Your New Marketing Strategy: Unboxing Videos

If we were to ask you what the best feeling in the world is, apart from popping bubble wrap, a lot of you would probably go on to say that it’s the process of opening presents that’s the absolute best ever. The look at the box you just got, accompanied by the feeling of anticipation and surprise surely can’t be beaten easily. Well, it isn’t Christmas every day, but you can get a bit of that rush and amusement by watching unboxing videos.

In case you haven’t seen an unboxing video yet, here’s one. We’ll wait until you’ve finished watching.

Well, that’s pretty neat, isn’t it? The premise of an unboxing video is simple: you take a box and remove things from within the box to show to your audience. That’s about it. It might not be as complicated as virtual reality, but it’s insanely interesting to a very large number of people, me included. It’s so interesting, in fact, that Tubular Insights wrote about the emerging trend of unboxing videos back in December of 2014., and unboxing videos on YouTube had more than 11 billion views. In 2014!

Today we’ll show you how to use unboxing to your advantage, both for brand awareness and sales, so that you can use it to impress your audiences, amuse them and make them happier. Unboxing is really big, and we really want you to know how to make the best of it for your brand. We’re here to help, after all!

The Market Is Huge, And Yours For The Taking

We’re stepping into the same period of this year, and we can all agree: unboxing videos are hugely popular, trendy, cool, fun and promote brands much better than billboards, ads and even native advertising. But why? And how can that help you build your own brand?

Well, let’s start with the context. Unboxing videos are really taking a large share of the market today, and marketers are slowly but steadily catching on. To quote Ariane Gut, the Head of Insights and Analytics at Tremor Video, “Marketers have to go where their audience is.” And the audience is, you guessed it, millennials.

Over a third of millennials will probably be watching an unboxing video this year, and more than 70 percent of those users say that the content they’ve seen has an impact on them. That’s a lot of people. The sheer popularity of these videos should make you think more about implementing them into your own strategy, and we’re pretty sure that it will pay off in the long run.

Get Your Viewers Honest, Unbiased Content

This holiday season will definitely be the best one ever for this relatively new trend. With toys, gadgets, everyday products and more being unboxed prior to the holidays, you can really see what you’re getting. The key here is that these videos are shot by regular people like you, with no “hidden intentions”, just plainly taking stuff out of their packaging.

This is one of the main reasons unboxing videos are extremely popular. They are mostly unbiased, true and honest, as opposed to commercials and official demonstrations that tend to be on the more “sterile” end of things. If the product is poorly packaged, or if the device you’ve unboxed doesn’t really live up to the marketing hype – it’s shown in the unboxing video.

It’s the closest thing you can get to actual word of mouth, and we all know that’s the most effective marketing strategy there is, with over 80% of people trusting the judgment of someone they find well-versed in the area. Combine that with the fact that you can’t lie all that much in an unboxing video because what you see is really what you get, and you have a great marketing strategy just waiting to be used.

It Makes People Happy

The second reason why people really enjoy unboxing videos is that we enjoy seeing other people experience emotions. This is called emotion mirroring. Better known by the name empathy, it’s simply the ability to identify with and understand someone’s emotions. In an unboxing video, you’re seeing the host’s excitement and the tension and excitement before the big reveal.

Psychology says that if you’re seeing someone happy once they open a product, you’re more likely to subconsciously replicate that emotion, and you’ll feel as if you owned and opened the product. Your users will feel better about your products and the great feelings will persist once they see your brand name on the shelf somewhere, or in a webshop.

Get Creative, And Tear That Packaging Off!

The toy company Toys R Us is really riding the wave of success when it comes to these videos. They even feature them on their own YouTube channel! By unboxing toys, they are steadily making great results and are even making the parents happy because they get all sorts of ideas for their kids’ birthdays and other celebrations. It’s pretty much a win-win situation.

The ways for brands to win big on unboxing videos are as diverse as the team behind them, but we will present you with a few to get the creative juices flowing:

1. Make your packaging more “unboxingish”.

What we mean by this is that if you have the opportunity to package your product, let’s say a pair of headphones in a nice packaging that is interesting to open, do it. An interesting example of this is the Dollar Shave Club, who try make their packaging more interesting, therefore making the unboxing videos of it more fun and amusing.

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2. Find yourself some influencers

The best way to promote yourself to a certain audience is to find an influencer that caters to that audience and work with them to make the best business both for you and them. Make sure to check out our article on finding the right influencers, and make things happen! 

3. Promote your content with tasteful ads

Of course, tasteful ones, but still ads. It’s pretty cool to find the exact thing you’re seeing being unboxed in a store near you, and you can do so by collaborating with the people that are unboxing to link to your company or store. It can be a simple “thanks for the product” from the person unboxing, or something more, but bear in mind that it needs to be authentic, and honest.

Of course, there’s a big downside to unboxing videos that isn’t that covered yet. It’s not a drawback per se, but rather a realization that once you see the product get unboxed on the Internet, you already know what’s in the box and you might not be as excited as if you’ve never seen it before. Of course, you’re not buying stuff for the exciting process of unboxing, but it’s something to think about nevertheless.

Personally, I love watching these kinds of videos and spend hours exploring all the different hands-on reviews and unboxing videos before I buy something. Unboxing is set to take this holiday season by storm, and your brand should surely be using it as a strategy to make the best of the holidays.

If you’re looking for a great domain for your unboxing challenges that lie ahead, why not try something like UnboxYourBrand.Me or similar? Adding .ME to your idea just makes it better, more personal and cooler, if you ask us. We’re of course not biased or anything… 🙈 All we’re saying is that a great brand needs a great social domain to put their unboxing videos on, which makes it cooler, more personal and in the end, more fun.

Now excuse me, there’s a toy violin unboxing that I need to see ASAP.