Marketing with Vine

Written by 5ivecanons Staff

Vine is an app created by Twitter that allows users to upload 6 second video animations that loop over and over again. Vine is turning seasoned users into celebrities, and coming under fire for encouraging people to do stupid things. But more than that, advertising is finding it’s way into the Vine community.

Vine, like Twitter, has its own unique “character limit.” But in this case, it’s a “content limit.”

Companies have started utilizing Vine to send their messages to a younger audience. With a 6 second time limit though, how much can companies really say?

Vine has its advantages though. It is an emerging media, that for the time being – seems to be here to stay. Growing every day, there are about 13 million users with the app right now. That’s not a large number, when compared to other social networking site users, but Vine isn’t meant to compete with those sites. This brief time limit forces companies to get creative, while being concise and direct. Not only that, Vine is mobile in nature, that is to say, that it’s not meant to be viewed from a computer screen at home. It’s meant to be shared and exported through different contexts, and linked throughout networks.

Dunkin’ Donuts premiered their first Vine advertisement for TV and digital billboard for Monday Night Football. The ad featured a football play of iced coffee versus hot coffee.

Lots of companies are using mash-ups of multiple Vines, after running contests that provoke users to upload a Vine relevant to their message.

Other companies, such as Lowes, Trident, Dove, Oreo, General Electric, Volkswagen, Samsung, Gap, and Sephora are all using Vine in creative ways to showcase their companies on a platform that the younger audience is still exploring, too. This is a great opportunity for companies to get their roots in this type of media, and be known as one of the catalysts for advertising on the circuit.

With Vine still being new, there’s lots of room to play with the way advertising and marketing works within its parameters. I think we’ll be seeing some emergent methods of advertising that will showcase the dynamic ability of some companies to adjust to this new media platform.

Will Vine continue to grow and permeate other forms of media? Only time will tell.