Bauer Media tries to prove its ads work using shoppable videos

Bauer is distributing the videos on its own sites, The Debrief, Heat, Grazia, Closer; radio station Kiss; and outside its own ecosystem, on MailOnline and Very’s own site. Bauer wouldn’t give specifics but said these branded videos are getting 10 times as many interactions as Bauer’s unbranded videos.

“The key objective is brand awareness and cognitive association; there’s also proof we can drive conversion,” said Lucie Cave, editorial director of commercial content at Bauer Media. The campaign is ongoing, so Bauer wouldn’t say how many sales the videos have led to.

Shoppable video has been around in some guises since at least 2012, albeit in a clunky form. It’s a way for fashion publishers to see if their branded-content campaigns can drive sales, rather than other business objectives that are harder to measure, like awareness or brand uplift.

This isn’t Bauer’s first use of the format. In August, Grazia created three two-minute videos to help drive sales for Adidas, featuring interviews with three creatives — a model, presenter and makeup artist — about their daily routines and attitudes about fashion. Each wore items from the Adidas Campus line that were shoppable at points throughout the videos. The videos were distributed across Grazia and The Debrief. Dwell times on the videos were 200 percent above the average for Grazia’s other videos, although Cave didn’t give specifics.

Image via Bauer Media