Traditional TV ads and video marketing have long operated on the principle of identifying the “ideal” audience for targeted content delivery. The assumption is simple: reaching the right people will lead to better outcomes. For many brands, key performance indicators (KPIs) focus on metrics that assess how effectively video content reaches its designated audience. On the surface, this seems logical; if you’re in the car insurance business, you’d naturally want to avoid advertising to those who don’t own cars.
However, this time-honored approach has notable shortcomings:
- Poor Data Quality: The data sets often employed to target audiences can be outdated or laden with inaccuracies.
- Privacy Crackdown: Tech giants like Apple are heightening data privacy measures, making it increasingly difficult to accumulate sufficient data for precise targeting.
- Vague Audience Definitions: Categories or “personas” used for audience definition can be overly broad, inadequately researched, or lacking in specificity, thereby reducing their utility.
- Inherent Bias: The traditional methods of targeting can perpetuate systemic biases, leading to missed opportunities and skewing our understanding of consumer behavior.
A Better Approach: Privacy-Protected, Data-Driven Targeting
The alternative is a paradigm shift in strategy. Rather than predefining an audience and aiming your video content at them, it’s more productive to cast a wider net initially. From there, marketers can use real-time consumption signals to focus on individuals most likely to convert. The key is to enter the video marketing arena devoid of any preconceived notions about your target audience. This tactic might unsettle marketers initially, but it eliminates inherent biases and inaccuracies, allowing for a more data-informed approach.
Engagement-First, Then Cross-Reference
Start by deploying a wide range of video content to see what actually gains traction. Then, elevate your strategy by analyzing what other types of content are being consumed by those who engage with your videos. Through a little ‘collective intelligence magic,’ you can synthesize this data to develop fully quantitative audience profiles. This provides not just a snapshot of your audience but a nuanced understanding of their interests and behaviors.
The Game-Changing Trick: Leverage Existing Data
But what if you could go a step further and circumvent the usual “test and learn” cycle? A patent-pending method offers just that, allowing you to capitalize on unconventional data sources to glean insights into what has succeeded for competitors. In essence, this strategy leverages ‘other people’s money’—as well as their data and insights—to jump-start the entire process. It enables the immediate development and deployment of highly effective video content, cutting down on waste and maximizing ROI.
By integrating this innovative, patent-pending approach, businesses can sidestep the issues linked to traditional audience targeting and even leapfrog more advanced data-driven methods. The result? Companies can hit the ground running, generating content that not only resonates but also drives meaningful engagement from the word go.