As online publishers scramble to feed video-hungry platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, some are using this one simple trick: Just post ads!
Publishers including Business Insider and Cheddar now frequently employ the tactic, which often involves reediting a TV commercial or marketing video by a third-party company, adding some subtitles and music, and reposting the resulting clip to their own social media accounts and websites.
For example, financial news company Cheddar posted a video to its Twitter and Facebook accounts featuring the “Sock Slider,” a contraption designed to help people put socks on their feet without stretching or straining. The video, complete with a Cheddar logo in one corner and an “as seen on TV” logo in the other, featured the same footage as a 60-second TV commercial for the product but with Cheddar’s own music and captions, rather than the commercial audio.
Since it was posted Wednesday, the Sock Slider video has racked up over 130,000 “views” on Facebook alone. On Twitter, pre-roll advertising for other companies was even running ahead of the repurposed Sock Slider commercial.
“Our audience on Facebook loves this content. It’s what works in the news feed where people scroll quickly with the sound off,” said Cheddar Chief Executive Jon Steinberg, adding that videos about “gadgets and cool visual tech or gizmos” perform particularly well.
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Consumers, meanwhile, may never know the video they’re watching actually started as a TV commercial.
“Some [of the videos] are ad content, though these posts are unpaid and not sponsor content, but others have nothing to do with content from ads,” Mr. Steinberg said.
Sock Slider had no involvement with the post and didn’t pay for it, Mr. Steinberg said. Allstar Marketing Group, which owns the Sock Slider trademark, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Some suggest the repackaging and reposting of ads highlights the “pivot to video” mentality many publishers now demonstrate. The push to churn out video content to feed platforms and to attract potentially lucrative video advertising is increasingly viewed as a potential solution to an increasingly challenging business model problem.
For publishers, repackaging a commercial is often a simple process that can take an experienced video editor relatively little time, and the result is a win-win situation for all parties. The publisher gets some quick and easy video content it can post to social media and potentially sell advertising against, the platforms get to brag about the millions of videos being uploaded to their services, and the company that originally produced the video gets more exposure.
Publishers might also get paid a commission on any sales they help drive by including affiliate links alongside the videos. If these links drive users to purchase the products, then the publisher gets a cut.
Business Insider regularly posts repackaged marketing videos to the various social media accounts it operates. On Thursday, its Insider brand posted a video multiple times about a gardening product called Drill Till, including the same footage featured in marketing videos posted on the Drill Till website. The video was originally produced by product development company Mind64.
Eric Miller, chief executive of Mind64, said his company is asked regularly by publishers for permission to use its marketing materials and is typically happy for them to use its videos as they see fit. Mind64 does retail placement, branding, video and other marketing for a range of products, Mr. Miller wrote in an email.
Both the Sock Slider and the Drill Till posts included affiliate links.
According to Insider’s editor in chief, Nicholas Carlson, 80% of the publication’s videos contain original footage produced by Insider itself. But it’s happy to use marketing content also, he said, describing the approach as “resourceful.”
“Sometimes a marketer will have made a video that nobody’s seen, but the way we use it to tell a story gets way more eyeballs and it’s because we’re experts at telling stories,” he said.
Repackaging marketing or advertising content is in itself a form of reporting, Mr. Carlson added, because it involves tracking down its owner, obtaining permission and reporting the story behind the footage.
The video isn’t always cribbed from TV commercials or product websites. Crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter also offer up a gold mine of video content for publishers to dip into, often featuring interesting innovations or product ideas.
In some ways the phenomenon isn’t a new one. Marketing videos produced by companies are regularly featured in editorial content on TV, for example.
But as long as companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter have a business interest in consumers viewing more videos, they’ll find a way to ensure consumers view more videos. For publishers, that often means getting their hands on whatever video they can find, even if it’s an ad.
Write to Jack Marshall at Jack.Marshall@wsj.com