Late last month, Twitter introduced a major upgrade in the form of Vine—a feature that lets users add 6-second videos to their tweets.
But like most Twitter products, Vine has some challenges in how it can be monetized. Most online video is easily monetized today with the adding of pre-roll video ads, banner ad overlays, and so on. But how do you add a 15-second pre-roll ad to a 6-second video?
What brands need to realize is that the 6-second Vine video IS the ad, and just as the 140-character limit for tweets presents interesting challenges for composing useful content, so does Vines' abbreviated time restrictions.
Tap the screen and tell us your favorite blueprint from National Inventors' Day! #loop #magic #IWantToInvent vine.co/v/bvPAd0dd1W3
— General Electric (@generalelectric) February 12, 2013
Smart brands already have been very active on Twitter in the past few years, cumulating with some pretty impressive strategies surrounding the most recent Super Bowl. Here's a few ways they can be even smarter by incorporating video via Vine as well:
Behind the Scenes
Many brands already have different versions of the same video ad for different formats (such as a shortened pre-roll ad for Internet video edited from a longer-form TV ad). Vine can further complement this by making snippets of behind-the-scenes footage available where appropriate.
Location
One of the biggest advantages of Vine over other video platforms—most notably YouTube—is that it more easily adds geo location data to posts. This can get real interesting for local restaurants or other vendors looking to Vine as a way to draw in customers in the immediate vicinity… something to keep in mind when creating a Vine video.
Contests
Release new ads or other long-form videos in 6-second teaser segments unlockable only after certain follower or retweet milestones are met. This can be done as a ramp-up to the premier of the ad, particularly for marquee ads (like those unveiled during this last Super Bowl) or for other types of announcements.
User-generated content
Ask customers to submit Vine videos of themselves using your product, and perhaps even compile the best into a longer-form ad used on another platform.
Product demos
Short, how-to videos for products that can use either an extra hand in educating the public on how it's used, or to showcase creative ideas for how to use a product that may not come immediately to mind.
There are sure to be other examples and lessons as Vine matures as a platform over time. With more than 500 million registered Twitter users, any experiment is sure to generate useful data for informing future best practices.
