Mark Ritson explores the Long and Short of YouTube in new series.
Featuring Menulog and Optus, the episodes establish YouTube’s versatility and unique value as a medium that delivers across the full funnel.
For years, the dogma has told marketers everywhere that traditional media are best for brand building, and digital is best for activation. But in a world of digital-physical integration and omnichannel shopping journeys, what do those distinctions even mean? And should brands really be thinking in such siloed ways?
Mark Ritson will likely be no stranger to readers of AdNews. The PhD-holding professor, columnist, brand consultant, and founder of a Mini MBA in Marketing, has been a key voice in marketing conversations for years. And in his most recent conversations, he caught up with Menulog CMO Simon Cheng, and Optus CMO Melissa Hopkins to discuss how they use YouTube to realise both Long and Short objectives.
The Long, of course, is what we’d consider to be the more traditional brand-building work of marketing. The Short? Targeted, often product-led, pushing towards immediate (or short-term) action by consumers. For Ritson, YouTube occupies a noteworthy spot in the media landscape; great for traditional brand-building, and equally good at engaging specific segments for particular product activation - proof that the traditional brand channels vs performance channels paradigm is dated.
Mark Ritson and Simon Cheng
In Episode 1, Ritson sits down with Simon Cheng to discuss the role YouTube played in not only boosting Menulog’s brand relevance, but driving a huge sales increase outside the traditional home-delivery times of Friday and Saturday night dinners. Simon breaks down how they were able to localise the now-iconic Snoop spot, using Distinctive Brand Assets to build equity in the local market - and, at the same time, use time-targeted and geo-targeted executions to drive purchases outside metropolitan areas, and at key times of day. And the results? A significant jump in Menulog’s top-of-mind-awareness metrics, and 300% more sales outside Friday and Saturday nights (Menulog data, AU, Q1 2020 vs Q1 2021).
Mark Ritson and Melissa Hopkins
Episode 2 with Optus marketing chief Melissa Hopkins reveals how YouTube forms a key part of Optus’s multi-screen strategy. Interestingly, Optus are staunch supporters of YouTube’s skippable formats and take the approach that whether it’s brand or product comms, their audience should not be forced to watch Optus ads unless they want to. View-through rates are thus an important metric for Optus, and Mel details how both their long and short executions on YouTube consistently outperform benchmarks. The episode shows how Optus realises results with YouTube all the way up the funnel; from sales, to consideration, to brand. But perhaps most astounding is Melissa’s reveal that 44% of Optus’s brand love is directly attributable to YouTube (Optus data, AU, Marketing Evolution MROI Study, 2021) - a massive number in anyone’s book.
As Ritson says, there is no superior medium - some are better at long, and some are better at short. But the thing which makes YouTube unique is that it’s almost perfectly balanced. For Ritson, the challenge for marketers is making full use of that balance; to approach YouTube as both a performance medium and a brand medium, and to skillfully connect the two within the same campaign - but not the same execution - to realise results.
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