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Why your brand or marketing agency should be using Vine

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In the world of the marketing agency, 2013 won't just be the year of the Snake. It'll be the year the number of mobile devices exceeds the human population.

I'm knocking at your proverbial door to spread the word of Vine. Have you heard about the impact it's making on brands big and small? When 66% of the world's data is predicted to be video by 2017, clearly, the video-sharing app, or other platforms like it, are the future for marketing agencies and brands alike.

“As content streams become more rich and chaotic,” says Hugh Burrows, Head of Digital and 3 Monkeys and speaking to Business Zone, “users want short and sharp content that engages them and as social video continues to grow.”

5 tweets a second 'contain Vine link'

This isn't one of your flash in the pan marketing trends. Launched at the start of the year, a quick search will show the app is already one of the most downloaded in the apple app store.

So, whether your digital content strategy is up and running or is still something of a pipe dream, Vine is the new-ish kid of the Social Media block and one not to be ignored by brands looking to target key audiences, especially Millennials, early adopters and increasingly online-savvy consumers.

To add to its strength, Vine videos are directly embeddable to a branded Twitter feed, allowing users to tap into their existing client database and reach out via a new format.

Millennials, should they be your brand or marketing agency's poison, have been shown to be 2.5 times more likely to be early adopters of new tech (American Millennials, Barkley), with over half of all interviewed saying they used social media platforms to interact and explore brands.

A branded Vine is 4 times more likely to be viewed than branded content

Brand leaders and early adopters of Vine as a means of social communication and community building include McDonalds, General Electric and Internet Explorer. Urban Outfitters was the first name to create a branded channel (much in keeping with its trend- targeting image). Coincidentally, UO has been credited as one of the 5 best brands on Vine.

Airbnb are catching headlines and imaginations (and most importantly, attention) following their announcement (via Vine) that they would be creating a short film made up entirely of fans' Vine vids. This move is bound to drive engagement, incentivise consumers and boost brand awareness and supports Airbnb co-founder, Joe Gebbia's statement that brands can capitalise on the shift to collaborative consumption, the very premise the peer-to-peer business is founded upon.

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The move towards consumer-brand relationships seems to fit nicely then with the mushrooming of social media seen over the last five years, and with the apparent and symbiotic merge of big data, clever algorithms, video and a more holistic marketing approach.

In addition, rather than spamming consumers with generic branded content, companies and marketing agencies are hiring art directors, like Tribeca Film Festival winner, Jethro Ames, who creates branded Vine content for the likes of General Electric and The Coffee Bean, or Khoa, who, with 56,000 personal followers has leant their expertise to Snapple and MTV, to produce eye-catching, and vitally, sharable videos. General Electric's decision to take the creation of their Vine content seriously seems to be paying off, as they are yet another of the 5 great Vine users.

Gebbia's opinions support this. "We [Airbnb] believe is that the product is the marketing. We take any resources we’d use for advertising and we use it on our product. If we can create a delightful experience for our customers, then they cannot help but talk about us."

Where do we go from here?

Whether you're looking to communicate brand or company culture, showcase products or boost engagement, Vine is certainly one of the marketing trends to be considered.

Marketing agencies, brands and client-side marketers should tread carefully when jumping onboard Social Media ships, lest it lose them cool points (think Myspace), but evidence shows with Vine they could be onto a winner.

To conclude, Dan Mortimer, CEO of Red Ant was quoted by Business Zone stating this:

“You only have to consider the success of image sharing services such as Instagram to see that there’s a real appetite for a social/visual experience. And brands have been quick to capitalise on this – Marmite ran a very successful Christmas campaign using photos of fans to promote its product, for example, and Calvin Klein and Coca Cola have both used animated gifs as part of their digital advertising activity. So Vine – effectively one step up from the animated gif – is likely to attract a degree of brand attention, at least initially.

“The beauty of digital is that it’s always renewing, always evolving, and this allows both users and brands to experiment with innovation, without too much investment of resource or time. As the new wave of personalisation, relevance and focus on consumer experience starts to emerge this year, I expect to see some highly creative uses of Vine over the coming months. Succinct brand messages represented visually will undoubtedly lift existing Twitter campaigns, and the litmus test of engagement will be if brands can encourage their fans and followers to respond in kind.”

Got a Vine account worth sharing about? Show us @wefindgood

Sources: www.brandrepublic.com/news/1210613/interactive-infographic-brands-using-vine
http://millennialmarketing.com/2013/04/brands-can-use-vine-to-connect-with-millennials/ www.businesszone.co.uk/topic/marketing-pr/vine-can-it-benefit-your-business/48137

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