5 Reasons Brands Should Use YouTube

December 12, 2014

 

The biggest shopping season of the year is in full swing. Although brands and consumers are used to the traditional direct mailers and TV spots, holiday shopping – and shopping in general – has gained a significant presence on YouTube.

Whether it’s a Beauty Guru doing a haul video about the amazing makeup deals she found, or a consumer-electronics influencer unboxing the latest must-have tech, YouTube is changing the way consumers understand and evaluate the year’s biggest day for holiday sales.

For retailers and brands that haven’t already considered the impact YouTube could have on their holiday sales, here are five reasons to start now:

1. YouTube Dominance

According to Nielsen, YouTube reaches more 18-34 year old adults than any cable network, and it is now the second largest online search engine. For brands, that means free access to a platform that reaches some of the top shoppers – millennials – better than any TV channel or mailer.

2. The Power of Fans

Even if you are not on YouTube yet, your fans are, and they are creating content on behalf of your brand in droves. At ZEFR, we discovered that an incredible 90% of a brand’s activity on YouTube is coming from fan-uploaded videos. This phenomenon is so important, we actually released an ebook called the “Anatomy of a Fan” because it is imperative that a brand finds, understands, and leverages the “earned media” it gains from these communities. A fan video can be anything from a haul video where a YouTuber reveals their favorite products from shopping at your store that day to a Sneakerhead (a massive YouTube fan community) posting about the shoes they are collecting. Because customers often trust consumer opinion more than branded content, these videos are pure gold for brands.

3. Custom Content Delivers Value

While fans are off creating content about their favorite brands, retailers should simultaneously create premium, valuable content for their customers. ZEFR helps a number of brands do this correctly by helping them build, manage, and monetize their YouTube channel. For instance, ZEFR helped Hasbro Studios, the production company behind My Little Pony and Transformers media, hit 83 million lifetime views and increase its channel subscribers by 135,000 in one year from inception. That’s 135,000 potential buyers who are not only aware of Hasbro’s toy products, but are engaged with them on an entirely new level.

4. A Content-Hungry Audience

More than 6 billion hours of video are watched on YouTube each month, which equates to least an hour for every person on Earth, every month. Consumers demand visually rich and valuable content from brands they love and about the brands they love. Online video is becoming shoppers’ go-to source for quick, consumable information. Video plays an especially large role in high-dollar purchases such as buying a car. Shoppers often taken weeks to research options and find the best car for their needs. According to a study conducted by Tremor Video, 66% of car shoppers use online video for research. For brands looking to leverage online video, it is also important to note that video increases customers’ understanding of a product by 74% (Mayer and Anderson).

5. Don’t Be Left Behind, Act Now

According to our research, 53% of shoppers are influenced by YouTube. If you have yet to take advantage of the offer, the holidays are the perfect time to start building your YouTube following and ultimately, drive additional sales.

Additionally, it’s likely that your competitor already has a YouTube presence and is benefitting from the increased exposure and consumer engagement opportunities. Enormous communities have been built around some of today’s most influential brands, including Lego, Go Pro, and Playstation. At ZEFR we help brands understand not only their fans, but also how their competitors are participating on YouTube through our Brand ID platform.


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