More brands will be moving towards using video in emails in 2013 as marketers discover the possibilities, aside from allowing senders to stand out from the crowd, embedded video within email is actually easier for recipients to view on popular devices like the iPhone and iPad.
Embedding video in email is not a new notion. Long considered taboo for large brands, primarily for technical and ease-of-deployment reasons, the new open standards will allow video in email to flourish where it once flagged. The rise of HTML5 video, iOS, and new mail client-sniffing technology has breathed new life into the argument for adding video to email.
In a recent survey conducted by conducted by the Web Video Marketing Council in conjunction with Flimp Media in Q4 of 2011, 88% of marketers who have used video in email marketing indicated that integrating video with email marketing has had a positive effect on their email marketing efforts. In addition, 72% believed that buyers were more likely to purchase or convert after viewing an email campaign that incorporated video. Aggregate data collected on more than 1,000 video email campaigns since 2008 shows that average viewer engagement is 1.3 minutes, response rates average 23 percent and click thru rates are well over 30 percent. The complete study results can be downloaded here.
Brand marketers understand how to use television to bombard an audience with video messaging to build demand for a product, promote the brand, or drive an offline purchase. So it should be of no surprise that they are becoming more interested in using video in email as a mechanism of increasing the reach of video advertising.
For example, when Sky sought to extend the reach of its video advertising for the TV mini-series “Game of Thrones,” it used video in email to generate an incremental 1 million+ views of its TV trailer. Discovery Channel also used the technique to promote its hit TV mini series, “Life.” Such tactics are used because they reduce the friction between the recipient and the video view while generating the same sense of excitement as a video would generate on a landing page.
http://www.liveclickerdocs.com/resources/ee/6/gameofthrones.html
http://www.liveclickerdocs.com/resources/ee/5/discovery.html
