Brand Pulsing Is the Key to Your Next Video Marketing Campaign

Research says 94 percent of pre-roll ads are skipped. Since video marketing is one of the best ways to build awareness for your brand, this statistic is particularly problematic. But you can beat this trend with brand pulsing, a technique that minimizes skip rates by integrating brands seamlessly into videos.

How Brand Pulsing Works

When people watch videos, their eyes are drawn toward logos. Awareness of these placements can often interrupt the flow of the video ad’s narrative and distract the user from focusing on the content. Because of this, when brand logos are prominently placed within a video ad, viewers are more likely to skip the video. According to Professor Thales S. Teixeira at the Harvard Business Review, viewers will even skip ads from brands that they like if the logo is too intrusive.

Despite this, research also proves that viewers benefit from being guided through dynamic media. There still needs to be purposeful direction and visual cues that guide the viewer’s attention throughout a video. Maintaining a visual hierarchy is very important because video marketing not only has to engage the viewer, but also convey the brand message.

The best way to integrate both the viewer’s preferences and promotional goals is to ensure that logos and brand assets are shown frequently, but only for a shorter period of time within the commercial, rather than longer exposure at the beginning or end. Logos and other assets should be spread out, exposing the viewer to subtle glimpses of a brand that are woven throughout the video’s duration. There needs to be a fine balance between persuading a viewer without alerting them, and guiding their attention without drawing intense focus to one, central asset.

Brand pulsing has been shown to increase viewership by as much as 20%. The key is to ensure that the plot of a video can stand alone, without any brand assets being considered integral parts of the narrative or visuals. Then, those assets can be introduced through subtle and short placements throughout the video to increase brand awareness.

Brand Pulsing in Action

The British newspaper, The Guardian, used brand pulsing throughout their documentary-style ad about the three little pigs. The newspaper’s logo appears throughout the ad, but its services, mainly its open journalism format, are the only identifiable assets that are an integral part of the narrative.

The result is a video that is engaging and uses brand assets to support and enhance awareness, then toward the end, connects that association appropriately with the brand. Brand pulsing allows logos and brand assets to become additional features that guide and support attention, rather than act as a distracting presence. Everyone wins, especially the viewer.

If you could use some brand pulsing in your next video marketing campaign, our motion graphics experts will design the perfect piece of content to convey your brand’s message.