What the Sequent Partners Study Tells Us about Video Metrics and ROI

You could almost hear the eyes rolling in small, dedicated video shops like ours when the media metrics experts at Sequent Partners announced their survey results on video as a sales tool. Marketers for major brands are enthusiastic about the future of digital video for driving sales -- including later offline sales -- but right now many of them are stuck on the idea of video ads as good for branding alone.

The report, titled Digital Video at the Inflection Point presents evidence that many marketers are blinded by attitudes from the past.  As they said in their summary, “marketers today are more likely to view digital video as a branding tool with more than half seeing it as a superior tool for building brand awareness and favorability, telling their brand’s story and connecting with consumers emotionally.”

Yet 87% of these same 200 top marketing professionals surveyed reported positive ROI results from their own digital advertising. They seem to be unmoved by tangible trends in their own organizations, too. A majority -- 65% -- described digital as having an increasing role in sales, but merely 42% indicated that digital is better at driving sales than other media in general. This is a portrait of professionals who don't believe their own eyes.

And the report speculates, this is all about to shift, dramatically.  An inflection point is nigh, and everyone will soon appreciate the value of digital video for advertising.  The report asserts that within a few years, when this gap in understanding closes, digital video will be widely accepted for addressing sales objectives.  The changes will lean on two features that are currently evolving -- better digital ad targeting and better personalization systems for digital video ad content. This prediction should make the sponsor of the report -- Eyeview, an ad tech company that specializes in the personalization of ads -- quite pleased about future opportunities for providing better video metrics.

The comments in the report itself underscore the disconnect around these issues, marveling that significant numbers of professional marketers have failed to grasp the potential of digital video they have seen in their own operations. The report even used the term "complacency" to describe the attitudes found among marketers.

"The majority of marketers see digital video as a way to connect emotionally with consumers and tell the brand’s story in an engaging way. However, a large portion of marketers can see that limiting the role of digital video to branding efforts is a temporary stage in the medium’s evolution," said the report. "They recognize the potential it will have in other roles as well, particularly in driving sales."

What will bring these viewpoints into alignment? Better data should provide answers for those skeptical marketers. Improvements in determining video ROI are in the works, according to the report. As we all begin to see beyond site traffic, the value of video -- and of specific videos --  to Internet viewers should come into sharper focus.

We're watching with interest, and with a little touch of skepticism. Because we've been doing what we do for years, we have a deep understanding of the evolution of online branding, marketing & advertising. We're hands on, and our small team prioritizes making a meaningful impression on real people, driving specific actions and learning what we can from all the data that can be gleaned. We know video is already a powerful tactic in more than one segment of our clients' strategies. We have made videos work to drive actions as well as to create a warm halo effect.  Of course, we're with the rest of the video world in wanting even better evidence to pinpoint ROI.

Our clients tell us we're fun to work with because we draw on past experience and take an interest in the rosy promises of the future.  We take in the enthusiasm of this industry with a grain of salt. We haven't forgotten the core mission of telling compelling -- even edgy -- stories. We're figuring it out every day. Contact us and we'll figure it out specifically for your company.