Video ad tech company Unruly launches new algorithmic tool to predict virality of Aussie ads

Video ad tech company Unruly has launched a tool to help advertisers in Australia predict the virality of their video ads ahead of launch.

Australian advertisers will be able to use the predictive technology to identify the emotional,  social and behavioral triggers that drive the success of their video content down under. They will also know the earned media potential of their video ad before they have spent one dollar on media.

Unruly, the global leaders in social video distribution, first launched Unruly ShareRank in January 2013 to help marketers in the U.S. and U.K. predict the ‘shareability’ of their video content. Versions tailored for other markets, including Brazil, South-East Asia, France and Germany, have since been released.

The video ad tech company, which has run hundreds of campaigns across the APAC region, has now trained the proprietary algorithm specifically for the Australian video ad market – the fastest-growing online advertising medium in Australia at the moment, according to the latest IAB Australia/PwC Online Advertising Expenditure Report – so it can predict consumers’ emotional responses to branded video content throughout the country.

Says Lance Traore, MD, Unruly’s Australia & New Zealand: “Brands and creative agencies in Australia understand there is life beyond the 30-second TV commercial and that making more emotional digital content drives deeper connections with consumers who will go on to share and buy their products or services.”

The Unruly ShareRank algorithm – which will be officially launched at an event at Hotel CBD in Sydney this afternoon – has been trained by combining 2 trillion video views with more than 395,000 consumer data points. When adapting the algorithm for the Australian market, Unruly found the following:

• Australians share branded video content faster than any other country worldwide. On average a branded video campaign in Australia attracts 21% of its total shares in the first 24 hours – much higher than the global average of 13%. South Korea is second, attracting on average 20% of its total shares on day one;
• Australia has seen a huge explosion in social video over the last 12 months, with the number of videos launched by brands nearly doubling (+92%). The average share rate also increased from 0.8% in April 2014 to 2.9% in April 2015;
• Happiness is the most common emotional sharing trigger for Aussie video campaigns, followed by inspiration and warmth. In the U.K. and U.S., the most common emotional triggers are happiness and hilarity. However, getting a strong emotional reaction to a video in Australia is harder than the rest of the world, with ads 7% less likely to evoke intense emotional responses than the global average;
• The most common social motivation to share a video online in Australia is to seek other people’s opinions. In the U.K. it’s to recommend a product or service, while in Germany it’s to start a conversation;
• Australia is a land of super-sharers, with 18% of the Aussie population accounting for 80% of total video shares Down Under;
• Australians are more likely to engage with video campaigns than a lot of other countries around the world, with click-through (+37%), interaction (+15%) and complete rates (+1%) all higher than the global averages. Average mobile CTR (+86%), interaction (+40%) and complete rates (+31%) also exceed the global average (source: Unruly Activate).
• Australian social video campaigns drove an average uplift in brand favorability of +80% versus the global average of +47% (source: Unruly Activate);
• Australians share less on Facebook and Twitter than the global average, but more on Google+, Tumblr, email and StumbleUpon.

Dr Karen Nelson-Field, director, Centre for Digital Video Intelligence at the University of South Australia Business School, who advised Unruly on the product, will be speaking at the official launch party this afternoon about what’s next for online video research.

Says Nelson-Field: “Emotions are at the heart of good content, not just from a shareability perspective but the fact that emotional content cuts through the clutter and gets remembered – being remembered is vital for sales.”

Says Traore: “The launch of Unruly ShareRank demonstrates Unruly’s growing commitment to the Australian ad market. By constructing a localised set of data as to how consumers react to different emotional and brand stimuli, Unruly can help advertisers apply the science of sharing to their paid media campaigns, helping brands understand the building blocks of social success relevant to their specific audience.”

For more information about Unruly ShareRank, click here.