Yesterday, I presented at a Video Plus event organised and hosted by the IAB Video Council, who were kind enough to ask me to talk about how we’ve used online video to benefit our clients. I spoke about the success we’ve had with swiftcover.com, a little bit about our strategy and we’re building on what we’ve done so far to grow our online video activity in the future.

There were also great contributions from other speakers from a good cross section of the industry, and the turnout was fantastic, so thanks go out to everyone involved.

You can download a copy of the new IAB Video Handbook, which contains a case study from us, here. And if you want any information about our experience of online video, do get in touch.

We think this digital replay of the nativity story was pretty imaginative – enjoy!

There are so many reasons to be impressed with this campaign aside from the obvious.

Here are my top three…

Firstly: Brands have a relatively short window to go get a season range ready for a regular Fashion show, let alone planning 4d integration into a static building so it looks flawless.

Secondly: Fashion Shows are deemed over the top by many with crazy themes and unwearable clothing. However they are about creating buzz and pushing the boundaries this serves to re-enforce the notion that creativity still exists within the fashion house itself and is at its core driving the mass market brands. How fitting then that digital innovation takes pride of place at Ralph Lauren.

Thirdly: This is an interesting take on content aimed primarily at the digital/Social Media environment. Sure, it makes a great live show for the critics and a great PR story for the traditional media. But where it really comes to life is within the Social Media environment. Its never been easier to express to the masses your love for a brand or for something a brand is responsible for. It works… you are digesting my opinion right now and whether or not you agree with it, your awareness of the brand has risen. Content like this mobilises genuine digital evangelists and arguably in marketing terms that is priceless.

Wavemetrix, have released some stats around this campaign:

• Brand mentions
• Products featured in the video (What the video is selling)
• Social media content itself ie. people who arent so concerned with the evangelising about the brand but more the concept/video and its quality as an idea.

The chart below represents percentages of uplift in mentions and very much speaks for itself…

John Barton – Head of Planning & Social Media