Currently, YouTube gets about 3 billion views each day. Also, about 8 years’ worth of content are uploaded each day. With such astounding numbers, it is not hard to see why so many companies have tried to capitalize YouTube in some way. While companies have their individual profiles set up on YouTube in order to market their newest products and give their customers the latest news, they are not the reason YouTube has become so popular.
Viewers come to YouTube to find funny videos, blogs, and other similar entertainment. These videos are posted by the average Joes, not any big time corporation. Popularity of these average Joes’s videos have skyrocketed them into being celebrities themselves. While they may not be of equal level to movie stars, the most popular YouTube celebrities have places in the hearts of their fans. Those who saw these trends on YouTube immediately tried to capitalize on it. Of course with over 4 million subscribers, who would not try to take advantage of that.
For example, The Ellen Degeneres Show now has a segment where they invite YouTube celebrities to the show. This has most definitely increased not only the fame of the celebrity, but also view counts for the show. Especially since a large demographic of YouTube are young, the show’s use of YouTube celebrities will help them attract these viewers. An example of this would be where the show invited to girls from Britain after a video of them doing a cover of a Nikki Manj song went viral.
While companies from outside YouTube have been reaping the fame of these celebrities by sponsoring them and doing interviews with them, the celebrities themselves have also started to capitalize on their fame. Since most of the popular profiles on YouTube have a fan base of millions, they have started to sell products with the YouTube celebrities’ own ‘brand’. These products range from simple t-shirts to toys and dolls. Many popular YouTube Channels are using this as another way to fund themselves.
While selling shirts and toys are nothing compared to what companies have done, in the past few years, YouTube celebrities have started to be even more creative. After recognizing the fact that fans want to meet the YouTube celebrities, some of these idols have started to host concerts just for that reason. Rather than do a simple meet and greet, Wong Fu Productions, a YouTube celebrity among many Asian Americans, had the idea of hosting a concert where many popular celebrities on YouTube will perform whatever they are talented in for their fans. These range anywhere from singing to comedy. The popularity of this particular concert (called ISA—International Secret Agent) was so great that it became an annual event. They were even able to get real celebrities like The Far East Movement and B.O.B to perform on stage.
With the popularity of YouTube ever increasing, the top dogs on that website have truly created a whole different new industry for the entertainment business.
--Hang Lin
I agree that YouTube is a truly innovative new marketing channel. Companies are able to reach a larger demographic than they ever could have dreamed before, and at a fraction of the cost. Earlier in the semester another class was discussing YouTube and a classmate made a comment about his brother's roommate who makes a great deal of money simply by making YouTube videos while wearing t-shirts with company brands emblazoned across the front. Apparently there is a 2 year waiting list for his services. Just one of many other examples of how YouTube has helped make the "average Joe" successful and recognized. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI think that YouTube is a brilliant way to market and advertise to the consumer. However, there are no real rules for posting videos on the site. Thus, many companies have gotten into trouble with negative posts about their products. In another class, we discussed ideas such as viral marketing and the problems that emerge from it.
ReplyDeleteHere is a video on Bank of America and the "Debtors Revolt". This lady was fed up with her credit card rates and took a stand. Now she has over 500,000 views and is certainly placing a lot of negative attention towards B of A. I think YouTube is just another brilliant word of mouth tool for consumers (positive or negative).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGC1mCS4OVo&feature=player_embedded
Great post! I do think that these days good advertising does not look like advertising. As Hang and Carolyn said, more subtle ways to promote brands are now made possible thanks to Youtube and the celebrities it has created. In France, one of the main web celebrities among the youth is called Norman (see his website: http://normanfaitdesvideos.com/). He recently featured in videos sponsored by Orange that kept the exact mood and atmosphere of his homemade creations but that were designed to promote a cinema festival Orange had partnered with. I think this new kind of celebrity endorsement goes beyond simply appearing in a web ad; it is a mix of product placement and sponsorship because the celebrity is not brought into the brand’s message, it is rather the brand that is brought into the celebrity’s original creations. Thus, the message is carried out in a manner that is far less intrusive and annoying than classic pre-video commercials; fans eagerly look for any new content produced by Norman, and therefore were very enthusiastic about watching these videos.
ReplyDeleteStill, web celebrities should be careful about such partnership. They tend to benefit from a kind of anti-establishment image as they are independent from mass media and the cinema industry, and are actually often appreciated for their authenticity and unceremonious demeanor. Therefore, fans could easily feel misled if the brand was too obvious or corrupted the original work of these celebrities.
Alicia Lafage
On second thought, it also seems to me that brands sometimes can create their own YouTube celebrities. Of course, they cannot decide whether YouTube users will like their egeries or not, but hopefully, such situation can be incredibly beneficial because in this case the audience is really looking for these ads instead of avoiding them. For instance, take Tom Dickson, from “Will it Blend?”. This series of infomercials was launched on YouTube as a viral campaign in order to demonstrate the power of Blendtec blenders and enabling customers to interact with the brand by suggesting any kind of product they would like to see blended –from golf balls to cell phones. This campaign was extremely successful; videos have millions of views, including more than 13 million for the video where Tom Dickson blends an iPad. As of November 29th 2011, the Blendtec series of videos had collected a total of 181,358,333 views on YouTube. Dickson - who is also the founder of the brand- said “The campaign took off almost instantly. We have definitely felt an impact in sales. Will it Blend has had an amazing impact to our commercial and our retail products”. And as several YouTube celebrities, Dickson was invited in TV shows, such as NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno -while, again, it is nothing but an advertising campaign!
ReplyDeleteAlicia LAFAGE