Coinciding with new research revealing that millennials are increasingly leveraging digital and mobile video when making purchases online, Mondelez International is astutely ramping up its video commerce efforts on Facebook.

The brand is renewing its partnership with the social network so that it may continue to focus on developing creative video content, designed to fuel impulse snack purchasing online. A new report from Animoto shows that four out of five millennials believe video to be helpful during primary research for a purchase decision, proving that Mondelez is set to reach plenty of younger consumers with its Facebook commerce initiatives.

“Video is the fastest growing platform for Facebook,” said a spokeswoman for Mondelez International. “They’re the number one player in mobile and have a vast reach to millennial consumers.

“As consumers are spending less time in stores and more time shopping on their phones and online, Facebook is the perfect partner for us.”

Uncapping consumer behaviors
Consumers’ video consumption habits, particularly on mobile, are hitting new highs, meaning large brands have an optimal small window of time to roll out innovative advertising formats and drive more sales. Posting the ad videos on social networks gives an added bonus to marketers, as consumers can easily share them with friends and family with the tap of a finger.

“Facebook is tracking to deliver three trillion video views this year, one trillion more than YouTube, according to Ampere Analysis,” said Jeff Hasen, founder of Gotta Mobilize, Seattle. “And these views are happening predominantly on mobile devices.

“The most successful brands are non-intrusive, providing relevant content, and delivering marketing messages only enough times to get their stories told.”

Mondelez is employing a full-time Facebook creative strategist to collaborate with its marketing experts and partner agencies to create scalable video content. It will be made natively for Facebook’s platform to ensure maximum social engagement.

The brand will also be dipping its toes into beta-testing programs on Instagram as well as Facebook, suggesting the photo-sharing application offers additional streams of revenue for consumer packaged goods marketers.

The two companies will team up to test these solutions in the hopes of driving more impulse purchases of Mondelez’s snack brands, which include Oreo, Ritz and Nabisco. Key target markets will be the United States, Britain, Australia and India.

Mondelez has already been leveraging video on Facebook, and has several short, animated clips up on its Facebook page for the Oreo brand, one of which has more than 14,000 likes and 334,000 views. Consumers can easily view these videos and suddenly become filled with desire to purchase a bag of the black-and-white classic cookies.

Video’s purchasing influence
Recent research from Animoto revealed millennials are projected to spend more than $200 billion each year beginning in 2017, cementing them as a primary target demographic that cannot be overlooked.

The study displayed seven in 10 millennial respondents claim they are likely to watch a video while shopping online, with 80 percent believing video is helpful when deciding on a purchase.

However, while these consumers often turn to video for comparison shopping or initial research, mobile video can certainly prompt more spur-of-the-moment purchases while on-the-go, especially for lower-priced goods such as snacks.

Most importantly, nearly half of millennials admit they only watch videos on their smartphones, and 84 percent follow their favorite brands on social media. This proves the optimal tie-in for branded video on social network apps such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

“This partnership is based on the successes we’ve had brands such as Philadelphia in Europe where engaging, tailor-made video seamlessly generated purchases,” Mondelez’s spokeswoman said.

The consumer packaged goods conglomerate is also rolling out the next generation of a program responsible for driving innovation in the marketer’s mobile efforts by pairing entrepreneurs and retailers to transform consumer retail initiatives (see story).

“As Google’s Jason Spero says in my new The Art of Mobile Persuasion book, mobile is for action,” Gotta Mobilize’s Mr. Hasen said. “Mondelez and others are going where the eyeballs and wallets are in activity that will only continue and grow.”

Final Take
Alex Samuely is an editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York