MNI Blog  /  2 minute read

Digital Video Advertising is Bringing Hollywood to Marketing

Remember the first moment that you remember movie magic? Mine was watching a T. rex tear through a fence in the middle of a tropical storm on Isla Nublar. Jurassic

Digital Video Advertising is Bringing Hollywood to Marketing

By: Guest Blog Post from Chris Powers, Creative Director Drive Media House

Remember the first moment that you remember movie magic? Mine was watching a T. rex tear through a fence in the middle of a tropical storm on Isla Nublar. Jurassic Park is still one of my favorite films, because it showed me a world I always wanted to imagine would be reality, and there it was, happening right in front of me.

When I think of the way video marketing is going, I think of Jurassic Park. Not because it features prehistoric chomping dinos, but because it offers up a story that made T. rex feel like a massive payoff for the story it was trying to tell.

Digital video marketing is shifting more and more from highlighting a set of features or awards and instead embracing what Hollywood has known for a long time: Have a good story and you create advocates (or fans). Chances are if I asked you the last great product you purchased based on features, you’d probably have to think about it for a while. But if I asked what was the last great movie you saw—bingo!—you're likely to have an answer quickly.

Video Display Marketing Examples

We’re seeing digital marketers embrace storytelling capabilities of display marketing wholeheartedly, and suddenly brands aren’t plastered in commercials from beginning to end. Take a look at this old commercial
from Subway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wmi3q2fP9k

Looks tasty—but who cares, right? It's a sandwich.

Now watch the Subway commercial that aired recently, during the Olympics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gykZnPxlc24

What a difference, huh? You see people connect with stories that they can feel, that they can relate to. It’s hard to imagine these are coming from the same company, but Subway is finally starting to learn not to feature their product, but instead to feature the heart of their product.

As we start to approach 2017, we’re going to continue to see brands evolve as storytellers. We’re going to continue to see beautifully shot films, like the one below for Johnny Walker:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2caT4q4Nbs

How Targeted Video Advertising can Help Your Brand

So when video comes up in your next marketing meeting, look to Hollywood for inspiration about how to craft a narrative that resonates with your audience through your video display advertising campaign. Find the heart of your business and find the thing that your audience can hold onto. Let them know you're not just a set of features, but also a human narrative that's worth sharing.

Chris Powers is the Creative Director of Drive Media House, based in Cincinnati, Ohio.