Consumers engage with video content like no other form, but brands’ efforts to go it alone have been patchy.
Consumers engage with video content like no other form, but brands’ efforts to go it alone have been patchy. For this reason there is a growing trend to use vloggers to communicate.
It’s intriguing to see what Panasonic is doing in partnership with a new enterprise set up by Netmums founder Siobhan Freegard.
Channel Mum is a YouTube channel that features content for and from mums. At present it is recruiting 100 vloggers who will receive Panasonic cameras to review and use.
The deal is one of the first instances of brands broadening the appeal of YouTubers from millennials, to a more mainstream market.
Previously brands have been seduced by the success of high-profile vloggers such as Zoella, who has more than 7.5 million subscribers and Tanya Burr (2.8 million).
Panasonic’s relationship seems to hint at a different approach by aligning with a platform that features real people giving their opinions. Retailers can learn a lot from it.
As a way of reaching beyond the high street, video is unimpeachable. Today’s shoppers want things everywhere, instant and personal, so digital channels are a crucial consideration.
The top 15 UK channels for mums uploaded more than 50 hours of content in December, and this untapped resource received more than 13 million views.
It’s easy to see how a DIY brand such as B&Q or Homebase could take ownership of the vlogging segment of ‘how-to’ videos. The viewing figures and engagement levels would be phenomenal.
Properly executed, video provides an authenticity that brands’ own efforts can lack. Our Over to You campaign for Samsung’s launch of its S4 collection put the devices into the hands of a diverse range of talents. The subsequent films and music had huge engagement levels because they were created by the audience they were also aimed at.
The flipside of this cost-effective, user-generated content is that brands can’t exercise the sort of control that they may expect for advertising, but that comes with the territory.
Brands and retailers have to make these sorts of trade-offs when weighing up the benefits of social media.
In chasing views they must not ignore the fit between retailer and partner. Panasonic and mums may run out of steam more quickly than one with a more natural alignment such as P&G would. However, it is a brave initiative and one that many brands and retailers will follow closely.
- Matt Pye, chief operating officer at Cheil UK
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