Five questions for Aaron Magness, Director of Brand Marketing and Business Development, Zappos.com

Zappos.com has been in the news a lot lately -- from their recent acquisition by Amazon, to their strong and public commitment to customer service. Recently, Zappos was in the headlines once again for their innovative "world's fastest nudist" viral video campaign on YouTube. Aaron Magness, Director of Brand Marketing & Business Development, talked to us about Zappos' overall approach to video advertising.

1. What is Zappos' strategy behind video advertising across the Internet and TV?

Our primary goal is to grow awareness and drive new customer acquisition. One of the biggest challenges of getting your message out is being in front of the right people at the right time. By spreading your touch points across multiple forms of media, that ability increases.

2. Are there any specific facets of YouTube that work particularly well for your brand?

YouTube provides a platform that just about everyone is aware of and comfortable using. One of the core values of Zappos is “Do more with less." YouTube is a great way to do that.

3. How did you come up with the idea for your viral campaign about the "world's fastest nudist"?

Since we started as a shoe retailer, that’s what the majority of people think of us as. We are really trying to stretch their perception of who we are and what we represent, particularly in clothing. Given this goal, the idea was pitched to us by Agent 16. We thought it was a really funny idea and could make people laugh. They did a great job with it.

4. How do you measure the success of this campaign and your other video marketing efforts?

We weren’t looking for a huge ROI on this specific idea. The goal is to build long term awareness that people are talking about. We wanted to find a fun way to get the message out that we sell more than shoes, and I think this did that.

5. What's your favorite YouTube video?

There really are so many. “David after the dentist” comes to mind pretty quickly followed by “Boom goes the dynamite." Overall, the ones I like the most tend to be user generated and not overly produced.

Posted by Deeksha Hebbar, Associate Marketing Manager