Unboxing 101 – How savvy influencer engagement can construct a model – Buyer and advertising relations
Gali Arnon
Gali has been Fiverr’s Chief Marketing Officer since October 2017. Previously, Gali was Chief Executive Officer of Brightcom Group, a digital marketing and publicly traded company in India, from 2015 to 2017. Between 2014 and 2015, she was Senior Vice President of Marketing and Operations at SimilarWeb, a web analytics company. Other roles on her résumé include VP at 888 Holdings, an online gaming platform and publicly traded company in London. Gali holds a BA and an MBA from Tel Aviv University in Israel.
The humble unboxing video is a powerful tool. Done correctly, it harnesses consumer fandom, viral authenticity, and the magic of branding to deliver a powerful message to a targeted group of consumers.
If you had told a marketer 20 years ago that ordinary, unfamiliar people in their own four walls film themselves taking your product out of the box and sharing it with strangers on the internet, you would be amazed. Amazement would escalate to alarmed confusion when you describe this unusual behavior as a powerful marketing tool.
But the internet is a strange animal. The cumulative playback time of unboxing videos on YouTube is equivalent to 20 million full-length movies. Much of these videos are seeded in one way or another by the brands themselves, either through the provision of sample products or freelance production by social media professionals, which can be inexpensively obtained on marketplaces like Fiverr. Once a brand is established, fans often start organically producing their own unboxing video that acts as a powerful carrier wave for your products.
There are a number of elements a marketer should consider incorporating unboxing video into their digital strategy.
Despite the relative novelty of unboxing video, you still need to remember the basics of consumer marketing in order to reach the right customer with the right message, in the right place, at the right time. You need to carefully choose your influencers and their platforms to ensure that you reach your target audience.
Do a thorough research of your target market’s digital media consumption habits, if you don’t already have a clear picture of them. Sure, there are truisms about broad demographic groups – Facebook is for boomers, Instagram for millennials, TikTok, and Snapchat for younger groups – but these are just rules of thumb. The more thorough and specific you create your consumer profile, the more effectively you can choose both your platform and your influencer.
You should also identify where you will meet your customers on the customer journey. For example, if you want to create breakthrough awareness among younger consumers, TikTok is a great choice. The smart algorithm and endless feed can present your product to millions of the correct eyeballs for up to a minute.
However, TikTok is a walled garden and in many markets does not easily allow off-platform purchases. It’s an excellent tool for raising awareness of hard-to-reach Generation Z consumers, but there are high friction points for conversions right out of the box.
If your efforts are focused further down the marketing funnel, you might be better off using Instagram Stories, which currently have greater ecommerce functionality that allows for in-app purchases. If your product is relatively unknown, consider a two-step process where you use one platform for awareness and another for conversions.
First of all, you may want to use an online marketplace to hire influencers to produce unboxing videos. This early work can lay the foundation for the commitment of organic fans to your products.
From here you can move on to a contra arrangement. While influencers with extremely large followers can charge high fees, you can take a more cost-effective approach by identifying larger numbers of newcomers with a smaller audience and offering them free products in return for unwrapping videos. Influencers who rise rather than peak often have a greater aura of authenticity than already established ones, which trend consumers may already see as a marketing mouthpiece.
You should also ensure that your chosen influencers, whether paid or partnered, have the tools and skills to showcase your product in the best light. Of course, that means paying attention to packaging and product design. It also means making sure that you have the right editing, post-production, and graphic design elements in your unboxing videos to make your product shine. After all, you only have one chance to make a first impression on customers.
Finally, send a thank you to those who bring your brand to their followers. Including such a personal touch is a small gesture that can deepen your relationships with brand fans.
I believe that having a smart and targeted digital marketing strategy with unboxing videos on social platforms is one of the best investments an SMB marketer can make. The cost of each of the elements – whether it’s influencer engagement, post production, graphic design, or even SEO that supports it all – is falling rapidly. Marketers who can’t keep up with ad spend need to be nimble, resourceful, and ready to take advantage of the healthy freelance market to get their product into the phones and hearts of potential customers around the world.
