Brands take to Vine

Warc, 5 February 2013

NEW YORK: General Electric, Gap and Urban Outfitters are among the brand owners making early use of Vine, Twitter's new app for sharing video clips of no more than six seconds in length.

Twitter acquired Vine in October 2012, when the video-sharing tool was still under development. Last week, it finally launched an app allowing members to upload content via the iPhone and iPod Touch.

General Electric, the conglomerate, has already started utilising Vine, and Linda Boff, its executive director of global brand marketing, told the Financial Times the initial results were highly positive.

"Vine is a natural complement to Twitter – it's creative storytelling driven by constraint," she said. "I do think this is already beyond a novelty and simply accepted internet language at this point.

"We've seen strong organic engagement and we love that it delivers on what the internet increasingly wants – mobile-first, stream-based, visual storytelling."

Other marketers that have become early adopters of this channel include Urban Outfitters, Gap and Asos, all from the apparel category, as well as Malibu, the spirits brand, and Wheat Thins, the snacks range.

In the media sector, PBS, the broadcaster, has proved similarly enthusiastic, as have NBC News, CNN, The Daily Beast and MSNBC.

Michael Litman, senior social strategist at AnalogFolk, an interactive agency, argued Vine had become an unprecedented hit during its short history to date.

"I've been surprised at how much of a story you can articulate in six seconds," he said. "I don't remember seeing any recent social platform have such a huge brand take-up, almost from day one."

Simon Mansell, chief executive of TBG Digital, a social media agency, suggested Vine constituted a video-based equivalent to Instagram, the photo-sharing tool now owned by Facebook.

"I think it will encourage brands to think about shorter content than 30-second spots, which is necessary in a world where people have a shorter attention span," he added.

Tom Bedecarre, chairman of AKQA, a digital agency, added it was "too early" to say if Vine would be a success, but the wider trend, at least, was more clear. "What I do know is people love video. And I know advertisers love video," he said.

Data sourced from Financial Times; additional content by Warc staff