New study confirms that video content leads to real outcomes for brands

A correlation has been found between video content and real-world outcomes for brands, according to a joint research by video marketplace Unruly, the IPA Databank, and marketing consultant Peter Field. The outcomes however, can be negative or positive, and brands will have to employ the right strategy to achieve the latter. Findings show that the outcomes hinges on emotional and cognitive responses to video content. Positive psychological responses is correlated with long-term business and brand outcomes and the most closely associated emotional triggers are amazement and exhilaration. While negative triggers can be linked to short term sales spikes, they are also detrimental to the brand in the long run.Video content is found most effective when created with one mission in mind - to facilitate either long term or short term effects for brands, not both. Meanwhile, Field said that the current short-form video thinking is "incompatible" with the vision to drive long-term growth and there needs to be a fundamental rethink of online video metrics and models to shift the focus to the creation of intense emotional responses. “The assessment of video advertising in terms of short-term sales alone has been known to be unwise for TV for a long time now. But the world of online video has been heavily focussed on short-term metrics and immediate results," explained Field. IPA's chief commercial officer, APAC Phil Townend said that the findings guides brands on how to reach the optimum balance between short term and long term approaches to video advertising. With the insights, advertisers can also immediately improve their media plans and target them at scale across a brand safe premium publisher marketplace. To identify the key triggers that are linked to real-world outcomes, Field examined the correlation between data provided by IPA and Unruly. The IPA provided scores for real-world outcomes including market share, fame, esteem, differentiation, pricing and activation. Unruly tested campaigns using its proprietary content testing tool UnrulyEQ Max to obtain scores for emotional response and cognitive response, purchase intent, favourability, brand values, social motivations, shareability and negative/primal responses. Get top insights on brand strategy, content creation and emerging trends from a stellar lineup of expert speakers at Southeast Asia's leading Content 360 conference on 23-24 April 2019. Read more: 3 truths about measuring digital video campaigns Xaxis rolls out short-form video ad format in APAC Why premium non-skippable videos might not be a bad thing after all