Houzz Is Quietly Winning The Video Marketing Game

If you’re anything like me, you spend a decent amount of time watching home makeover shows. While cable networks like HGTV have, until recently, held reign over the genre, there is a curious new take on the home makeover show on YouTube right now — and if you look closely, it’s one of the most brilliant content marketing campaigns I’ve seen to date. The idea of good content marketing (especially video!) is to present your product or service’s value without seeming overly promotional for the viewer. This is the origin of those “native advertising” magazine inserts: how can something be interesting and generate revenue? As a content marketing buff, a video production geek and an avid YouTube binger myself, I was blown away recently by Houzz.com’s “My Houzz” series, which gives celebrity spokespeople the opportunity to renovate the homes of their family members (while conveniently propping up the Houzz site). If you’re anything like I was, you have no idea what Houzz is. Luckily, the video guides you through it: Houzz is an inclusive home design platform, combining the idea boards of Pinterest, reviews and recommendations of Yelp and shopping centers of online retailers all into one. Users can find contractors in their city, shop (and save) home decor and plan out rooms, all in one place. Doesn’t sound like a particularly hard sell, right? It isn’t, and that is a main factor in why it makes video marketing look so easy. The combination of an excellent service and celebrity spokespeople makes what is essentially an ad for Houzz into a fully-fledged standalone marketing campaign. Right now there are episodes featuring Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Jenna Fischer, with hopefully more to come. The makeovers are beautiful, the stories are touching and throughout it all, Houzz comes out on top. My roommate and I have already made accounts, despite the fact that we rent and probably won’t be renovating any time soon. And that, my friends, is what you call perfect content marketing. This article is written from the perspective of Digital Brew’s digital strategist, Lexi Merritt. Opinions expressed here are her own and not endorsed by Houzz in any way.