In 2015, FIAT France took to YouTube to launch one of the most successful Super Bowl video campaigns. 13 million views later, this is what the company learned about the power of video awareness—and why Unexpected Creative stresses the importance of this marketing tool.

Creating a video is more than fancy imagery or numbers of shares, it’s reaching the right audience and influencing purchasing power. FIAT tracked audiences by siloing its campaign, launching the YouTube ad first, and following the results closely.

The ad was looked at in 3 ways:

• Those who watched more than 30 seconds of the video
• Those who watched less than 30 seconds of the video
• Age demographics of those who watched the video

The target audience was individuals between 45 and 54 years old, studies showed a lift in ad recall of 123% for those exposed to the ad. For “market entry” individuals, those over 35 years old, had an 82% lift recorded, and finally, in that same age group, a 175% ad recall lift was noted for those that watched more than 30 seconds of the ad.

What does this mean? Brand awareness, interest, and understanding went up! 23% across the board, as a matter of fact. That means 23% of FIAT’s target audience CARED about what they were seeing.

Follow-up and Impact on Search Volume

The use of keywords in online searches boomed! FIAT France saw that there was a 230% increase in search volume for the FIAT 500X model and a 200% increase for the FIAT brand by those who were exposed to the YouTube ad. Not to mention keyword search for campaign words increased 9 times.

After the successful YouTube ad campaign, FIAT France launched a full-scale campaign using the results to market the FIAT 500X.

I continue to follow studies like this one, research results-driven tactics, and create a viral video that gets brands and products talked about. Video is the new norm, and a video strategy will enhance your brand, your image, and engage your audience.

Note: At the time of this publication, the FIAT 500X Super Bowl ad had over 26 million views combined internationally.