CANNES -The importance of engaging primary “social influencers” in the rapidly ascending online video (OV) channel has been well documented, but a pivotal aspect of its evolving growth is being neglected: the huge significance of the “second wave” of influencers who have the power to make or break a brand campaign. These secondary influencers – defined as those who share content received from other influencers – are the true key to an OV going viral and achieving the highest levels of engagement and reach, finds this new study.
Key: Large red dot indicates initial post, number and start/end position of green lines represent sharing pathways (note: length of line is irrelevant), with areas of high sharing and conversation represented as dark green clusters, second wave influencers are depicted as smaller red and blue dots (only present in left hand side diffusion map).
Diffusion map (above) for #whatdidzoeysay video demonstrates not only higher levels of engagement and sharing overall, but also clear evidence of a series of spin-off conversations and further sharing associated with the involvement of a second wave of influencers.
Only one in five of the videos tested on Twitter managed to motivate this game-changing second wave of influencers. However, crucially, the vast majority of those that did (more than nine out of ten) were successful. These videos range in style and source from a five minute professional teaser for a TV series from Teen Nick, to a homemade, shaky nine minute film of a bear family taking a dip in a child’s paddling pool.
Despite the diversity of successful OV, the research uncovers some common themes in winning content which were found to motivate the second wave. The most significant of these being that secondary influencers want to add their own point of view, with 60% agreeing that this is a reason to share content – a percentage which jumps to 77% among the most influential OV sharers.
When influencers shared an OV accompanied by a personal comment these videos were proven to perform much better than those that were shared more passively, without a point of view expressed: 84% of the OVs tested which did this best** achieved a more widespread reach and more sustained momentum. Key to this success is an OV that captures a relatable moment in time, which could be a simple, routine event such as a lunch break or a major event such as a global sports competition. Only 21% of the OVs tested demonstrated this, but almost all of these (92%) achieved high reach and engagement on Twitter.
Thomas Crampton, Global Managing Director, Social@Ogilvy: “There has been a disproportionate amount of focus on early influencers. They are important, but not sufficient to make a brand campaign successful. Our research found a crucial second wave of influential commentators. Brands need to re-evaluate the way they plan and run online video campaigns because, without the support of the second wave, they are bound for mediocrity. Brands must ensure, too, that their online videos are built for the small screen. Our research found basic rules of online video broken repeatedly. This limits potential success of online video as influencers are more likely to express themselves when using their mobiles.”
This research underlines the importance that brands create online videos that motivate comment rather than just consumption, and distinguish between ‘super sharers’ with merely high levels of influence over large numbers of ‘passive’ platform users, versus those who exert a high level of influence over others with equally high levels of social influence – its more about whom you know, rather than how many.
In summary, this research reveals that successful content:
• Acts as a prompt to engage in a conversation / debate
• Elicits powerful emotions; OVs that create the feeling of hope and pride, for example, are twice as likely to rank highly on longevity
• Has a ‘stickiness’ which encourages return visits, such as an unfolding story arc
•Is humourous; a characteristic particularly important to men, who were revealed to be the gender significantly more likely to be influential OV sharers, and more than twice as likely to give OV their undivided attention
• Motivates us to seek out related content that is easily discovered; content found independently and is actively sought out was found to be more likely to hold undivided attention (than content recommended by friends)
• Captures a compelling, relatable moment in time
• Has personal resonance with the viewer
