Bing Integrates Qwiki, Brands Gain Video Marketing Tool
- by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, June 12, 2012
Microsoft made search and brand marketing more about content to connect search results with destinations through video. Bing, the company's search engine, announced a
partnership Tuesday with New York-based Qwiki to create a new media format in query results that combines audio, videos, images, maps, and Twitter tweets.
Qwiki -- an embeddable, interactive video format -- will initially bring in Wikipedia entries, but eventually integrate other content in Bing search results. Through a Web-based Creator tool and application programming interface for developers, companies like ABC News can create their own content.
Doug Imbruce, Qwiki founder, wants marketers to think of the format as a movie trailer for mobile and desktop Web pages, an unpaid search ad in organic results. "By 2015, about 90% of IP traffic will come from video," he said. "Now, for the first time, you have anchors from 'Nightline' making interactive content."
As publishers and brands become content creators, marketers can target messages through this video format in search results. The video player expands in the search results, allowing viewers to scroll through aggregated content pulled in from across the Internet.
As the Qwiki plays, viewers can click on the content to gain more information and generate a new search.
The technology launched in 2011, but did not gain acceptance from a search engine to drive engagement until now. A Qwiki, typically 1.5 minutes long, can keep searchers connected to the topic for five to six minutes on social sites as well as search engines, Imbruce said.
Video posts on Google+ are the most popular type of content on brand pages. Research from eMarketer points to studies from Simply Measured, which reveal that video posts from the Top 100 brands produced 115,000 +1s, comments and shares in Q2 2012 -- up from 66,000 in Q1.
"Imagine searching for Nike on Bing, and you have an athlete sharing tips on a specific sport," Imbruce said. "Then you can link back to from the engine to a Web site."
