You Tube: a new way to do marketing

You Tube started as a web platform to upload, share and view videos. However,through these last years, You Tube has become much more than a place to see videos. This web has created new ways to communicate and  generate new business , catching the attention of important Brands.

NEW BUSINESS

One example is Michelle Phan, the You Tube celebrity with more than 6 Million subscribers. She started in 2007 posting videos of You Tube to teach others women how to do their own make up. Using some simple but effective special effects, she was able to attract new fans over the years. This opportunity to connect with a large group of people helped Michelle videos to become a good marketing media for big Cosmetic Companies. In 2010, Phan became the official video make-up artist for Lancôme. Later on, she signed a contract to launch a new line of cosmetics called EM by Michelle Phan with L’ Oreal Group.

Another example is Rosanna Pasino, an unknown actress who started posting videos about cupcakes recipes in order to practice in front of the cameras.  Just an attractive topic to talk about and creative designs were enough to help their videos to become viral and be, in 2014, promoted by You Tube all over NY City.

The communication through You Tube has opened the door to new ways to reach potential customers. Understanding how to use YouTube to promote a brand can be a succesful and cheap Marketing strategy that every marketer should analyze before launching a Campaign.

High increase in video streaming on the web...

Thinking about the video streaming options and channels that we have discussed in class such as Youtube, Vevo among others... and with the broadband of the internet getting better and better every day... How important will be video streaming and live streaming in the web's future.... and what new opportunities they will bring in developing new video platforms... Undoubtly this is an interesting are to focus as research from Pew Internet Research Companu shows that 71 percent of online Americans are using YouTube and other sites. This is up from 66 percent a year ago and way up from 33 percent in 2006. I was strike by such big growth in just 4 years... and still we haven't seen announce challenging youtube directly yet... Youtube represents 52% of the streaming video traffic on the web... so how are companies are going to capitalize on that... Will brands continue to launch their youtube channels providing consumers unique exclusive content...? Is this currently working for consumers...? Those are interesting questions to ask as marketers and visualize a bit further about how this applications can end up working for some industries... What about if we can virtually shop in supermarket and shops... with livestreaming... or even virtually party with the music of the best dj's of the world with high quality high speed video streaming that the quality might become some good that you would feel almost the club experience... How useful can this trend become towards education... as people won't need to assist classes anymore... One interesting consequence of this phenomenon is how anyone can express their point of view of current events in matters of seconds and with very low technical requirements... and share it with the world... This is pretty powerful now that youtube represents 10% of the traffic worldwide and it became a good source for information for large media groups around the world.

MySpace and YouTube Artists Coming To A Venue Near You

I was reminded of Hannah ‘s comment about how Etsy (the “Amazon” of the craft world) had recently gone from being just a “clicks” business to also being a “bricks” one by providing in-person craft lessons at its Brooklyn location last night. I was looking through this week’s Time Out New York when I found listings for live performance by two different Internet sensations. The first of these listings was for a standup comedy show featuring a “MySpace Comedian” named Owen Benjamin 5. From the listing, I was able to gather that MySpace regularly showcases different performers and that this was part of a series. I assume that MySpace is probably getting a cut of the profits and is probably doing these kinds of shows in other cities around the country. The second listing was billed as a live musical performance by a “YouTube Sensation” (unfortunately, I can’t seem to find the ad to provide more details) and appeared to be something that the artist had organized/ done promotion by himself.

Live performances such as these illustrate how social media is transforming every aspect of the entertainment industry from promotion, to distribution, and even retail. With the widespread adoption of these platforms by consumers and the low barrier of entry (cost, labor, etc.), it seems like many artists these days are able to completely cut out the middlemen (record producers, agents, etc.). I wonder what this will ultimately mean for the entertainment industry. Will the majority of artists stop hiring these agents and use social media to manage the content themselves? Or, perhaps, will there be a growth in agencies that specialize in social media content management? Will YouTube, MySpace, Twitter and other social media platforms also starting sponsoring live performances? I suspect that that the answer is “yes” to all of these questions, and the real question we should be asking is "when?"

Hulu Growth - New Deal With Disney

Initially formed as a joint venture between NBC Universal and FOX, Hulu is a website that offers free, ad-supported streaming video of TV shows and movies. It primarily offered TV shows from FOX and NBC, subsidiary cable channels, and full-length movies. Hulu is an incredibly popular website. According to Quantcast.com, Hulu receives 17 million visits per month globally.

However, Hulu has had many doubtful critics since its debut. Although it has received universal recognition as an outstanding product, critics doubted the feasibility of Hulu's business model for a number of reasons: Hulu was too dependant on a small number of content providers, it incurred most of the costs of streaming videos while its partners take most of the revenue, and its content partners were also its primary shareholders (creating a potential conflict of interest).

Hulu's partners refuse to give up exclusive online rights, because they do not want to give up control and limit their options. They also don't want Hulu to become too powerful. Currently Hulu gets only 20-30% of the revenue it generates and its partners would not want that to change.

Another criticism targeted Hulu's operational strategy. The method in which Hulu uploaded videos put the company at a significant disadvantage compared to one of its main competitors, YouTube. By allowing anyone to upload videos, YouTube had the advantage of being current. Any popular video could be seen on YouTube well before it was available on Hulu.

In an effort to quell these fears, Hulu has recently signed a new content sharing deal with Disney. According to WSJ online (see link below), Disney is "ceding some control over the online distribution of its ABC television and other programming in exchange for an equity stake." This will make Hulu the first outside site to stream ABC videos. This news is likely to be unsettling for Hulu's main competitors: Apple (iTunes), Google (YouTube), and CBS (TV.com), particularly Apple who sells video content online.

Will this new deal improve Hulu's sustainability? Possibly. However, Hulu must also address the issue of rising costs. As demand increases for high definition video, it will become more expensive to provide videos. Higher quality videos require more data, more data requires greater bandwidth capacity, and greater bandwidth capacity costs money. Furthermore, Disney now has a large stake in Hulu's revenues. Hulu can improve popularity by increasing content, but at some point it must address its future profitability.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124110275139073305.html

Watch out for this classic black-hat SEO strategy...

As we learnt in class, any internet business would want to be high up in Google's organic search rankings (the section on the left). Getting the number one spot for certain keywords is the holy grail for many internet marketers as clicks through to the site our free (ie no CPM, CPC or CPA).

Although there are many legitimate strategies for improving your ranking (backlinks, keyword density, title tagging etc), I was in a meeting earlier this week listening to different SEO strategies that could be labeled as 'black-hat' (no it has nothing to do with fashion but are short-term strategies that work but may get you in trouble down the road).

One such strategy that you may see in YouTube is the post-roll of a video clip. If the clip is only 1m 13s long, then some publishers add a blank post-roll of 1,2,3 and 4 secs. This means they now have five 'different' videos they submit, increasing their chances of being watched and improving their ranking.

If you'd like to find out more, here is an interesting article I found. Enjoy... http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/18570/the_donts_of_seo_black_hat_strategies.html?cat=15

Mashed Without the Lumps

Nike, like many companies this year, has enlisted users to create ads for their new product, Air Force. Nike has decided to take advantage of the popularity of "mashing" on YouTube. They offer a variety of clips and sound tracks that can be edited together by the user into a 1-minute ad. This isn't mashing in the purely democratic, free-for-all kind that has been the hallmark of YouTube. You are limited to their menu of clips and music and all ads will end with "The Second Coming," the tag line for the new product, and a patented Nike swoosh.

From a marketer's perspective, this sounds pretty amazing. You are engaging the consumer with your brand while generating buzz about the Air Force sneakers. Proud mashers will be sending their clip (i.e., your advertisement) around so all their friends can watch. PLUS, you get to see what your brand means to these users by which clips and music they choose. If Nike is smart, they will listen closely to hear where their brand is going when it is out of headquarters and in the street. Check out these two videos posted on YouTube and you'll see how different brand perceptions can be. (Wish I could post the videos but YouTube won't let me!)

Italian Craftsmanship

Detroit Attitude

From a user perspective, however, I am curious to see the reaction. Will mashers accept the limitations or are they contradictory with the whole idea of mashing. It seems that in this world, no one is supposed to claim ownership over any content and use by others should be a form of flattery, just as jazz musicians used to riff off of other artists' tunes. While this surrender of the material is unacceptable to a marketer, it may be difficult to come off as genuine in this milieu while keeping a grip of the left-brain of Web 2.0.