Telling longer brand stories through YouTube

There’s no denying that Filipinos have become avid viewers of online videos with the Philippines’ YouTube watch time on mobile growing by 65%. This poses opportunities for brands to connect and engage with their audience in more ways than one.

Google recently released its YouTube Ads Leaderboard for the second half of 2016 for the Philippines, highlighting brands whose YouTube videos fascinated online Filipino viewers. Three of the brands which made it to the list are Bonakid Pre-School, Knorr Philippines, and Safeguard Philippines.

Sarinah Edralin-Flores, Senior Product Manager of Wyeth Nutrition, Kristine Go, Marketing Director -- Foods at Unilever Philippines, and Jianina Salindong-Du, Safeguard Philippines Leader at Procter & Gamble, talk about the success of their YouTube videos. They also discuss why they continue to use YouTube as a platform to leave a lasting impact on  their online audience.

Consumer insight is the key to effective advertising. For Knorr Philippines who has been in the Leaderboard twice, it’s all about knowing what Filipinos love.

Q: Having been in the Leaderboard twice now, what are the elements that worked in your first ad that you were able to incorporate in your second?

Go: The brand has a strong heritage in music marketing with such memorable jingles like Makulay ang Buhay and Knorr Chinese Soups. Right now, we have a strong Asim Kilig property that was built into Filipino pop culture over the last four years. Filipinos love catchy jingles with dance moves that they can easily copy.

Q: But what about if it’s an advocacy ad like the Global Handwashing Day ad of Safeguard? How does a brand make it compelling enough for people to be interested?

Salindong-Du: We did some consumer research and we noticed that washing hands is not second-nature to kids. Another insight is that a lot of them, especially the younger ones, are used to playing with their iPads. With that, we thought, “Why don’t we make it fun and remind them in a way that’s integrated in their life? Why not use YouTube and a song to make it fun for them to remember what we want them to?”

Q: Bonakid’s ad is a tutorial video. Do you think this format makes it more compelling for viewers to share it?

Edralin-Flores: Based on our research, how-to videos with relevant content resonate very well with our target market. Coming from this insight, we developed a dance tutorial video of Bonakid Pre-School 3+’s 3 Pataas jingle so viewers can learn the dance and share it as well.

Q: This is actually a continuation of your first Bonakid Pre-School 3+ “3 Pataas” campaign. Why did you decide to include a dance tutorial with the song?

Edralin-Flores: We saw how the Bonakid Pre-School 3+ “3 Pataas” campaign appealed to and engaged millions of Filipinos from various walks of life. That’s why we developed a dance tutorial for it so that they can easily sing and dance to the jingle.

Q: For these brands, YouTube gave them more freedom to engage with their audience, get feedback real time, and tell longer and expanded stories. How did YouTube change advertising/marketing for your brand then?

Go: It has made us more mindful of the type of content we put out. YouTube is the melting pot of all sorts of content, so it’s important that the story we tell stands out and won’t be skipped. This means having content that is relevant and talkable – told in the unmistakable voice of our brand.

Edralin-Flores: As a video-sharing platform, YouTube enabled us to build meaningful engagement with our consumers as it provides a longer time duration for us to get our message across.

Q: What do you like most about YouTube as a digital ad/marketing platform? What are the advantages that the platform provides?

Go : YouTube was the perfect channel because it allows us longer storytelling time while giving us reach, especially among moms and kids who do co-viewing of music videos.

Edralin-Flores: As one of the key channels being consumed by our target market, YouTube enabled us to build meaningful engagement with our consumers as it provides a longer time duration for us to get our message across.

Salindong-Du: One is the ability to reach a broad set of people and the ability to target them. The third thing which we know no other traditional medium can do is to talk to them in a way that’s engaging and truly heart-opening. Because in YouTube, arguably, you have more airtime. To me, it’s a platform for consumers to be heard, to drive user-generated content. And again, that platform provides that unique opportunity to showcase that reaction to the brand and how much people like or dislike your campaign. That’s very unique to YouTube.

Q: And as for the future of digital advertising?

Go: The online and offline world is already blurring, so the future of all brands should really be moving towards omni-channel advertising. In the case of digital, this challenges all brands to be more creative in their storytelling because digital advertising gives you a captive and engaged audience if your content is relevant. Otherwise, it’s also so easy for users to skip ads or tune out.

Edralin-Flores: Digital will continue to play an important role for us as it is already ingrained in our consumers’ way of life. As our consumers mature in this space, digital will become an even more significant channel for us to reach our consumers.

Q: What is your advice for brands who want to tap into digital advertising and use YouTube as a platform?

Go: Put people first. Do a lot of social listening, know the context of what your market is saying, then be agile enough to create campaigns that have people at the center of your brand story. Because for a platform like YouTube, content is king.

Edralin-Flores: Always go back to the basic principle of knowing the heart of your consumers. Make it simple and relatable to your target audience.

Salindong-Du: Nail the consumer insight. You have to know what role the medium, and in this case, YouTube, plays in their lives. It is a medium for entertainment and for educating kids and so it was a perfect fit.Always keep the material high in terms of entertainment value and virality. It does not matter if you have too many paid ads if they're  not really meaningful and entertaining enough for your target segment. If the ad doesn’t really connect with them, then it’s going to be useless.