OWN THE MOMENT
Social video moves fast, making it difficult for marketers and agencies to catch trends before they go viral. Relying on comments & engagements for retroactive intel makes it difficult to stay ahead of the curve.
Good creators are so monetizable because they authentically position themselves at the center of cultural conversations. Whether they’re driving K-Pop beauty trends, writing TikTok musical scores, or creating viral dances, they align with emerging trends and give audiences something to engage with. By being the sole driving force behind a massive trend, these creators reap long-term viewership that compounds interest.
In our latest report, Watching is Better than Listening: How to build brand preference using social behavior, we explore 5 core ways to go beyond engagements with deep audience and behavior insights.
In this mini-series, we’ve cut the report into snackable segments. For Part 2, we’re talking about how brands like yours can own the moment.
- Anticipate behavioral trends and topics
- Create evergreen content that keeps viewers coming back
- Invest in social video that continues to compound ROI over time
From social listener → to social luminary
Racking in tons of views is great, but winning Watch Time indicates a truly loyal and active audience. Let’s dissect a well-known example, Tubular data indicates MrBeast is the #1 creator for watch time with 2.3B monthly minutes across platforms.
Perhaps one of MrBeast’s greatest strengths is his ability to align his content with the cultural moment that viewers can get excited about. This creates a disturbance in the normal social algorithm and floods his channels with views & engagements.
Soon after racking up 133M views in the first-week of his Netflix SquidGame spin-off, MrBeast launched another community-building challenge: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. He strategically planned his content calendar to build excitement for of his 5 ingredient chocolate bar, Feastable. This video earned 76M views in the first 30 days making it the 2nd most popular YouTube video ever. Tubular data shows these viewers:
- were 80x more likely to visit a Feastables promotion page
- 58x more likely to visit the primary domain after watching
Now, MrBeast takes his online community to the real world with the launch of his very own restaurant, Beast Burger. A reported 10,000 people showed up to the opening day of this YouTuber’s in-person restaurant. Brands can learn so much from creators like MrBeast who excel at creating cultural moments and opening new opportunities to engage with audiences.
Evergreen is #goals
The first month after posting is make-or-break for most content. But… the true testament for loyalty, trust, and entertainment is sustained growth in views over time.
For marketers, this is a huge opportunity. You partner with creators and spend a pretty penny on a campaign. If it goes viral for a moment, it’s great! But good content creators know how to put out evergreen content that compounds ROI, boosts brand awareness, and enhances loyalty.
Take a gander at MrBeast’s SquidGame video growth over time:
After the sharp spike up to 46M views in the first 2 days, we see that viewership continues to rise at a steady pace. After 7 months, the video still averages 500k views per day!
Unfortunately, techniques that monitor likes & engagements won’t measure the evergreen success. After 7 months, the video now gets about 7k engagements per day which shies in comparison to the number of views.
Simply put, the cultural conversation might have shifted to other topics (which accounts for a decrease in engagement), but the entertainment value and brand loyalty remain.
Ready to turn the lights on and cast out all branding blindspots? Check out the full-length report here: Watching is Better than Listening: How to build brand preference using social behavior.
If you missed Part 1, don’t worry— it’s right here. Be on the lookout for the next segment of Actions Speak Louder than Words: The Social Playbook for Behavioral Data Part 3 dropping soon!