How built-for-purpose creative drove results for The Iconic with Video Action

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How built-for-purpose creative drove results for The ICONIC with Video Action.

The demand for advertising to drive results is higher than ever, and as a result, creative must perform like never before.

The ICONIC — Australia's leading online fashion retailer — was looking to grow its sportswear sales, and in the process, reaped the benefits of building bespoke creative for YouTube. Four unique films were made using Video Action, showing athletes performing a sport under extreme pressure, practically begging viewers to hit the blue button to allow them to stop. Viewer action was enabled by showing a product feed featuring the products the athletes were wearing in each ad, allowing viewers to shop the outfit.

Built in collaboration with Google’s Creative Works team and production company The Glue Society, the work highlights three tactics to help demand attention, and drive clicks.

Attention-grabbing tension made the most of the first five seconds.

Video Action is unskippable for the first five seconds, so the “audition” time is pivotal. While there are a range of ways creatives have tackled this, The ICONIC simultaneously feature the brand message and hook the viewer in early — ensuring that if they don’t take immediate action, they’ll engage long enough to be convinced to click.

Talent repeatedly called out the call-to-action.

Leveraging Video Action, The ICONIC asked only one thing from viewers. Hit the blue button. By taking advantage of interactivity, and deeply embedding it within the creative idea with actors playing out scenarios, The ICONIC ensures it's doing something with the attention they’ve just won. By creating bespoke videos, the campaign delivered an 87% higher CTR than the TrueView for Action benchmark*.
_{* Source: Google Internal Data}

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Talking to camera made the creative speak volumes.

YouTube, and Video Action are sound-on mediums. So not only does the audition period consist of an engaging face-to-camera moment, the voices of the talent put out the plea for attention and make the creative feel personal — an integral part of establishing a connection with viewers fast.

In the increasingly competitive battle for audience attention, making the most of the medium is proving an effective way to win.

“In taking advantage of the best-in-class practices for YouTube, and tailoring the creative idea to the format, The ICONIC has achieved a level of engagement that couldn’t have otherwise been accomplished.” says Victoria Berthinussen, Creative Development Lead at Google’s Creative Works.

Google's Creative Works team partners with some of the world’s leading brands to understand what makes for effective creative. See more best-in-class creative examples, guidelines and tools to power the creative process.