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How Personalization and Localization Can Help Brands Create Successful Marketing Campaigns

In the aftermath of the global pandemic, organizations today are now competing across the globe to maintain a loyal consumer base.

As a result, brands now rely on personalized and localized content to remain relevant and provide a more pleasant consumer experience against their competitors.

Today’s global brands and MNCs would often customize their digital assets like their websites, social media posts, and videos.

Based on geographic regions, digital content varies, and some even go so far as modifying everything from language to design.

Companies today have access to a large number of data about their target audience. These include their hobbies, interests, locations, products they purchased, and even the topics and keywords they have recently searched.

Brands that have access to these vast amounts of data are making it easier to create a personalized and localized online experience for their consumers, offering significant gains and benefits for both the brand and consumers.

Personalization and Localization: What’s the difference?

For brands today, personalization and localization may mean many things. Some brands view it as a business strategy that will increase their sustained growth.

For others, it’s a set of tactics used to boost website traffic and email response rates. Some may even see the two as just a buzzword.

Simply put, localization groups consumers according to their demographic characteristics such as age, geography, or gender. While personalization optimizes the experiences and messages to individuals, not the group they belong to.

But what do these terms really mean, and why do they matter for brands today?

Personalization uses specific data about a particular consumer to help brands customize the messages they send to them. This data can include their name, when they last visited the website, their abandoned carts, or even specific actions they did to your website like saving coupons or discount codes.

On the other hand, localization involves sending the right message to the right consumer, at the right place, and at the right time. It uses real-time data about specific demographics to create unique hyper-specific content.

So, how do they differ from each other? Personalization involves looking at specific users, while localization involves segmenting consumer demographics as a whole. As such, personalization may use a specific consumer’s name, while localization would use the local language and images specific to their geographic location.

Why should brands invest in personalization and localization?

Brands may use personalization and localization tactics for various reasons. It can promise immediate results like short-term revenue growth. However, investing in these tactics can also reflect the brand’s commitment to future market opportunities.

The main goal would be to establish a memorable entry to the market to gain a specific advantage to consumers over its competitors. Shakr Local at Scale provides effective location-based personalization creatives for brands that need geographic relevance to increase the results of their video ad campaigns.

Here are several reasons why brands use personalization and localization:

·   To increase a brand’s revenue.

A brand’s immediate goal is to increase revenue by venturing into new markets by entering new geographical locations or sectorial consumer-based areas. Additionally, brands will see increased revenue from their localization and personalization efforts by gaining more local engagement from their international audience, ultimately seeing improved purchase conversion rates.

·   To drive market awareness for brands.

While the ultimate goal for brands would be to increase revenue for the long term, a brand’s immediate goal is to first gain a strategic market entry advantage over its competitors. Consumers generally appreciate brands that are in tune with their specific needs. Localization and personalization are effective for showing consumers in new markets that the brand is involved in the local community.

·   To build brand relationships and loyalty to consumers.

Personalization and localization help forward-thinking companies transform their message, product, and marketing communications to sync on a local level. Brands invest in these strategies to allow them to adapt to the ever-changing local business landscape. By complementing localization efforts with continuous personalization, brands will gain the advantage of strengthening their consumer relationships and building brand loyalty.

Are personalization and localization the future of marketing?

Marketing gimmicks tend to be hyped over certain periods of time. However, it is entirely possible that personalization and localization are more than just a passing marketing hype.

While some marketers tend to dismiss these strategies as just a fleeting gimmick, several shifts in the industry have proven that personalization and localization are more than just buzzwords. Perhaps they may even signify a paradigm shift in the way brands market their products in the coming years.

Here are several reasons why personalization and localization are the gateways to the future of marketing:

·   Technology Growth

The past decade has given brands access to information and big data more than ever before. The growth of technology has also prompted the rise of automation and machine learning. These innovations take over labor-intensive tasks such as content translation, data collection, and even the scaling of video content creation.

As technology continues to evolve, it will become easier for brands to provide localized and personalized content for consumers. Location-based creative personalization with Shakr Local can help brands create hyper-localized ads in specific areas. With its easy-to-use video creation platform, Shakr empowers brands to produce high-quality videos instantly.

·   Steady Rise of Mobile

According to Statista, mobile traffic accounted for more than half of the Internet traffic in 2019. The priority of Google’s mobile-first SEO indexing is also an indication that the growing power of mobile is here to stay. As such, mobile-driven commerce is expected to grow in the coming years. This is why brands need to effectively deliver mobile content that is both personalized and localized on their devices.

·   Omnichannel Domination

Before the rise of Google and the Internet, consumers accessed information in various ways, primarily through newspapers or while watching TV. Now, the rise of second screens indicates that consumers are interacting with brands on their mobile devices while watching TV, online shopping, or even while browsing social media. Personalizing and localizing content for these online channels will show that brands pay attention to where consumers are as they try to understand their wants and needs. This keen attention to detail will help build trust and brand loyalty.

Hyper-Personalization with Localization

There’s no doubt about it. Personalization and localization will indeed bring growth and revenue for brands in the years to come. While brands are looking for ways to implement these strategies effectively, there would often be a disconnect between the two strategies. The truth is, personalization and localization will work best if these tactics are combined.

Here are several reasons why brands will get the most out of personalization and localization when they go hand-in-hand:

·   Smart Translation

As e-commerce continues to dominate the global market, it is no longer enough for businesses to use a single language website. Smart content translation allows brands to build trust with their shoppers that literally speak their language. However, it should not stop with language. Brands also need to update other location-based aspects of their website, such as the price listings in local currency. Studies have shown that online shoppers tend to abandon a purchase when prices only appear in USD. 

·   Multilingual Bots

Chatbots are proving to be very useful for businesses. Brands that use chatbots in their websites have been shown to significantly save up to 30% in customer service costs by providing customers with information and answering repetitive questions. Making chatbots multilingual will also help consumers answer questions quickly. As they navigate the Internet using their native language, multilingual chatbots are a natural extension of this seamless user experience.

·   Predictive Analytics

As consumers use your app, website, chatbots, and other digital assets, they give brands information about their personal preferences. This information will provide brands with information about the products they are interested in, their preferred customer support channels, and even when they are more likely to check your app or website.

·   The Allure of Video Localization

Video localization is a relatively new tactic in digital marketing. It delivers an experience that connects the customer to the brand through localized elements in the content. Video localization and personalization should provide a deeper understanding of the context, culture, customs, and characteristics of the target demographics. This is why it is essential to plan ahead to create videos that can be localized.

With Shakr Local, brands can create hyper-localized creatives with video automation tools that automatically create hundreds of personalized videos to provide consumers with memorable and custom-made brand experiences.

Personalization and Localization Best Practices

Airbnb

The vacation rental marketplace has grown exponentially over the past few years. By building a presence in almost 200 countries globally, Airbnb does not just need to translate the platform into multiple languages; it also needs to create localized marketing content to target specific demographics. The brand created targeted social campaigns with robust city guidebooks and localized experiences for tourists to target its growing base of hosts and travelers. Airbnb also uses voiceovers in localized videos to ensure that nothing gets lost in translation.

Uniqlo

Minimalist fast-fashion brand Uniqlo has been opening stores around the globe over the past few years. Alongside its fast expansion, it takes a strategic approach to create social media for its various markets worldwide. Uniqlo localizes its social media content by country to make it simpler to create customized content for promotions by region.

Netflix

Video streaming service Netflix is now operating in more than 190 countries across the globe. Due to its ambitious rapid global expansion, Netflix has to push for a localization program to create curated content for subscribers in each country. More recently, their content strategy expanded to creating Netflix Originals content for various markets. This is the kind of content that Netflix promotes to local consumers and attracts new audiences with new monthly curated content across its global platform. 

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is already a household name across the globe. With its prevalence in the markets across the world, one of Coca-Cola’s branding concerns is on localizing its products and packaging. To ensure that the brand resonates with consumers everywhere, Coca-Cola creates localized campaigns for its major markets. For example, its “Share a Coke” campaign features localized packaging and product copies to add a more personalized touch and catch consumers’ eyes.

Make your marketing campaigns future-proof with Shakr’s personalized and localized videos.

Customers today expect more from brands. They expect brands to know their needs and not just their demographics. And what better way to do that with Shakr’s localized videos at scale. Want to learn more? Discover a call with us now.

References:

Customer Segmentation vs. Personalization Marketing | Sailthru. (2021). Retrieved 29 July 2021, from https://www.sailthru.com/marketing-blog/personalization-vs-segmentation-real-difference-matters/

Localization and Personalization at Scale. (2021). Retrieved 29 July 2021, from https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/localization-and-personalization/

Peacock, L. (2019). 5 Brands Who Killed It with Localized Content Strategies. Retrieved 29 July 2021, from https://www.shutterstock.com/blog/5-brands-localized-content

Video Localization in the Digital Era. (n.d.). SPi Global Data Intelligence & Content Technology. https://www.spi-global.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Video-Localization-in-the-Digital-Era-Whitepaper.pdf

The post How Personalization and Localization Can Help Brands Create Successful Marketing Campaigns appeared first on Shakr Video Marketing Blog.

Posted in Videos | Leave a reply

Using an Effective Video Marketing Strategy for 2021 on TikTok

In a world where consumers are getting exposed to many video ads per day, it’s becoming clear that a straightforward ad wouldn’t make much of a difference to cut through the noise.

Still, brands need to also be concerned about overexposure.

According to Google, whenever consumers see the same videos played repeatedly, it can lead to frustration and decreased brand equity.

This is why an effective video marketing strategy is essential for brands to help maximize their video ads.

Brands need to have an effective video marketing strategy and storytelling ideas for social media platforms like TikTok, including dos and don’ts, tips and tricks, and creative examples from brands in this article.

A Brand’s Video Marketing Mission Statement

Similar to crafting a mission statement for the brand’s content strategy, it’s advantageous to have one for your video strategy too.

Joe Pulizzi, the Founder of the Content Marketing Institute, understands the need for a mission statement that serves as a helpful tool to bring forth a brand’s strategy. In addition, it gives teams a compelling easy-to-recall message that will provide an overall direction to a video marketing strategy.

A simple one-liner statement that answers these questions would do:

·   What type of content do you plan to make?

Whether it’s for entertainment or educational purposes, the brand’s identity and target audience should determine the type of post they need to create.

·   Who are you making this content for?

A detailed outline for the target demographic is needed to create videos that will appeal to the audience.

·   What should your audience take away from your videos?

Determine what value, tasks, or goals the video will add to help the target audience achieve what they want to accomplish.

Video Marketing and Storytelling on TikTok

When it comes to posting frequency and storytelling, video-sharing platforms like TikTok can provide a niche audience for brands.

It should be noted that compared to other social media platforms, brands on TikTok can go viral with just several followers. The secret is for brands to upload original, entertaining, and shareable content with compelling storytelling.

TikTok has often been disregarded as a platform for the Gen Z crowd. However, studies showed that recently, it is also gaining popularity among Millennials and other older users. In fact, 25 to 34-year-old TikTok users grew from 22.4% to 27.4% from January to April last year.

If your brand wants to create content for students or young professionals, these users might already be on TikTok.

As such, forward-thinking brands need to start building their own TikTok video marketing strategy. Here are several compelling points on why it’s important:

Why do you need a TikTok video marketing strategy?

·   Impressive reach and engagement

TikTok’s unique advantage is that it’s a great platform to build genuine connections with your target audience. Collaborating with influencers, creating, and participating with brand challenges will help the brand win the trust of the TikTok audience and boost its online reputation.

·   First-mover advantage

While it may have a lot of potential, TikTok marketing is still in the early stages. Many brands are still analyzing their long-term viability. If your brand delves into TikTok now, it will likely face less competition. By the time competitors enter the platform, your brand would have been established already.

·   Low barrier entry

More than production value, TikTok users value creativity and originality more. That’s why brands do not need a high video production budget to start making TikTok videos. As such, TikTok video marketing is ideal for all types of businesses, regardless of their size.

Why do you need to rethink how to approach TikTok from the usual video marketing strategy?

·   To process a ton of unique brand experience for your audience.

With any type of video posted online, brands need to process a lot of contextual information about what the target audience is seeing and hearing in just a few seconds. As such, a successful video ad needs a compelling story that will unpack the brand’s unique context and convey it with the appropriate mode and tone in the video.

·   To be guided by the right post frequency sweet spot.

Depending on viewing habits on TikTok, users can be over or underexposed on video ads as they shift between devices. When it comes to video posting frequency, there is no magic number. Brand awareness, product maturity, and campaign goals will all play an important factor.

When it comes to video ads sequencing, Shakr has built advanced and powerful video automation solutions that enable brands to scale their video creative effortlessly.

·   To unravel the storytelling potential on video (variety + frequency).

TikTok users are compelled to remember great storytelling. Video ad frequency will allow brands to post TikTok videos that tell great stories to their consumers. With the right creatives that use unique narrative journeys, creating TikTok ads highlighting the brand will drive higher frequency.

Shakr enables brands to create personalized and localized ads with bespoke video creatives that drive video performance on social platforms like TikTok.

·   To consider the right content for the right platform.

Knowing where a particular video will be hosted will largely depend on the type of content that brands created. TikTok users value genuine and authentic content. Therefore, they are more inclined to watch brands post videos that are unfiltered and less edited than other platforms like Facebook or Twitter.

·   To allow time for content creation and testing.

Just like any other video marketing campaign, brands need to allocate adequate time and resources for A/B testing on video creatives. Creating the right type of video content on the TikTok platform will take multiple rounds of reviews and trials. It’s a bit difficult to nail it the first time around, so make sure that your brand has enough time to polish the video ads.

Video Marketing Dos and Don’ts on TikTok

Don’t create ads; make TikToks.

Brands need to remember that TikTok isn’t like any other social platform out there. Repurposing videos from Facebook or Twitter will not work here. Similar to learning a language, brands need to learn how to “speak TikTok” before posting on the platform.

Don’t be subtle.

Subliminal ads don’t work on TikTok. Brands should get their point across as clearly as possible. They should make a concise statement that will instantly hook their viewers. If they don’t, TikTok users will just be compelled to swipe and ignore the brand’s video.

Do authenticity and show what you do best.

A brand’s day-to-day operations can mystify most consumers. Make the brand more relatable by posting behind-the-scenes content and show TikTok users what your brand is good at.

Do quick tips and fast facts.

People like to learn new things, especially if it doesn’t take too long. Quick tips and fast facts about the brand will provide great TikTok content. It garners a nod of approval from your audience since they have learned something new, but it will also leave them wanting more.

Do technical or comedic, but NOT both.

Brands should either be technical or comedic on the TikTok platform, but never both in one video. There should be no in-between; otherwise, the viewers will just be confused about the purpose of the video.

Tips and Tricks to TikTok Success

TIP 1: Cross-promote on social media.

Brands can cross-promote their TikTok videos on other social media channels like TikTok and Instagram to drive traffic to their account. Similarly, brands can also cross-promote their Instagram account by linking it to the brand’s profile or adding social handles at the end of its TikTok videos.

TIP 2: Post as often as possible.

While some TikTok videos go viral immediately, most of them take a lot of work. Create a strong presence on the platform and post on TikTok often to help the brand grow and succeed.

TIP 3: Find a niche.

Niche content is extremely popular on TikTok. While watching videos, find out what type of niche content are your target audience watching on the platform. Then, focus and start thinking about how to create niche content for your own brand.

TIP 4: Get good lighting.

While users expect authentic and unfiltered videos on TikTok, it’s still essential to have the basics in the bag. As such, good lighting for your videos is important to improve the overall quality of your brand’s TikTok posts.

TIP 5: Use trending sounds.

If your brand’s TikTok videos use trending sounds, it has a higher chance of being shown on the For You Page of TikTok users. Brands can simply search for the trending sounds in TikTok’s playlists when they want to add sounds to their videos.

Fuel your creative juices with these winning brands on TikTok

ELF Cosmetics

ELF Cosmetics is one of the most successful brands on TikTok. The brand actually invested in their TikTok video marketing and commissioned a song for the “Eyes Lips Face” campaign. ELF initially worked with influencers on the platform with videos that used #eyeslipsface. Since then, the campaign has blown up to 3.8 billion.

Guess

Guess had a good start on the TikTok platform by launching a #InMyDenim challenge. Having the first-mover advantage, Guess is one of the first fashion brands to go on TikTok, and their first hashtag challenge was a great success that garnered over 38 million views.

NBA

NBA is also one of the early adopters of the TikTok platform. Racking up around 12 million followers on the app, NBA keeps things funny and light with a lot of memes and comedic videos that are also on-trend.

HP

@ourfire

sometimes we need to step into our dream to make it a reality like us at #HPCoachellaDreamland #ad

♬ Underwater – RÜFÜS DU SOL

Proving that any brand can be on TikTok is HP printers. They kicked things off on the platform with the #HPCoachellaDreamland challenge and enlisted the help of TikTok influencers to kick off the challenge. The video has over 176 million views.

San Diego Zoo

Cute animals are definitely a great subject for viral TikTok videos. San Diego Zoo knew how to harness the “awe factor” of baby animals with their posts. They have a baby cheetah licking a bloodsicle and a baby elephant their mom during World Elephant Day.

Shakr will help you and your brand ramp up your video ads strategy on TikTok.

We’re here to help you create successful ad campaigns with winning video marketing strategies on the hottest video-sharing app today. In addition, Shakr will help you create engaging video content that will help increase your brand’s visibility on TikTok.

Want to learn more? Schedule a discovery call with us now!

References:

25 Inspiring Brands on TikTok to Fuel Your Creative Strategy. (2021). Retrieved 28 June 2021, from https://wallaroomedia.com/blog/social-media/tiktok-brands-examples-strategy/

The Beginner’s Guide to TikTok Marketing. (2020). Retrieved 28 June 2021, from https://www.hustlr.com/the-beginners-guide-to-tiktok-marketing/

The Ultimate TikTok Marketing Guide for Small Businesses in 2021 – Boosted. (2021). Retrieved 28 June 2021, from https://boosted.lightricks.com/the-ultimate-tiktok-marketing-guide-for-small-businesses-in-2021/

Think With Google. (2021). Retrieved 19 June 2021, from https://bit.ly/2UKeNoH

Think With Google. (2021). Retrieved 28 June 2021, from https://bit.ly/3jpArsJ

TikTok Marketing Tips. (2021). Retrieved 28 June 2021, from https://zapier.com/blog/tiktok-marketing-tips/

Video Marketing Strategy: What You Need to Know to Succeed. (2021). Retrieved 28 June 2021, from https://www.vidyard.com/blog/video-marketing-strategy/

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Posted in Videos | Leave a reply

Why should brands get into the video ads train?

Video is one of the biggest game-changers in marketing over the past few years. 

There’s no doubt that videos have become one of the most popular forms of online content consumption today.

If video ads are the future of marketing, then brands are stepping into the future right now.

Brands may still wonder if this is the right time to invest in video ads, if there are enough targeted consumers interested in watching their videos, or if getting into video marketing is worth the investment at all.

The short answer is YES to ALL of it.

In fact, 2020 has prompted a 96% increase in online video consumption where 9 out of 10 viewers noted that they wanted to see more video ads from brands.

This year, it was predicted that an average person would spend around 100 minutes per day just watching videos online.

In this article, you’ll discover why brands are scrambling to get on board the video train, the substantial benefits of doing so, and how to incorporate video ads into the marketing strategy. It also includes a short tutorial on how brands can get started with video ads using Shakr’s video platform for dynamic product ads.

The Clamor for Video Ads

Over the past pandemic-filled year, brands have to adapt to keep generating revenue and gain a competitive advantage amidst the massive global economic downturn.

The challenges brought about by the pandemic have impacted brands in a number of ways. Many companies have implemented massive budget cuts, and a lot of marketing plans have been shelved.

With new social media platforms like TikTok getting a boost in popularity for at-home consumers, going all-in on digital is the safest bet.

Wyzowl’s State of Video Marketing 2021 Report noted that the number of businesses using video as a marketing tool has increased by 41% since 2016. Consequently, the report also showed how the unprecedented events of last year had affected the demand for video. Around 40% of marketers reported that their plans around video marketing have been, or are being affected, by COVID-19, where 74% say the pandemic made them more likely to use video. In comparison, 26% say it became less likely.

The demand for video is the one thing that has remained constant since the past year. Video ads continue to be an essential tool in marketing to help brands communicate and engage with their target audience.

Why should brands invest in video ads?

Now more than ever, today’s brands need to reach out beyond their own comfort zone to find and engage with their audience online. 

Brands need to learn how to cut through the noise and grab attention so they can generate enough interest and excitement with online content that will captivate their audience. 

So, why video? The Internet is a rabbit hole of content. That’s one big label for a variety of things. There are blogs, podcasts, infographics, and your generic social media posts out there. 

While each type of content has its own advantages, data have proven that video is indeed one of the best forms of content consumption online over the past few years. Here are several reasons why brands need to finally get into video ads for 2021: 

It’s memorable.

No other type of video can mix learning styles as effectively as video—the combination of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic elements of video packs a wealth of information. The net result of this shows that video content tends to live longer in the memory of the viewers. Wyzowl noted that viewers are 95% more likely to remember a CTA after watching a video compared to text. 

It grabs attention.

Video makes an incredible storytelling tool. By carefully curating every aspect of a video, from the look and feel down to the messaging and soundtrack, brands can generate an emotional response with video in a way that would be incredibly difficult for other content types to replicate. 

It builds brands.

Using video ads will help empower brands. Video ads will help deliver consistent and memorable brand experiences to enhance the narrative around their products and services. 

It’s a gateway to popular social media channels.

Youtube, and more recently, TikTok, are every content marketer’s dream. It’s not just a place to watch trending videos; it’s also a place to learn. Google’s data showed that 65% of viewers watch Youtube to help them solve a problem, while 86% use it to learn new things. 

It overcomes “banner blindness.”

Banner blindness can be costly to businesses. This phenomenon occurs when web users have become so accustomed to banner and display ads that they are already conditioned to ignore them. Video ads are less vulnerable to banner blindness and ad-blocking tools. It can also cut through the noise better, making it a great advertising tool. 

Shakr can help brands create memorable video ads that can help overcome banner blindness with their easy-to-use video creation platform. Taking your video ads creation to the next level, Shakr creates engaging branded videos that are personalized and localized to the brand’s target audience.  

Here are some video marketing stats that brands need to know:

Internet users everywhere enjoy video content.

More and more people are enjoying video consumption at unprecedented rates. According to Statista, 85% of Internet users in the United States watched online videos monthly. The report also showed that 25 to 34-year-olds watch videos the most, where adult males spend 40% more time watching online videos than females. Consequently, the time spent watching online video content on smartphones by users in the US has also been growing over time. 

Demand for video ads is rapidly increasing.

Nowadays, the preference for video content is not just for entertainment. Video also extends to brands. Hubspot noted that several studies show that 54% of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or company they support. An Oberlo survey also showed that video content is in higher demand since people are more likely to pay attention to it. In contrast to audio and written content where there is a higher tendency to skip parts. Thus, brands can get more eyeballs to their video ads. 

Video ads are becoming a powerful marketing tool.

Success in video ads is currently at its peak. So it’s not a surprise that brands are now clamoring to include video content into their digital marketing strategy. Wyzowl’s State of Video Marketing 2021 Report showed that brands using video ads for marketing have increased by 61% since 2016. In addition, 93% of these marketers admitted that video is an integral part of their marketing strategy. 

Consumers love watching videos on social media.

Consumers see videos on almost every social media platform nowadays. According to Wyzowl’s 2021 report, 68% of consumers said that the pandemic had impacted the amount of video content they’ve watched online and an overwhelming majority (96%) said that this has increased. In addition, 84% of people said that they’d been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video. This data alone shows how much videos are getting more influential on consumer decisions with the passage of time. 

Video ads equate to profit with a satisfying ROI on video marketing campaigns.

For brands, it will all boil down to the ROI (return on investment). Data from Wyzowl shows that 87% of video marketers say video, in general, gives them a good return on their investment. Another report from Animoto showed that 80% of marketers claim that they are satisfied by the ROI of the video ads that they posted on social media. Most marketers use video ads on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and more recently on TikTok. 

Videos ads are becoming a powerful lead generation tool.

The Wyzowl 2021 report showed that 84% of video ads had helped marketers in generating leads. In addition, an Optinmonster survey concluded that marketers achieve a 54% increase in brand awareness with video. This helps them land new customers on social media as the increased quality of leads can be attributed to the quality of the brand’s video ads. 

Shakr creates high-quality video ads that help increase lead generation for brands with its location-based creative personalization tool. With the help of Shakr’s powerful video creation platform, Shakr has empowered over 10,000 brands worldwide with top-notch video ads for both their paid and organic digital marketing campaigns. 

Video ads help consumers make purchase decisions.

Video ads do not just help in keeping consumers engaged. It also plays an essential role in their decision-making process. The survey from Wyzowl showed that 78% of video marketers say video has directly helped increase sales. Consequently, nearly 8 out of 10 consumers purchased a piece of software or app after watching the brand’s video. This just goes to show that the power of video ads is actually felt in the entire buyer’s journey. More often than not, consumers turn to a brand’s video if they want to learn more about a particular product or service. 

Where should brands use video ads in their marketing strategy?

Attract Phase

The attract phase is all about scraping together useful content and find the right balance to feature your brand’s video ads. It can be likened to fishing. To catch a fish, brands need to find the right bait. Brands need to find the right balance to find out which type of video ads to use. And of course, investing in SEO is one of the best strategies to cast a wide net. Brands should tackle the basics and find out where is the most cost-savvy place to their target audiences on social media like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and TikTok.

Engage Phase

The engage phase is usually where the magic happens for brands. Once people have consumed the brand’s videos in the attract phase, it’s time to take a deeper dive. Brands can start by posting video ads that drive lead generation on social media. Then they can use conversion CTAs to capture leads and organically produce loyal consumers.

Delight Phase

The fruits of labor from the two previous phases will pay off in the delight phase if done right. 

Brands should invest in creating memorable content for their target audience, something that they will be compelled to share online. This will ultimately help brands connect with their consumers on a more profound and emotional level. Take the time to show consumers how much they mean to your brand. The delight phase mostly coincides with the holiday period, where most brands create heartfelt thank you videos for their consumers. 

Get Started with Video on Shakr: How Shakr Does It with Dynamic Product Ads

Shakr enables brands to create dynamic video ads campaigns with product catalogs for social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. With the help of Shakr’s video creation tool, brands can create hundreds of videos at scale, each unique to their individual product catalog.

So, what are the advantages of using Shakr’s video dynamic product ads (DPA)? Here’s the gist:

·   Proprietary video rendering with full interoperability with Adobe After Effects

·   On-demand support for any data feed to version automatically to infinity

·   Proven API with a track record with top e-commerce, advertising technology, and social platforms.

In other words, brands are empowered to make hundreds and even thousands of video ads at scale, all of which can be hyper-personalized and localized with your target demographics. Shakr provides scalable video ads for brands featuring best-in-class tools such as:

·   Creative Services

Shakr provides world-class video creative services. The Shakr Creative Lab experts will help your brand succeed in getting started with your video ads campaigns on social media by creating bespoke video templates.

·   Intuitive SAAS Platform

Shakr’s easy-to-use video creation platform tool allows brands to quickly create high-quality video creatives for their ad campaigns. Within minutes, brands can have high-quality video ad campaigns ready to upload on social media.

·   Video Automation

Shakr can automatically create thousands of product video ads for your brand. Our advanced and powerful video automation solutions can help brands scale their video creatives effortlessly.

How do you set up a DPA video campaign with Shakr?

Shakr can take your brand’s video ads on a massive scale. It doesn’t matter whether you have your own internal creatives capabilities or you just need help crafting a video ads campaign for a specific social media platform. Shakr can help your brand from the ground up by simply following these easy steps:

1. Schedule a discovery call to understand your goals, objectives, and creative strategy.

2. Shakr provides an end-to-end scaled creative campaign proposal for your brand.

3. Shakr’s Creative Lab Team will produce your bespoke video templates optimized for scale on social media, or we help you onboard your own templates.

4. The DPA Campaign is set up through Shakr’s ads integration.

5. The campaign goes live, and Shakr helps you to analyze creative performance and iterations.

Case Studies: Video Ads Best Practices

Halodoc

Brand Awareness through Dynamic Product Ads

Success Rates:

·   +42% Improvement in Cost Efficiency

·   +18% Increase in New Users

·   -24% Lower CAC than BAU Channels

As the leading health-tech platform in Indonesia, Halodoc offers teleconsultation with verified doctors, medicine purchase & delivery, hospital appointment booking services, and lab services. However, Halodoc’s agency M&C Saatchi Performance wanted to take their client to the next level by creating dynamic videos based on the nearest hospital for their audience.

Leveraging on Shakr’s dynamic ads solution, M&C Saatchi Performance and Halodoc served hyper-localized and targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram showing creatives containing the closest hospital to the targeted user through geolocation targeting and hundreds of personalized video creatives. Upon clicking on the ad, the user was taken to Halodoc’s platform to book an appointment. Click here to learn more about Halodoc’s success.

Sendle

Localized Creatives on Facebook and Instagram

Success Rates:

·   35% Decrease in Cost Per Lead

·   + 131% Increase in CTR

·   29% Decreased CPC

As a 100% carbon neutral shipping service, Sendle’s focus has always been on the success of small businesses. By unlocking the networks and volumes that are usually only available to bigger businesses, Sendle successfully provided the best prices for their customers. In addition, Sendle used Shakr Local to decrease their Cost Per Lead on Facebook and Instagram by 35%.

Sendle’s localized creatives proved to be an extremely effective marketing strategy on Facebook and Instagram. Compared to the control group, the localized creative drove a 35% decrease in Sendle’s Cost-Per-Lead. Along with the strong business outcomes, the localized creatives increased CTR by 131%. In addition, they decreased the CPC by 29%, proving that localizing your creatives can have outsized results compared to the small investment. Learn more about Sendle’s success story here.

Instyle Solar

Hyper Localized Campaign in Sydney, Australia

Success Rates:

·   + 81% Click Through Rate

·   45% Cost Per Lead

·   44% Cost Per Click

·   57% Leads from non-serviceable areas

Instyle Solar created a hyper-localized campaign in Sydney that saw their Cost-Per-Lead decrease by a massive 50% compared to non-localized creatives. Using Shakr Local at Scale, they created unique videos for each zip code in their serviceable area; they could increase the relevance of their ads to their audience by communicating that their areas were included in the New South Wales government’s solar rebate program.

By automating the production of hundreds of videos with Shakr, they could drive a Cost-Per-Lead reduction of 45%. In addition, Instyle Solar’s localized creatives caused an 81% increase in CTR and a 44% reduction in CPC. As an additional benefit, Instyle Solar decreased the number of leads from non-serviceable areas (Out-Of-Area) by 57%. To know more about Instyle Solar’s successful campaign, click here.

Shakr is here to help you get on board the video ads trend that’s been dominating the marketing industry.

Shakr enables brands to create dynamic video ads for their products and services. Brands can generate hundreds of video ads with bespoke creatives unique to their individual product catalogs with Shakr’s easy-to-use video creation platform.

Want to learn more? Schedule a demo with us now.

References: 

10 Video Marketing Statistics You should Know for 2021 [Infographic]. (2020). Retrieved 5 August 2021, from https://www.oberlo.com.ph/blog/video-marketing-statistics

136 Video Marketing Statistics You Can’t Ignore In 2021 | InVideo. (2021). Retrieved 5 August 2021, from https://invideo.io/blog/video-marketing-statistics/

20 Video Marketing Statistics 2021 | Explain Ninja. (2021). Retrieved 5 August 2021, from https://explain.ninja/blog/20-video-marketing-statistics-2020/

Announcing the 2021 State of Video Report. (2021). Retrieved 5 August 2021, from https://wistia.com/learn/marketing/announcing-the-2021-state-of-video-report

Video Marketing Starter Pack. (2021). Retrieved 5 August 2021, from https://offers.hubspot.com/thank-you/beginners-guide-to-video-marketing?hubs_post-cta=author&hubs_post=blog.hubspot.com%2Fmarketing%2Fstate-of-video-marketing-new-data&hubs_offer=offers.hubspot.com%2Fbeginners-guide-to-video-marketing&submissionGuid=126946b4-63b8-40b1-9f94-fe0a9fda42ff

Video Marketing Statistics 2021 (Brand New Data) | Wyzowl. (2021). Retrieved 5 August 2021, from https://www.wyzowl.com/video-marketing-statistics/

The post Why should brands get into the video ads train? appeared first on Shakr Video Marketing Blog.

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The Video Ads Advantage: How Local Brands Can Maximize the Power of Video

The growth of video over the past year has been unprecedented. While there has been a notable upward trend for video consumption over the past few years, the pandemic has certainly accelerated it even more.

Wyzowl’s 2021 video marketing report showed that the number of businesses using video as a marketing tool, overall, has increased from 61% to 86% since 2016.

In fact, a new report commissioned by the Interactive Advertising Bureau from PwC revealed that despite the initial decline due to the global COVID-19 disruption, digital advertising spending actually grew 12.2% year over year in 2020.

All these figures show that today’s post-pandemic video landscape is rapidly redefining our consumer’s content consumption and reframing how we watch, what we watch, and why we watch content.

So, what are the implications of these facts to your local business? More precisely, how can video ads help grow your local brand?

In this article, you’ll discover how to harness the power of video localization and how local brands can reframe their approach to video ads with successful strategies that will actually work.

Why do local brands gain a competitive advantage with video ads?

Over the past pandemic-filled year, consumers around the world have vastly relied on digital channels to work, shop, connect with friends and handle other daily activities.

These drastic lifestyle changes from at-home consumers have made an impact on the entire video consumption landscape – from viewers to advertisers to creators and artists.

Investing in video ads for local brands with a pretty tight marketing budget can be a daunting endeavor. But contrary to what most people think, video ads are becoming one of the great equalizers in digital marketing.

You really don’t need to shell out a lot of cash for a national TV ad; you just need to create a good video that will capture the interests of your local community and your target audience.

Video is especially useful for local brands due to its visual nature. Consumers sometimes have psychological biases for local brands, and seeing the brand on video may help them feel comfortable enough to overcome their prejudices.

Creating video ads is one of the most promising methods to help local brands reach out to their audience and acquire new clients. Local brands can take advantage of where they are and highlight specifics that matter to locals, such as your location, connections within the community, and even local holidays or events.

With engaging video ads, even small local businesses can leave a lasting impression on potential consumers. Thereby making video ads a great local marketing strategy that will help build brand awareness and bring organic growth to local businesses.

Make it Local (at Scale): Creating Video Ads that Work

In a world where consumers have tons of content to watch, traditional content consumption has been replaced by a more localized and personalized content consumption.

These include moments of consumer engagement that are wholly driven by the viewer’s interests and preferences.

A Google survey showed that over 60% who watched something on YouTube in the previous 24 hours said it was related to something they were passionate about.

As personal relevance and viewer passion gain more importance, it’s time for local brands to rethink their mindset on video ads.

Here are five essential lessons that local brands should adapt to their video strategy:

·   Capture attention immediately.

With tons of content to choose from, a viewer’s focus is becoming more and more selective about the type of content they wish to focus their attention on. If something does not immediately get them hooked, they will instantly skip, scroll, or ignore a video ad.

Local brands need video ads that will grab their consumer’s attention from the get-go. They need content the will surprise and intrigue their viewers during the first few seconds of the video. This will give them a compelling opportunity to make consumers watch and engage with their videos instead of skipping.

·   Be a truly helpful local neighborhood guru.

Viewers rely on online videos and tutorials to get things done. They are also relying on social media platforms like Youtube, Instagram, and TikTok for purchase decisions. Wyzowl’s 2021 report showed that 84% of people acknowledged that they’d been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.

To stand out among the barrage of ads that viewers see every day, local brands should consider creating helpful content that meets the needs of their local consumers. Through a video series, they can create a persona that will help them become a friendly and reliable neighborhood guru online. Keep in mind that if you teach and inspire your viewers, they won’t just watch your ads. They have the potential to become loyal, long-term advocates of your brand.

·   Learn to be relatable.

Understanding the local audience and the community is essential to a successful video ads strategy. More than that, being relevant to the local consumer’s personal interests may just be the most critical aspect of a local brand’s video content.

Google showed that when people decide what to watch, relating to their passions is three times more important than whether content features famous actors and 1.6X more important than whether it has high production quality. This just shows that when brands can reframe the context of their video into something that local consumers care about, it will naturally drive results.

·   Build relationships on the platform.

Video is a unique and immersive way for local brands to build relationships with their local community. As such, local brands can use social media platforms like Facebook, Youtube, and TikTok to help break the fourth wall and have a two-way dialogue with their consumers.

This is a good way to make the brand more humane and approachable. Let consumers think of your brand as more than just a business, but a reliable member of the local community, just like them.

·   Build a compelling call to action (CTA).

Creative video ads with enticing CTAs will make it easier for local brands to encourage viewers to take them to the next step. Whether it’s visiting your website or making a purchase, a compelling video CTA will help build brand awareness and drive results to your local brand.

One way of doing that is to create a sense of urgency with FOMO as a creative hook on your video ads. Make them aware that there’s an expiration date on your deals and promos, and give them a good reason why they should purchase your products immediately.

Shakr creates high-quality video ads that help increase brand awareness and drive local brands’ results with its location-based creative personalization tool. With the help of Shakr’s powerful video creation platform, Shakr has empowered over 10,000 brands worldwide with top-notch video ads for both their paid and organic digital marketing campaigns.

Tips on how local brands can leverage videos for local marketing

TIP 1: Include it on the website landing page

Video ads can be linked to your brand’s website landing page to help consumers view it as they go through other information on your website. Videos can serve as your consumer guide where they can walk through the information they need while watching the video and move on to the next step on your website.

Circulating local-centric content is essential to reach your target audience. Furthermore, it is also equally important for video content on your website landing page to enhance user experience. Remember that the key to a good video ads strategy lies in creating precise and consumer-centric videos. In addition, there should be information takeaways that are relevant to your local audience.

TIP 2: Send it directly to the customer

Videos can also be sent directly to existing consumers via newsletters or subscription emails. Local brands can directly embed videos into their newsletters and let them automatically play in the email. This strategy will help readers consume information without any additional effort.

Keep in mind that readers are more likely to watch videos than read lengthy emails about your product promotions. Since they are more receptive to consume video content, these readers will also be more willing to engage with the brand. It will also help your local brand form a close relationship with your local consumers since personalized and localized video content will appear more genuine.

TIP 3: Promote it on social media.

According to Wyzowl’s 2021 report, people watch an average of 18 hours of online video per week. This is an increase of 2 hours per week compared to a year ago. Therefore, this is an excellent opportunity for the local brand to promote your products using different social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and TikTok. If done right, local brands can make a mark within the community by using these social channels. As such, it’s essential for local brands to understand how these platforms work.

Harness the power of localization: How Shakr Local can help local brands

Location-based creative personalization is a great marketing opportunity for local brands that want to build brand relevance within the local communities.  Whether it’s about creating hyper-localized ads in the areas they operate or calling out neighboring cities with ad creatives, location-based creatives are proven to work.

With Shakr Local, local brands can create hyper-localized creatives and set up their campaigns at Scale on social media. Shakr Local is an advertising technology solution that will help local brands create geo-based variations of your videos for different locations. Shakr can also set up and traffic your brand’s hyper-local campaign at Scale, whether you want to personalize your creative for 10, 100, or 1,000 different locations.

Here’s how Shakr Local can help local brands:

Local brands can earn more with less effort.

Easy-to-use platform that empowers local brands to create high-quality videos in minutes.

Creative Localization has proven to be highly effective with solid performance gains. Shakr Local is the perfect solution for local brands that strive to have a local relevance in people’s lives. It can be used to increase the relevance of your brand’s video ads, even if you are running an online-only business with no brick-and-mortar store. Shakr enables local brands to create localized video ads at Scale for dozens, hundreds, or thousands of locations and quickly traffic complex campaign setups.

Local brands can maximize video usage for optimum performance.

Data-driven creative automation tools that serve personalized video ads and locally relevant ads for local brands.

Hyper localized campaigns created with Shakr Local have been proven to drive up to a 47% decrease in Cost Per Lead and a 50% reduction of poor quality leads. By making video ads personalization a priority, local brands can improve the business impact and efficiency of their brand’s marketing campaign while providing their consumers with more memorable experiences.

Local brands can simplify their video creation workflows.

Seamless integration to leading social media platforms with cutting-edge solutions.

Shakr provides world-class creative video ads at Scale to help local brands succeed on social media platforms by creating bespoke video templates. Its easy-to-use, intuitive video creation platform can seamlessly deliver great video experiences to local consumers. Automate every step from video creation to campaign activation with programmatic access to Shakr video technology.

Shakr Local Case Studies

American Express

Success Rates:

·   69% partner merchants received AMEX payments

·   60% increase in cardmember spend during the campaign

·   20% increase in cardmember spend post-campaign

Financial service company American Express wanted to increase local AMEX spend by encouraging cardholders to choose their AMEX card when shopping locally. With the help of Shakr’s Dynamic Geo Ads, AMEX delivered hyper-local video ads to individual postal codes across the country. Each video ad encouraged cardholders to visit a specific AMEX partner merchant located within the target postal code. AMEX successfully created hundreds of variations of their video ads, each unique to a specific location, to create locally relevant videos for their diverse American audience.

Coupang Eats

Success Rates:

·   62.7% more app installs

·   38.5% decrease in CPI (cost per install)

·   38.4% increase in CTR (click-through-rate)

As the leading food delivery app in South Korea, Coupang Eats used Shakr Local to increase app installs. They created a video localization campaign that raised the relevance of their creatives with Shakr Local. The video ad was created with the objective of getting new users to install the Coupang Eats app by urging consumers to order food delivery near their location.

FilGOOD

Success Rates:

·   31% increase in purchase intent

·   +2.2pts increase in overall purchase intent

·   +3.95pts increased purchase intent in the target audience

Major Korean beer brand, FilGOOD utilizes Shakr Local for their brand awareness campaign on Facebook and Instagram. FilGOOD successfully increased its audience’s purchase intent by 31%. Localizing their video ad assets for 50 of the largest areas in Seoul and Incheon. By uploading their TV asset to Shakr and layered on localization messaging that indicated what area their viewer was.

Shakr is here to help local brands brand ramp up their video ads strategy for the local community.

We’re here to help you create successful ad campaigns with winning video marketing strategies. Shakr will help you create engaging video content that will help increase your brand’s visibility with your local consumers.

Want to learn more? Book a discovery call with us now!

References:

Graham, M. (n.d.). Digital ad spend grew 12% in 2020 despite hit from pandemic. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/07/digital-ad-spend-grew-12percent-in-2020-despite-hit-from-pandemic.html

H., G. (2019). How Can Local Video Marketing Help Small Businesses?. Retrieved 112August 2021, from https://www.lemonlight.com/blog/how-can-local-video-marketing-help-small-businesses/

Mohan, N. (2021). Retrieved 12 August 2021, from https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/video/post-pandemic-video-trends/

The Full Video Marketing Guide For Small Business. (2020). Retrieved 12 August 2021, from https://marketsplash.com/small-business-video-marketing/

The rules of online video ad engagement. (2019, March 4). Think with Google. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-apac/marketing-strategies/video/online-video-ad-engagement/

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5 tips to get the most out of your Facebook Ads during this year’s Mega Sales Days

11.11 2009 marked the beginning of the Singles’ Day shopping holiday in China, which has now grown to become the world’s largest shopping festival. Singles’ Day has become an annual event that has inspired the birth of a variety of sales days throughout China and South-East Asia.

All of these dates are now collectively known as Mega Sale Days, which have become popular and more frequent across Southeast Asia.

In addition to China and Southeast Asian specific dates like 11.11 (Singles’ Day), 3.3, 4.4, and 6.6, Mega Sales days also include shopping dates originating from the US and Europe, like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas shopping.

Mega Sales Days are a great opportunity for e-commerce businesses to increase their sales and acquire new customers hungry for a good deal. Facebook has an excellent article covering interesting information and statistics related to mega sales days, which is worth a read.

In this article, we want to share 5 actionable tips you can implement to improve your Facebook Ads and get the most out of this year’s mega sales days.

1. Improve the creative quality of your Dynamic Ads with enhanced product images

Dynamic Ads is one of the most effective forms of online advertising for companies that sell a wide range of products. Just by connecting your product catalog to the Facebook Ads Manager, you can deliver ads personalized based on what people are currently in the market to buy.

Although Facebook’s Advanced ad delivery algorithm does most of the heavy lifting to ensure the highest possible return on ad spend from your dynamic ads, there are a few things you can do to make the ads even more effective.

One thing you can do to make your dynamic ads more effective is to enhance the product images in your catalog in order to make the ads more attention-grabbing and on-brand.

Most regular dynamic product ads have a single product image on a white background. This is potentially problematic because your dynamic ads will be very similar to those of your competitors.

Our recommendation is to enrich the product image with a colorful background. A strong colored background will instantly pop out in a user’s feed and grab their attention. Once you have their attention, they will stop their thumb scrolling and ultimately click your ad. 

Below you can see an example of a standard Dynamic Ad with white background, and four examples of Dynamic Ads with enriched product images.

2. Add an intro video to your Dynamic Ads Carousel

Facebook Dynamic Ads do not support pulling video assets for each individual product from your product catalog, but you can still leverage video to some degree in your dynamic ads.

If you create a dynamic ad with the carousel format, your ad will show a selection of product cards pulled from your catalog. However, you can also add an intro card to the carousel. Once you have added the intro card, you can select a video as the intro of your dynamic ads carousel.

We recommend adding a mobile-first video creative to the carousel intro card in order to increase the attention-grabbing ability of your dynamic ad.

3. Use dynamic ads for both retargeting and broad audience targeting

Most performance marketers know Dynamic Product Ads as a format for retargeting people who have interacted with specific products from their product catalog. This is understandable, because retargeting was the original use case of Dynamic Product Ads, and they have been extremely successful for turning lost prospects into new customers.

However, Facebook has developed an extremely advanced ad delivery algorithm powered by a rich amount of data gathered by Facebook pixels across the web. With this data, Facebook knows what people are in the market to buy.

By targeting your Dynamic Ads at broad audiences, you have the chance to get your products in front of people who are in the market for what you have to sell, even though they have not yet interacted with your website yet.

In order to get the most out of your Dynamic Ads, make sure to use them for both retargeting and broad audience prospecting. Retargeting ads will have a higher return on ad spend, but the pool of addressable shoppers is greater with broad audiences. In order to grow your business, you need to add new people to your pipeline.

4. Leverage dynamic creative, and let Facebook optimise ad combinations

In the three tips above, we have been talking about improving the effectiveness of your Dynamic Ads, which should not be confused with Dynamic Creative, which we talk about in this fourth tip.

Dynamic Creative lets you add multiple ad components such as images, videos, text, and calls-to-action to a single ad unit. Facebook then combines the components in a variety of ways to improve your ad performance. It allows you to automatically create personalized creative variations for each person who views your ad.

If you want to get the most out of your Dynamic Creative, check out Facebook’s best practices.

5. Always test new creative concept and iterations

Creative quality is the most important factor determining the success of an ad campaign.

But creative quality can be subjective and change over time.

The best way to ensure that you always have ad creative of high quality in your ad account is to create and test new creative iterations on an ongoing basis.

You should run A/B tests of new creative concepts on an ongoing basis. Once you have a creative concept that works well, you can optimize it further by making smaller creative iterations to copy and image assets, and add them to a Dynamic Creative Ad (See tip #4).

An additional benefit to testing new creative ideas on an ongoing basis is that you always have fresh creative in your ad account. Creative fatigue is one of the single greatest causes of declining ad performance. The best-performing ad accounts create on average 11x more creative assets than less successful competitors. 

Final words

We hope that these tips will have a positive impact on ad effectiveness during this year’s mega sales days. If you need any help implementing any of the 5 tips above, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

The post 5 tips to get the most out of your Facebook Ads during this year’s Mega Sales Days appeared first on Shakr Video Marketing Blog.

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2021 Holiday Marketing: Start Planning for Success as Early as Now

No one could have predicted the events of 2020. 

Brands had to return to the drawing board and reimagined their holiday marketing strategies to keep the business alive. The benefits of eCommerce platforms to online shoppers in 2020 paved the way for shaping this year’s 2021 holiday shopping. 

In 2020, consumers spent over $784 billion during the holiday season. Despite the pandemic, there was still an increase of more than 8%. 

It’s safe to say that there’s no reason to believe that it will be any different this year. 

While the holiday season is not yet a big concern for most consumers today, brands need to know that planning for the holiday’s make-or-break moments starts now. 

So, what can brands learn from the 2020 holidays? This article will help brands strategize early with various trends and insights for the 2021 holiday season. 

A Look Back at 2020 to Plan Ahead for the 2021 Holidays

While the fear of COVID-19 last year may not have affected the 2020 holiday season, there’s no doubt that the fear of contracting the virus has prompted people to stay at home. 

The pandemic prompted at-home consumers to spend more time and money on online platforms. It also prompted the implementation of curbside pickups from retailers, free shipping, and gift card offers to aid their home isolation. 

In the United States, shopping center giants such as Walmart and Best Buy have shifted their mall operations to become fulfillment centers. Employees assembled local deliveries while socially distanced consumers waited at parking lots for their orders. Shop spaces that were once devoted to t-shirts and TV displays are now repurposed to pick and pack online orders. 

Digital Commerce 360 noted that, “The pandemic pushed more shoppers online to buy gifts over the holidays in 2020, resulting in higher-than-ever online sales growth and penetration.”

“US shoppers spent $201.32 billion online during the holiday shopping season last year, a 45.2% year-over-year increase,” it added. 

This unprecedented increase just goes to show that consumers have wholeheartedly embraced online shopping. 

These types of retail shopping behavior are expected to continue for this year’s holiday shopping season. So it’s safe to assume that consumers will continue to shop more for the 2021 holiday season, both in-store and online. 

At the risk of becoming irrelevant for the 2021 holidays, it is crucial for retailers to have a more integrated digital approach with their physical stores to complement their online operations. 

This 2021, both retailers and consumers will navigate another unprecedented holiday shopping season.

Undoubtedly, factors such as unpredictable shopping behaviors and the ever-present dangers of another pandemic wave will make this holiday season all the more challenging for brands. 

As the world enters a new era of a post-pandemic marketplace, it is expected that the holiday shopping behavior of consumers will be a hybrid of what it was before and what the pandemic altered over the past year. 

Here are several key takeaways that brands need to keep in mind as they start planning for the 2021 holidays: 

KEY TAKEAWAY 1: The holiday shopping behavior of consumers this 2021 will be a mix of the old and new. 

As pandemic restrictions start to ease up and shoppers have become more confident about shopping in-store, it is expected that brands will have more traffic in their brick-and-mortar stores this year. Thus, brands with a solid in-store and online presence will gain a more competitive advantage this holiday season. Whether the brand offers hybrid shopping options like curbside pickup or uses localized video ad campaigns to target consumers near the store, any strategy that uses a seamless physical and digital experience will definitely resonate with consumers this year. 

KEY TAKEAWAY 2: It’s essential to plan ahead so that consumer packages will arrive when they expect them to. 

Delivery times and shipping rates are always critical for consumers when making their holiday purchase decisions. As another holiday pandemic season approaches, consumers expect brands to have their merchandising, fulfillment, and shipping operations at optimum capacity. To ensure that their purchases will arrive on time, holiday shoppers bought their gifts early to avoid shipping delays. This trend is expected to continue this year. 

KEY TAKEAWAY 3: This year’s holiday season is also expected to start early. 

In 2020, brands began to implement early holiday deals as a way to mitigate supply chain concerns and at the same time discourage a large influx of holiday shoppers in-store during the pandemic. This year, holiday shoppers are also expecting early deals, and they are ready to buy products sooner than they did before. As a result, brands can capitalize on the extended holiday season by finalizing their 2021 holiday marketing campaign as early as possible. Ideally, all video marketing campaigns should be ready by October so that brands can fully leverage their testing and automation tools. 

KEY TAKEAWAY 4: A solid foundation is critical to a successful holiday strategy.

Brands need to have all hands on deck when it comes to developing holiday campaigns. They need to look closely at their inventory and be productive about supply chain strain. On the digital side, brands should make an effort to optimize their organic presence by using personalization and localization video strategies. Providing personalized and localized video recommendations to their holiday shoppers will help brands create a genuine connection with their consumers. 

Video personalization and localization are a brand’s best weapon for cutting through the barrage of online holiday campaigns this year. Fortunately, video localization can easily be deployed in Shakr’s video creation platform. Shakr can automatically create dozens, hundreds, or thousands of personalized videos and deploy them immediately on social media. Your brand’s holiday video creative will surely reach the right audience at the right time during the holiday season. 

Trends to Expect for the 2021 Holidays

As technology and consumer behavior continue to shift for the upcoming holiday season, there are a few things to consider for holiday planning, such as sales targets, video ads testing, content calendar planning, and marketing budget discussions. 

While there are expected challenges this year, the key takeaways from the 2020 holidays will serve as a springboard for brands to be even more prepared for the 2021 holiday season. Here are some trends to keep in mind as brands form and execute their holiday marketing strategy: 

TREND 1: Online and mobile shopping will continue to be a key driver for brand discovery. 

A solid eCommerce and social media presence were essential for the 2020 holidays. As the line between in-store and digital shopping continues to be blurred, this trend is expected to continue for this year’s holiday season. Consumers are spending more time browsing websites and shopping apps rather than the typical window shopping in stores. 

Facebook’s 2021 Holiday Unwrapped data showed that 47% of Gen Z and Millennials discovered shopping ideas or browsed for inspiration on a mobile device. The study also showed that 43% of holiday shoppers discovered ideas or browsed for inspiration on a mobile device.

TREND  2: A seamless online shopping experience is needed to sustain consumer interest. 

In the age of online convenience, holiday shoppers have come to expect perks like free and fast shipping in just one click. While this may not be realistic for all types of brands, a seamless online shopping experience can help cut through holiday shopping challenges. Shoppers this year will prioritize convenience, and they will be attracted to brands that provide ease of ordering and delivery. 

TREND  3: Promotional opportunities will happen sooner than before on social media. 

Consumers last year shopped earlier to make sure that their gifts will arrive on time. With so many unknown variables brought by the pandemic, it is expected that consumers will begin planning their holiday shopping as early as October, if not sooner. As a result, holiday shoppers will be keen on finding promotions and sales on social media. 

As such, it’s expected that digital acceleration will have another extended eCommerce-driven holiday season this 2021. Pent-up demand from at-home consumers may result in earlier holiday purchases. Brands need to start connecting to their target audience across digital channels as early as now. 

TREND 4: With the continued demand for safety and accessibility, the roles of brick-and-mortar stores and digital are reversing. 

Curbside pickups, buy online pick up in-store (BOPUS), and contactless delivery will still be an enduring best practice for this year’s holiday shopping experience. These options provide a safe shopping experience for consumers. Consequently, digital shopping is becoming more immersive as consumers seek to replicate in-store shopping experiences at home. 

In this new hybrid shopping experience, brands need to provide a convenient and frictionless shopping experience. With augmented reality try-ons, personalized recommendations, styling, and how-to videos, brands need to find ways to bring in-store experiences online and digital experiences in-store. 

TREND 5: Consumers are discovering and purchasing on social media via videos more than ever. 

The concept of online discovery may not be new. However, the way it occurs is deliberately changing. At-home consumers turn to social media for personalized inspiration and curated local recommendations. Brands need to leverage social media as inspiration and discovery platforms. Spark an interest for the brand through video ads that provide personalized and localized content. 

Shakr can help brands plan early for the holiday season with locally relevant video campaigns at scale. In addition, Shakr will help create a unique and customized creative video that can be deployed to multiple locations during this year’s holidays.

Related Content: Five tips to get the most out of your Facebook Ads during this year’s Mega Sales Days

Steps to Prepare for the 2021 Holidays

Now more than ever, it is crucial for brands to create compelling video ad content with a seamless shopping experience built for online discovery. Based on the 2020 holiday shopping insights, brands should plan their video marketing strategy accordingly. 

Understanding how consumers’ habits have changed since the height of the pandemic will help brands thrive this upcoming holiday season. As consumers spend more time planning their holiday festivities, they also spend more time looking at other gift offerings. 

Consumers have shifted purchasing behavior from going holiday shopping to “always shopping” for the holidays. As such, video ads on social media will serve as an essential tool for consumers to discover new products and brands. Here’s a step-by-step guide to making sure that your brand is ready for the upcoming holidays: 

Step 1: Understand seasonal drivers.

Seasonality refers to any predictable fluctuation that occurs during the same weeks leading up to the holiday season. 

Seasonal events fall under these three main categories: 

Cultural Events (Examples: Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Lunar New Year)
Commercial Events (Examples: Black Friday, Mother’s Day, Amazon Prime Day)
Ad hoc Events (Examples: sporting tournaments, elections, local holidays

Seasonal fluctuations during these events are primarily driven by:

Consumers: Internet traffic increases during the holidays as holiday shoppers spend more time online consuming video content or purchasing gifts.
Brand Marketers: Competition for inventory increases as marketers launch their holiday campaigns to promote the brand during the peak season.

Step 2: Know the calendar and start prepping early. 

Seasonal increases in traffic begin in September, peak in late November, and drop back to normal in January.

Start prepping the brand’s content calendar as early as possible. Keep in mind that holiday opportunities will largely depend on your target audience. Take note of all the Mega Sale Dates that your consumers care about. It’s an excellent opportunity for the brand to increase sales and gain new consumers who are looking for deals and promos. 

Step 3: Optimize your digital platforms. 

Make sure that all digital assets are in top shape to prepare for increased user traffic. 

A large base of holiday shoppers this 2021 can be found mainly on social media. Therefore, brands must update their social channels and optimize other digital touchpoints that their consumers visit. Plan digital assets for the holidays effectively by shifting focus to video personalization and localization. Ensure that the online shopping experience of consumers is personalized and locally relevant. It will make them feel more compelled to learn more about the brand and make a purchase eventually. 

Step 4: Prepare for seasonal opportunities.

Make sure that your video ads and content calendar are ready to benefit from the expected increase in viewership by leveraging on video DPAs (dynamic product ads).

The holiday season is the perfect opportunity to attract new consumers. One way of doing that is to leverage video DPAs by expanding the brand’s presence on social media. Improve the brand’s “discoverability” by providing video content relevant to local consumers for the holiday season. Location-based video creative personalization is an effective strategy for brands who want to increase the results of their holiday campaigns. With Shakr Local, brands can create hyper-localized creatives and set up their campaigns on social media instantly. 

Step 5: Monitor and track performance.

Use Shakr’s tools to track video ad performance throughout the holiday season.

With Shakr’s intuitive video creation platform, brands are empowered to create high-quality videos that can be deployed instantly on social media. To get the most out of your brand’s video ads, Shakr lets brands create geo-based variations of videos for different locations. It can also help set up and traffic the brand’s hyper-local campaign at scale with personalized video creatives for 10, 100, or 1,000 different locations. In addition, Shakr enables brands to create dynamic campaigns from their holiday product catalogs. Once the holiday campaign goes live, Shakr will help the brand analyze creative performance and video iterations. 

It’s time to start planning those holiday video ads for 2021!

Let Shakr help you create holiday videos at scale with Shakr Local. We’re here to help you create personalized and localized video marketing campaigns for the holidays. 

Shakr Local at Scale can help businesses connect with people in a whole new meaningful way with our top-notch hyper-local campaign creative at scale. 

Locally relevant ads are perceived to be highly personalized and can dramatically increase local businesses’ consumer engagement. 

Schedule a discovery call with us now!

References:

Bloomberg – Are you a robot?. (2021). Retrieved 29 August 2021, from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-03-16/target-best-buy-walmart-how-covid-19-forever-changed-big-box-shopping

Consumer Gift Behaviors in 2021: What they Actually Want. (2021). Retrieved 29 August 2021, from https://zoovu.com/blog/gift-consumers-behaviors-2021/

Fatima, R., Fatima, R., Awasthi, P., Singh, A., & Yadav, P. (2020). 2021 Holiday Shopping Predictions and E-Retail Strategies. Retrieved 30 August 2021, from https://cedcommerce.com/blog/holiday-shopping-trends-and-predictions-for-2021/

Giacalone, M. (2021). 2020 Holiday Season Unwrapped: Start Your 2021 Holiday Planning Now | JumpFly Digital Marketing Blog. Retrieved 30 August 2021, from https://www.jumpfly.com/blog/2020-holiday-season-unwrapped-start-your-2021-holiday-planning-now/

How Can Brands and Retailers Prepare for the 2021 Holiday Season?. (2021). Retrieved 30 August 2021, from https://www.adweek.com/partner-articles/how-can-brands-and-retailers-prepare-for-the-2021-holiday-season/

Presence, O., Marketing, H., & Link, J. (2020). Holiday Marketing Ideas and Plan Template to Help You Sell More | Constant Contact. Retrieved 30 August 2021, from https://blogs.constantcontact.com/holiday-marketing-guide/#htoc-download-our-free-2021-holiday-marketing-plan

Sarah Davis, S. (2021). 2021 Holiday Shopping Ecommerce Stats & Trends [August 2021] – ROI Revolution. Retrieved 26 August 2021, from https://www.roirevolution.com/blog/2021/08/2021-holiday-shopping-ecommerce-stats-trends-june-2021/

Seasonality – Google Ad Manager Help. (2021). Retrieved 30 August 2021, from https://support.google.com/admanager/answer/9544845?hl=en

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Shakr Partners with AiChat to Bring Personalized Video Messages to Chatbot Marketing Campaigns

Shakr & AiChat recently teamed up to launch an unique solution to allow brands to create thousands of personalized videos via AI-powered Messenger chatbot

We recently announced a partnership with AiChat, an AI-powered conversational customer experience platform. Together we are bringing AiChat’s chatbot marketing campaigns to the next level through user generated personalized videos, which has proven to increase engagement, organic reach, and conversions.

User generated Messenger videos for M1

The partnership was recently put to the test on a campaign for M1, a Singapore Telco, who wanted to celebrate individual uniqueness. AiChat and Shakr, both official Facebook Marketing Partners, helped the brand develop their video chatbot marketing campaign called “Be” that was run using Facebook Messenger. Through social media promotions, a Facebook user would see the “Be” campaign which offered to help users send a personalized positive video message to a loved one. To send the message, the user would interact through Facebook Messenger to go through the 3-step process of sending the custom video. This included: 1. Choosing a template 2. Uploading personal photos of the recipient, and 3. Writing a special message for the recipient. 

After step 3 was completed using the chatbot that AiChat provided, Shakr’s technology worked behind the scenes to render a custom video from the information shared by the user. Once the video rendered, the user would share it with their loved one as part of the “Be” mission. The campaign turned out to be incredibly popular among users, reached nearly 400,000 participants organically, with 4.1x new user acquisition and generated more than 132,000 messages exchange and 1,700 unique videos created.

Together, the two technologies complemented and improved upon the ROI of each other’s efforts with AiChat being used to capture customer data, messages, and photos or videos which were then dynamically mapped onto video templates by Shakr. The result was the ability to easily scale to create thousands of personalized videos via AI-led conversational marketing campaigns.

The future of personalized Messenger videos

“Moving forward, we’re looking to help more brands to build more innovative chatbot marketing campaigns via Messaging and creative video content through our partnership with Shakr.” Said Kester Poh, CEO at AiChat. “For example, during festive seasons, brands can use our combined technologies to generate personalized e-greeting videos at scale where people can then share with their families and friends via their favourite messaging app.”

David Lee, CEO at Shakr, seconded the excitement of AiChat leadership, noting that “It’s interesting to see how our solution could be used in a new and engaging way. I’m excited to partner with AiChat to continue to explore how our solutions can be combined to improve user experiences, and ultimately ROI, in the social messaging space.”  

About AiChat 

AiChat is a leading AI-Powered conversational customer experience platform designed to help brands automate business processes in customer service, marketing, and e-commerce via social messaging apps. 

Learn more at www.aichat.com 

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Tips for writing a personal statement

A personal statement is a style of essay. It’s usually written when applying to a school. In an application essay, you argue why you’d be a good fit. The paper is a standard procedure for college admission. Also called a statement of purpose.

The student must convince the admissions tutors in less than a thousand words. The personal statement is an essential deciding factor in high-demand programs. Getting an interview is the main aim of a statement. Students often use a paper writing service when applying to prestigious institutions. Certain applications may require you to write more than one essay. However, the initial paper is the most important. Writing one is no different from a normal essay. The only different thing is that you’re talking about yourself. You’re arguing through logic about how you’d be a great addition to the school.

Similarly to a regular essay, you’ll use logic and data to prove your points. The final result must be error and plagiarism-free. Also, you should format your paper according to the school’s guidelines.

Let’s look at the four main points your essay should carry before getting into the actual writing tips:

Commitment and devotion
Leadership and teamwork
Research and writing skills
Other real-life experiences 

Admissions tutors are looking for enthusiasm and dedication. It’s vital to convey that you’re eager to learn and bring value to the class. Write a clear and concise report of your skills and experiences. Explain how they’re going to benefit the course. Finally, proofread your work and send it.     

General tips for writing a personal statement

Have patience

A personal statement requires at least a few hours to complete. In most cases, it takes days or even weeks. You’ll need sufficient time for research, writing, and proofreading. It’s best to have a break once in a while and come back with fresh eyes. At a minimum, you should dedicate two days — the first one for the draft and the second one for adjustments. You won’t believe how many new ideas come to mind after a good night’s sleep.   

Structure it

It’s advised you imagine a basic structure before starting. Bundle up related ideas and organize them in separate sections. You can write a few keywords on the side of the paper. Whether you structure your text before or after writing, it’s vital to arrange the report logically. Otherwise, you’ll lose your readers from the get-go. 

The most important thing, however, is to have an intro, body, and end:

The introduction is the initial part of the text that explains your motives. Introduce yourself, your ambitions, and start the discussion.  
The body should mostly cover your school achievements. Leave some space for any extracurricular activities that might put you in a good light.   
The conclusion is where you express your final ideas. 

Draft and edit 

Start writing without minding the word counter. Let your ideas flow and create a few generous paragraphs. You’ll most likely write more than the word count, but you’ll trim it down by revising a few times. Cut down the bulk of the text by eliminating redundant info. Generally, it’s easier to write more and edit after than continuing word-per-word as you progress.   

Argue your case 

Try to convince your readers that you’re worth it. Explain your experience and skills and how you could bring value to the class. Think from their perspective: would you like to have a student such as yourself? What would intrigue and impress teachers about your talents? Keep this in mind about your audience when writing. 

Furthermore, always demand respect when defining your skills. Describe your experiences and abilities. Explain how your knowledge can benefit your academic journey. Say you’re an avid tech consumer. Instead of simply stating the obvious, try to expand on the benefits. For instance, you could write, “I’ve gained problem-solving skills by troubleshooting software and hardware issues.”   

Lastly, most admission boards will read your document onscreen. Use white spaces to keep a clean and scrollable text. 

Make it original 

Using other pieces of work to inspire yourself is good. However, it’s called a personal statement for a reason. Try to reflect your personality through your writing. “Acquaint” yourself with the admission teachers through your writing – be original.  

Be honest

Don’t try to appear someone you’re not. It’s acceptable to sell yourself a little bit but don’t exaggerate. For example, don’t say you’re fluent in a foreign language if you’re not. Similar lies might impress tutors when reading, but there will be a time when you’ll have to demonstrate your fluency.  

Proofread it out loud

You should proofread your final draft a couple of times. Additionally, read it out loud to see if it sounds right. Also, get a friend or two to read it for you. The more input, the better.   

Abstract

A personal statement is an essay where the author candidates for a specific post. The writing is argumentative and tries to convince the reader that his skills and experience are suitable for the desired position. Application essays are written for schools, companies, and non-profit organizations. They’re important criteria for admission tutors when conducting the selection process.

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Rayne Johnson To Release Sophomore Project LOVE DRUNK OR LONELY October 6


He’s already hit major milestones on country radio, and now Rayne Johnson is following that success with his sophomore project, LOVE DRUNK OR LONELY, out Wednesday, October 6 (Mountain Road Records/VERGE). The title track from the EP is available this Friday, September 10, and the pre-order/pre-save are available now. Get them here – https://onerpm.link/lovedrunkorlonleyEP.

TRACK LISTING
1) “Somebody with a Broken Heart” (Joe Jordan)
2) “Country Up” (Alex Cline, Jake Rose, Tina Parol)
3) “Own It” (Marti Lynn Dodson, Chris Rafetto, Kenny Foster)
4) “Love Drunk or Lonely” (Marti Lynn Dodson, Bobby Hamrick, Justin Weaver)
5) “That’s What Love Does” (Joe Jordan, Gary Baker, Greg Barnhill)
6) “Vacation” (Sam Hunt, Luke Laird, JT Harding)

The release of LOVE DRUNK OR LONELY comes nearly a year after Rayne’s debut, self-titled EP dropped. With over 55M streams, it hit the Top 10 on iTunes upon release. It featured nine hits including the groundbreaking single, “Front Seat.” With no major label radio promotion, “Front Seat” hit the Top 40 on country radio, a feat only a handful of independent artists have accomplished in the last decade.

“It’s just about continuation and growing, spreading the web a little farther,” Rayne explains. “We wanted to get a little outside of what we did last time…. But man, these songs are really perfect for the way I perform.”

When the Ohio native is not working on the railroad, in the studio, or on the road performing, Rayne is outside hunting, fishing and enjoying the outdoors with his family. His free-time is minimal but his accomplishments are plenty. For more information on Rayne and full tour dates, visit RayneJohnson.com.

WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | TIKTOK

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CBS To Host New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash


Photo Credit Catherine Powell

Country music’s hottest superstars will ring in the new year when CBS presents NEW YEAR’S EVE LIVE: NASHVILLE’S BIG BASH, Friday, Dec. 31 (8:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT, 11:30 PM-1:30 AM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+. 

Originating from downtown Nashville across multiple locations, the star-studded special will be packed with high-energy performances celebrating the excitement and anticipation of a new year. First-announced performers include Jason Aldean, Jimmie Allen, Kelsea Ballerini, Gabby Barrett, Dierks Bentley, Brooks & Dunn, Luke Bryan, Dan + Shay, Elle King, Miranda Lambert, Darius Rucker, Blake Shelton, Cole Swindell and Zac Brown Band, with additional artists to be announced at a later date.

Music City has built an outstanding reputation for hosting the most musical New Year’s celebration and country’s biggest party. The five-hour celebration will feature nearly 50 performances from locations across the city, including the mainstage in Nashville’s Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park anchored by headliners Dierks Bentley, Zac Brown Band and Dan + Shay. The broadcast will cross multiple time zones, with the traditional countdown at midnight ET, culminating with the renowned Nashville music note drop and fireworks at midnight CT.

NEW YEAR’S EVE LIVE: NASHVILLE’S BIG BASH is executive produced by Robert Deaton and Mary Hilliard Harrington in partnership with the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp. The special will be directed by Sandra Restrepo.

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Jana Kramer Launches Empowering Capsule Collection with LULUSIMONSSTUDIO

Image Provided By Michele Marie PR

Witty and bold womenswear brand, LULUSIMONSTUDIO just launched a special collection with Actress, Singer, NYT Best-Selling Author, Podcaster, Mom and longtime fan of the brand, Jana Kramer! Designed to empower women, the LULUSIMONSTUDIO x Jana Kramer Capsule Collection consists of five uplifting tees inspired by Jana’s strength and role as a mother.

“I just wanted to do a story… It was just a story of where my life is right now. I think it’s just cool that these are the messages that we [Jana and her followers] want to wear and that they’re excited about it. I teased a few shirts and they all seem to be really excited about it for their own reasons. And I think that’s just a really cool thing to be able to share with other people,” says Kramer.

The capsule collection consists of grey, white, and yellow tees, made from 100% cotton. Each tee features a powerful graphic designed to empower those who wear them. Each tee, available in S-2XL, retails for $44 and the collection is available for purchase on lulusimonstudio.com.

The post Jana Kramer Launches Empowering Capsule Collection with LULUSIMONSSTUDIO first appeared on Country Music Rocks.

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Eric Church Launches “The Gather Again Tour”

Photo Credit: Anthony D’Angio

Nearly 700 days since wrapping his critically acclaimed Double Down Tour, reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year (and current repeat nominee) Eric Church stepped to the microphone in Lexington, Ky. on Friday evening to officially launch The Gather Again Tour with a show two years in the making.

Prowling around his brand-new 2,400 square foot multi-level stage, positioned in the center of the arena floor for his first-ever in-the-round set up, Church launched into three and a half hours of music spanning his impressive decade-plus catalogue of both hits and deep cuts beloved by his loyal Church Choir.

From multi-Platinum-certified singles including “Talladega” and “Drink In My Hand” to fan favorites like “Chattanooga Lucy” and “Pledge Allegiance to the Hag” as well as a sampling of the 24 songs making up his latest chart topping project, Heart & Soul, the current CMA Male Vocalist of the Year nominee’s vocals shone through stronger than ever after the unexpected time away from the road.

Indeed, Church continued well past the end of the intended set list each night in response to the crowds palpable energy, with Friday’s performance eventually transitioning from a “Born to Run” rendition into his 6x Platinum-certified “Springsteen,” thrilling the crowd with a personalized chorus of “a soundtrack to a Lexington Friday night” before pausing mid-song to describe the opening night celebration as “the tip of the spear for what this tour is” and proclaiming: “We are made to gather – and gather we did and gather we shall!”

The congregation continued Saturday evening in Columbus, Ohio with a brand-new set list as Church remains committed to giving fans in each city a completely unique experience

The Lexington Herald-Leader raved of the “energetic 40-song bonanza” that was opening night: “the entire show possessed an intriguing stylistic variance” and “was massively audience-friendly” while the Columbus Dispatch celebrated the way Church “treated the arena like his own personal honky-tonk, keeping the evening loose and likeable rather than bombastic or tightly controlled” as he “combined the storytelling power of country music with the energy and anarchy of rock.”

The Gather Again Tour continues with 55 additional dates to come as Church visits cities throughout the U.S. and Canada into 2022. Tickets to all dates, including the grand finale at New York City’s iconic Madison Square Garden, are on sale now at EricChurch.com.

All tour dates will enforce local venue and/or city guidelines regarding COVID-19 precautions. Church will be touring with a fully vaccinated crew.

For more information, visit www.ericchurch.com and follow on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. Fans can also download the Eric Church Official App for exclusive offers only available on tour – including seat upgrades, contests and special merchandise – all while connecting with fellow fans from around the world.

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