Westpac could be the first Australian brand to launch ads on Facebook's premium video ads product with the bank talking up the power of the medium.
Facebook video ads were launched here last week, a month after the initial trial in the US, and Facebook said at the time it expected the first ads to roll out in the next few weeks.
Facebook told AdNews it was working with a limited number of advertisers and agency partners to experiment with the platform. It's not known who the other brands are.
Agencies have cast doubt about autoplay video ads warning of user backlash ands suggesting many advertisers will be waiting for someone else to make the first move and test the waters.
All creative for the 15-second video ads is vetted by creative director Mark D'Arcy's Creative lab team so that the quality stays high.
The first brand to launch Facebook video ads anywhere in the world was a financial services product, which Neil Hiltz who heads up the financial services category at Facebook globally, claimed has been “really effective” and resulted in “most people” watching the video through to the end.
Speaking to AdNews alongside Facebook Australia's financial services lead Paul McCrory about the potential for Facebook video ads within Westpac's digital marketing, Karen Ganschow, Westpac general manager of customer relationship marketing said: “It's going to be very powerful because we know that people like to engage with video especially if there's an emotional or shareable element to it. Until now we've used display and posts but [premium video] will add a level of dynamism to the way we use Facebook.”
The bank already uses video content in the “how to” space to offer advice and help to customers on things like home buying where there are a lot of questions.
Ganschow said the Facebook community is a good place for that content, particularly on mobile and the mobile aspect of Facebook's premium video ads is a draw.
“We always have to be conscious of security and ensure we're protecting our customers but we have seen customer behaviour tip. Between 2013 and 2014 we've seen a switch in more things being done on mobile than on large screen. We see it in our advertising and our campaign pages and in mobile banking. We have more mobile banking sessions than desktop.
“We now have mobile first strategy and that's what we're working with Facebook on. Our mobile adoption is high but it's not finished. We want to use Facebook to encourage app downloads and make it easy for customers to engage within Facebook.”
At the same time Facebook launched a suite of measurement and insight tools so that marketers and agencies can better measure and understand the impact of ads on Facebook.
McCrory said: The thing that we are heavily focused on is helping our clients understand the impact that that channel has versus other options that are in market – of which there are many like channel Seven or Nine. But guess what, channel Facebook now as this amazing thing – our audience is the biggest and has the most targeted reach and now this beautiful canvas in the premium video product. That sounds great but clients need to see that proof so our business is very invested in the measurement part of these products to prove our value to the client.”
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