WEB

Let’s Go to the Video

According to a recent comScore study, Americans watched 21.4 billion online videos in July, an increase of 88% over the same month last year. Marketers are jumping on that trend and coming up with a variety of entertainment-to-education ratios in their clips.

A new offering from Sara Lee’s deli division wraps its Fresh ideas pre-sliced product line into “MamaSagas,” three funny clips about motherhood on the Fresh ideas Facebook page. The videos were produced with actors from Chicago’s Second City improv troupe, who came up with totally unscripted — and very funny — content for each of the four-minute videos.

“We wanted them to be totally authentic,” Sara Lee Deli brand manager Paula Shikany says. “All of the actors are moms, and the moments they create are totally relatable.”

Truck maker Navistar International has rolled out the first parts of an eight-episode Web quiz show aimed at educating truck drivers about its new MaxxForce diesel engine. In the show, available at MaxxForceTV.com, Spike Network’s Joe Elmore pops up at truck stops around the nation to host MaxxForceIQ, a quiz that hands out cash to long-haul truckers who can answer technical questions about the engine.

“Most truck drivers carry laptops with them, and with the rise in social media, we have new ways to reach them,” says Mark Johnson, Navistar communications manager. “Our studies show 70% of our customers go to YouTube, one-third read industry blogs, and 20% use Facebook.”

“We wanted to create broad awareness in a way that would encourage ongoing dialogue, and that meant being entertaining and encouraging pass-along distribution,” says Mark Leger, managing director at Fathom Communications.

Some brands are tying their Web video efforts tightly into their offline campaigns. In preparation for a TV campaign launching its Golden Double Stuf cookie, Kraft’s Oreo brand seeded a teaser video on Facebook showing a purported Donald Trump “press conference” about buying the Double Stuf Racing League.

Kraft then used the Facebook page to break the TV ad with Trump and actor Darrell Hammond challenging the Mannings to a lick race. The Trump teaser garnered almost 1,000 votes among Oreo lovers, about 2.8 million of whom have fanned the cookie on Facebook, notes Kraft category manager Jessica Robinson. “We’re thrilled with the level of response.”
— BRIAN QUINTON

DID YOU KNOW?

THAT 9 MILLION SHOW: Celebrity Ashton Kutcher’s Katalyst Media production company is the star of the first hit Facebook video series. Launched in February, the series, “KatalystHQ,” can be viewed only in Facebook. But that hasn’t kept it from being seen by 9 million unique viewers, Kutcher told a MIXX conference audience in New York last September.

1. Even more impressive is the pass-along rate: According to Kutcher, the average viewer shares the short video clips with 62 friends.

2. Young-adult brands Hot Pockets and Cheetos have already been integrated into some of the 11 episodes aired so far.
   — Brian Quinton

Strategies/BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME

Sears is showing its “softer side” in more than just ad slogans: It’s getting into social marketing in a big way, first with two back-to-school initiatives designed to get high schoolers and incoming freshmen engaged with one another as much as with the brand, and now with a new community site for home and appliance repairs called ManageMyHome.com.

Sears Holdings (parent to the Sears retail chain) launched the site in August as a central stop for all home projects. But the site was in what Jim Hilt, vice president of divisional holdings for Sears, calls a “public beta,” open and being used by selected groups of consumers. “We were learning the nuances of what people wanted to do online relating to taking care of their homes,” he says. “It was a way for us to experiment live in the marketplace.”

What Hilt and company came up with was a site that lets users register, then sort through and save information on fix-up projects rated by difficulty and accompanied by recipe-like steps. The entry on replacing a window, for example, lays out the eight steps involved, offers a shopping list of 15 items, and rates the degree of expertise needed. In this case, the site says, DIYers will practically need to be pros.

Should they wish to hire a pro, ManageMyhome.com pops open a locator for a Sears Home Services contractor. But the sell factor is definitely soft, both there and for the products called for in the projects.

“We are already really good at service and selling in our stores and on our Sears.com site,” Hilt says. “Here we wanted to help homeowners with information. And if that helps them shop better at Lowe’s or Home Depot, well, we’ve still helped them, and they’ll come back.”
— Brian Quinton

Got a Web tip to share? Contact Brian Quinton at [email protected]