Unruly puts social in the lab
Unruly has unveiled its Social Video Lab in London. The social video marketing outfit is claiming a first for the new unit which boasts psychometric tech, plus sentiment and competitive intelligence capabilities, as well as focus groups with bloggers, to enable brands and agencies to forecast the effectiveness and shareability of their video content prior to release.
“Because it is emotionally powerful and so easy to share, social video advertising can ignite and amplify conversations at speed and scale – this is its USP versus other media channels such as TV,” says Sarah Wood, COO of Unruly. “As social video advertising becomes more prevalent in marketing budgets, we want to ensure our clients are maximising this fantastic approach to its full potential.”
Research conducted by Unruly has found that viewer enjoyment increases by 14% when an ad has been shared, and that purchase intent spikes 97% when the viewer enjoys the content.
“In social media, clients are really just beginning beginning to get their heads around social and see that video is an important part of it,” Dan Best, planning director at Unruly, tells brand-e. “We want to bring brands along and make them feel comfortable in investing large chunks of budget, and for that you need to provide measurement and offer insight.”
And what does psychometric testing bring to the social mix?
“Emotional intensity demonstrates better cut through, and in the world of social media, emotonal intensity is probably the biggest driver because of the lean-forward nature of the medium,” Best explains. “For social video, content need to have a emotional trigger, just as it needs to be newsworthy and Zeitgeisty.”
Ulimately, the ultimate test of the Social Video Lab is whether brands and agencies want to book sessions. And the early signs are that they want to come onboard.
“The way things are going, in two weeks’ time, we’ll probably have the first six months fully booked,” says Best.
