Dive Brief:

• Vistaprint debuted a branded content campaign on YouTube for the holidays, parent company Google exclusively shared with Marketing Dive. The printing company's effort features influencer Rosanna Pansino as she designs her holiday card on Vistaprint's online platform and highlights various product offerings.
• Beneath the video appears a scrolling Shopping Shelf, YouTube's tool that lets viewers directly purchase items, such as Vistaprint's custom envelopes, seals and mailing labels. A coupon code and link to a dedicated landing page also directs people from viewing the video to browsing products.
• The Shopping Shelf feature, developed by Google's in-house branded content platform FameBit, aims to make YouTube more shoppable for video viewers during the holiday season, per the shared details. A Calvin Klein campaign that used the Shopping Shelf in July garnered 8.3 million minutes in watch time, according to Google.

Dive Insight:

By blending shoppable video tools and influencer content, Vistaprint's campaign can simultaneously reach Pansino's large audience while potentially driving viewers to browse and purchase products like seasonal cards and printed gifts during the peak holiday shopping season. The tool more directly links brand awareness and consideration efforts to sales, helping to determine attribution and drive campaign ROI.

Vistaprint's Brand Innovation Lead Jill Molinari said in a statement the company chose this strategy to inspire potential customers through creative influencer content on their preferred platform and more easily connect them with convenient shopping opportunities.

Google has focused on integrating shopping tools within YouTube in recent months as it looks to take on Amazon, which is steadily chewing away at Google's share of the digital advertising market. The search giant redesigned the home page for its e-commerce platform Google Shopping and created a price-tracking tool that pings users on their smartphone when the price of a tagged item drops. The company also extended its Showcase Shopping Ads to let people more easily shop from Google Images, YouTube and its Discover news feed.

The latest updates come as the tech giant attempts to diversify its revenue streams amid some slowdown in growth for its core search advertising business. One of YouTube's advantages is the strong presence of creator and influencer culture on its site, which the company is using to leveraging in tandem with commerce. While Google's experiments with shoppable tools are still relatively early days, they have started to win the interest of marketers including Target and Estée Lauder​.

Meanwhile, other platforms like Facebook and Instagram are building out their own commerce tools to snag a slice of the growing social commerce opportunity. Instagram in November debuted a line of curated products inspired by some of the year's biggest style trends that users can purchase without leaving the app. Shoppable collections like this act as double-duty for the image-sharing app, promoting the platform as a destination attuned to current trends and also a place where users can go to easily purchase gifts during the holidays.