With Christmas just around the corner, brands are ramping up their video content marketing strategies to push revenue through the roof. Flannels is the next UK luxury retailer to finesse the trend.
The holiday shopping period is an incredibly competitive time for brands. The pressure is on to deliver the most eye catching and engaging marketing content in order to draw in customers. Flannels teamed up with Smartzer to deliver a bold, flashy and dynamic video for their "Christmas Day Drip" campaign.
Execution:
Flannels used state of the art interactive video technology to create an entirely clickable campaign. Viewers could click to explore the models looks and be redirected to product display pages. The bright and explosive video content became even more immersive through video interactivity as viewers could browse all the featured products via a scrollable side bar. They were also given a second chance to shop via the replay screen with a product summary carousel.
Results:
Smartzer's interactive video platform enabled Flannels to create a video with the following features:
Clickable overlay with product hotspots
Product popups with look information and buy now CTA click through to PDP
Single product popups with name, brand and pricing information
Seamless Ecommerce integration
Christmas campaign delivery
API integration with up to date product information
Conclusion:
Video content marketing is evolving and adapting to an ever changing digital world. Customers have high expectations for shopping experiences and are constantly looking for fresh and exciting shoppable technologies. As a result, many big brands like Flannels are jumping on the interactive video trend to direct customers to their favourite products to buy. Using interactive video platforms for the holiday period can turn Christmas shopping into an immersive and super engaging experience!
- Nov 24, 2021
Today, it can be hard to keep up with technological advancements, but it has been hard to mistake the rise in shoppable formats within video content marketing this year alone.
At the start of the year, most of the world was still under some sort of restriction as a result of the global pandemic. Shops were shut, bars and clubs closed and international travel was prevented across many countries. As a result, brands and businesses have been forced to adapt to new ways of communication and online selling in order to make any sort of profit.
One of the newest trends to emerge has been live stream shopping and shoppable video. This social commerce style of shopping creates a more engaging, personable and friendly experience.
Shoppable video has provided a welcome break for shoppers who are bored of the endless stream of un-interactive marketing material online. More and more brands are seeing the benefits of being able to provide direct links to buy within their social content and e-commerce pages. Video interactivity has been proven to draw in a viewer and reduce user drop off to convince a sale and drive informed traffic.
Just check out JD Sport's star studded campaign, just in time for holiday shopping:
With live shopping, hosts appear on social media and e-commerce sites to discuss their favourite products with a large online audience. The beauty of live stream shopping is the rawness and authenticity of the content. There is nothing more honest than appearing in-real-time to viewers to display unfiltered products. The honesty of live streaming allows the customer to feel confident and reassured to buy and by incorporating influencer hosts, brands can drive even stronger revenue.
Live stream shopping has supported many brands this year, with global tech giant, Samsung, delivering a series of exclusive, discount events:
Interactive video platforms like Smartzer have been a key driving force to the rise in shoppable video popularity.
The solution provides a seamless and simplistic way for brands to add up to date product information to dynamic marketing video content and create live stream events that draw huge audiences and leave viewers amazed. This cross platform solution allows brands to monitor video and event analytics across social media and e-commerce. Businesses can see everything from click through rate, engagement rate and right down to individual product popularity. This provides a strong ROI and allows for easy measuring of KPI's.
Now, as the year draws to a close, huge social media corporations are following suit with their own in-house formats.
Twitter has announced the launch of their live stream shopping feature, set to debut at the end of November 2021 with Walmart as their first streamer.
While watching a Live Shopping stream on Twitter, people can take several actions that make the shopping experience on Twitter seamless, such as:
Check out the Shoppable Banner and Shop Tab on the Live event’s page.
Toggle back and forth between the Latest Tab and the Shop Tab throughout the live stream, allowing them to be a part of the conversation as they check out products.
Continue to watch the live stream on the merchant’s website within an in-app browser, so they don’t miss a thing while making a purchase.
Pinterest launched their live stream shopping feature in November 2021 with Pinterest TV.
The live stream features a sequence of 30 minute shoppable programs hosted by creators on Pinterest. Recordings of these shows can be accessed after the airdate to give viewers a second chance to learn and buy.
Pinterest live streams will cover a variety of subjects including fashion, food, beauty and home. Viewers can learn key information about products including price, composition, discounts and sizing all while asking the host questions. Not only this, but hosts of streams were able to boost their following on Pinterest following these shows.
Updated: Nov 22, 2021
Sports Direct took advantage of the latest interactive and shoppable formats to deliver a spectacular Christmas campaign video.
The iconic retailer featured some of the UK's biggest sportsman in an epic shoppable show down including, Jack Grealish, Emma Raducanu, Maro Itoje and more. The brand used Smartzer's cutting edge interactive video technology to allow viewers to shop their favourite influencer's outfit straight from the video.
Execution:
Video interactivity enabled viewers to click to explore a range of looks. The immersive, entertaining and dynamic content was elevated by including the viewer as an active participant. The video was seamlessly integrated into the sites Ecommerce landing page and reflected the Sports Direct branding. Viewers could click on product hotspots to bring up product information and direct links to buy. They could also browse all of the videos featured looks in a shoppable carousel alongside the video.
Results:
Sports Direct created an interactive video piece that resulted in the following features:
Clickable hotspot technology with product information
Group popups with the celebrities full look to buy
Buy Now call to action with a direct link to the product display page
Colour option drop down
Shoppable side bar with all of the featured looks
Replay screen with all the featured products to give the customer a final chance to buy
Influencer marketing techniques to drive sales this Christmas
Seamless landing page integration
Custom player design to reflect the Sports Direct branding
Conclusion:
Sports Direct demonstrated how video interactivity can transform the Christmas shopping experience. By combing phenomenal influencer marketing strategy with clickable exploration, the brand made the viewer feel as though they were a part of the video. The direct shopping links to product display pages shortened the path to purchase. This reduced the amount of time spent looking for items and driving shoppers quickly down the purchase funnel. Using shoppable formats for the Christmas shopping period transforms Ecommerce into an enjoyable and highly engaging activity.