Friends Who Share Videos Do Brands a Big Favor

Social videos are a hotter hit for brands than those that were found by those surfing solo, a new study from Unruly finds.

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If your friends like a video and share it with you, it’s much more likely that you’ll like the video too—and you are also more likely to remember the brand featured in it.

That was the verdict in a new report released today from Unruly, the company that sent the Old Spice commercial viral back in 2010. The report highlights the impact of social video recommendations on traditional brand metrics, such as brand recall, brand favorability, purchase intent and brand association.

Released Tuesday, the research paper investigated the impact of recommendation on brand metrics amongst 18- to 34-year-olds to determine social ad effectiveness.

Some highlights from the study:

• Video enjoyment increased purchase intent by 97 percent and brand association by 139 percent.
• Enjoyment of the video rose by 14 percent among viewers who had viewed the video following a recommendation.
• Brand recall and brand association rose 7 percent among viewers who had been recommended the video versus viewers who found it by browsing.

The kicker: After viewing the social video, 49 percent of viewers purchased the advertised product within three days of the view and 38 percent of viewers spoke to someone in person about the video.

“What starts online becomes interchangeable with real life in the minds of today’s consumers,” the study said.