There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to video marketing. What works for one company may not work for another, which is why we always recommend devoting time and thought to developing a strategy that is tailored to your target demographic and objectives.
To put that into context, we’ll look at five well-known brands that are all getting excellent results from site to promote YouTube video marketing—and while they all share some characteristics, the point is that there are various ways to succeed in the video sector.
We’ll delve into each brand’s backstory, examine its video marketing strategy, and offer some insight into why it’s succeeding and what other brands can learn from it. Here are our five brands, without further ado: Buzzfeed’s GoPro, Patagonia’s Patagonia, Dollar Shave Club’s Dollar Shave Club’s Dollar Shave Club’s Dollar Shave Club’ Delicious, as well as Moz. First and foremost, there’s GoPro.
GoPro
As you may be aware, GoPro is the most well-known brand of action cameras. You might not realise it, but video marketing has played a significant role in the company’s success.
The most crucial aspect of GoPro’s video marketing strategy is its commitment to user-generated content. Because the company’s products are video cameras, users capture a lot of footage on a daily basis. For context, here’s a highlight reel from 2020.
GoPro encouraged the publishing and sharing of these films from the start, and it repurposes and reshares them on its own accounts as well. This is enormous in terms of brand awareness; each video uploaded by a current client is essentially its own commercial for the company.
The videos typically include people participating in extreme sports and other high-adrenaline activities, which helps other like-minded people envision themselves using a GoPro. The footage also speaks for itself in terms of quality and usability, two important selling aspects. To give you an indication of the quantity of UGC being churned out, roughly 6,000 films a day were put on YouTube with the term “GoPro” in the description a few years back.
What can we learn from GoPro’s experience? Your most valuable resource is your current clients. Before you start creating your own production plan from scratch, do some research to see if there’s any existing content you can use, or ask your current clients to share with you. (Read this article for more information on how to encourage user-generated content.) When your customers generate their own content, your video marketing work becomes more about amplifying their voices and current material rather than producing it.
Patagonia
Patagonia is our next brand, and its marketing team takes a unique approach to video marketing. Long-form video material is a big part of Patagonia’s strategy, and many of its internet movies are between 10 and 20 minutes long. This decision demonstrates that, at the end of the day, video “best practises” are meaningless if they aren’t in line with your brand’s goals. We usually advise our clients to keep their videos under two minutes long because it is what works best for the majority of viewers and use cases. Patagonia, on the other hand, knows its audience well enough to realise that it can take a different approach, and it’s paying off handsomely. Check out the video below, which, despite being 27 minutes long, has over 1.5 million views.
Patagonia’s videos are notable for their length, but they are also notable for the fact that many of them lack a product focus. Instead, they’ll focus on important environmental or conservation concerns that the company knows are important to its target demographic.
These pieces of content, rather than feeling like commercial videos, have the aesthetic and intent of documentaries, as you can see in the video above. “We are a collection of storytellers who make films on behalf of our home planet,” reads a section of the company’s website titled “Films.” Patagonia’s video marketing technique isn’t usual, but it’s working for them!
Dollar Shave Club is a shave club that charges a
After that, we’ll look at Dollar Shave Club. This company’s meteoric journey to the top of the video marketing world began with a single viral video that you’ve certainly seen or heard of. If you need a refresher, click here.
A couple of things are going on here. For starters, the brand clearly chose a lighthearted, amusing tone for this material. That’s not by chance: creator Michael Dubin has a background in comedy and improv from the UCB (Upright Citizens Brigade), and he used what he learned there to help launch his early marketing efforts.
As you can obviously see, it was a huge success. On YouTube, the original video has had 27 million views and counting. “Finally a firm that cares,” one commenter writes on the video.
A couple of things are going on here. For starters, the brand clearly chose a lighthearted, amusing tone for this material. That’s not by chance: creator Michael Dubin has a background in comedy and improv from the UCB (Upright Citizens Brigade), and he used what he learned there to help launch his early marketing efforts.
As you can obviously see, it was a huge success. On YouTube, the original video has had 27 million views and counting. “Finally a corporation that understands how to make a nice commercial,” and “Simply brilliance in marketing,” are among the comments on the video.
Moz
Now, Moz, let’s change our focus from B2C to B2B brands. Moz is an SEO software company that works with businesses all around the world. How did they end up on this list in the first place? Well, video marketing has been proven to be effective for both B2C and B2B businesses, according to Moz.
The popularity of Moz’s “Whiteboard Friday” series is the most significant achievement in its video marketing strategy. Every Friday, the firm releases a video of an SEO specialist standing in front of a whiteboard discussing a concept. The videos are typically 8-12 minutes long, yet this time frame allows them to get to the heart of the idea they’re presenting in a way that adds actual value.
Every week, the films are uploaded on YouTube and the company’s blog, along with a photo of the whiteboard’s final contents. It’s a move that has been indelibly tied with the Moz brand, and it provides relevant information to Moz’s audience, who is mostly SEOs who may be able to promote the Moz software products for purchase.
The Moz narrative has two major takeaways for us. First, even if you aren’t selling directly, instructive information can sell things or services. Patagonia experienced a similar fate. Despite the fact that Moz isn’t demonstrating its own software in its Whiteboard Friday videos, it is generating an audience that is ideally aligned with prospective interest in the software, and offering value to that audience makes them loyal to Moz.
Second, any successful video marketing approach must be consistent. One of the most appealing aspects of Whiteboard Friday is that viewers know they can expect a new walkthrough every week. This creates an audience that looks forward to the content every Friday, rather than one that has to remember to visit the page on a regular basis to see whether new content has been added.
Tasty from Buzzfee
Last but not least, since Buzzfeed’s Tasty accounts launched in 2015, we’re virtually certain you’ve seen a video from one of Buzzfeed’s Tasty accounts. Quick overhead images of a pair of hands working through the stages to produce a fun meal characterise the original videos. The movies were usually only a few minutes long, and Tasty was Facebook’s number one publisher in 2017, and the videos are still one of Buzzfeed’s key revenue sources today. So, how did they pull it off?
The Tasty page videos started off with a restricted focus on variants of the same concept: short-form material with longer moments sped up to keep viewers engaged, distribution across all key social networks to establish a huge presence, and frequent posts with recipes that appeal to a diverse audience. This close focus quickly became a Tasty defining concept, and viewers knew exactly what they were in for from the first few seconds of overhead ingredients shots.
Tasty was Facebook’s number one publisher in 2017, and the videos are still one of Buzzfeed’s key revenue sources today. So, how did they pull it off?
The Tasty page videos started off with a restricted focus on variants of the same concept: short-form material with longer moments sped up to keep viewers engaged, distribution across all key social networks to establish a huge presence, and frequent posts with recipes that appeal to a diverse audience. This close focus quickly became a Tasty defining concept, and viewers knew exactly what they were in for from the first few seconds of overhead ingredients shots. The major point here is that sticking with what’s working is fine. Tasty has broadened its video offering in recent years, delivering themes that aren’t merely short-form recipes, although the page rarely veered in its early years. It’s fine to continue with a video “formula” that works well for your company for a while—if it ain’t busted, don’t fix it!
If these five businesses have taught you anything, we hope it’s that at the end of the day, it’s up to you to decide whether or not the typical video best practises apply to your company and audience. There’s always room to bend or break the rules, and you’re the greatest judge of your target audience! While you’re creating, Take inspiration from GoPro, Patagonia, Dollar Shave Club, Tasty, and Moz to create your own video marketing plan.
