a magic formula for earning a potential customer’s attention. However, the one thing we do know to be true is that today’s campaigns provide a wealth of data, in real-time. The brands that will ultimately earn attention will do so by having strategies that are customer-centric, adaptive, and aimed at long-term engagement.

Find out more about YouTube Week here.

The writer is Daniela Putz, industry manager, Google Malaysia.