I have two kids, ages 5 and 3. And guess what: half the time these days they are watching their Barney, Playhouse Disney, Penguins of Madagascar, and other kids-stuff on … YouTube, NOT ON TV ! Being 40+ myself, that is just mindblowing. And with TVs nowadays turning into gigantic computer monitors with wifi and internet standard on them, YouTube is & will gradually be killing tv and video/dvd. Who would have thought that a good 6 odd years ago when YouTube was launched? That sort of got me thinking… do I, as a marketer, really know enough about YouTube? Let’s get down to some factoids:
Today, YouTube streams an enormous amount of “content”, leading to some amazing achievements :
- 2 billion videos are watched every day on YouTube!
- 35 hours of video gets uploaded to YouTube every single minute!
- There are 500+ million users worldwide (unique visitors per month),
- Generates an estimated 92 billion page views each month.
- Isn’t that thing going to explode any time soon? 😉
There’s sooooooo much content that you can actually easily get lost…
Anyway -here is a nice infographic on the history and success of YouTube:
Compare that to the first video posted on YouTube was a 19-second clip called “Me at the Zoo.” – that was April 2005
So, apart from an absolute need to getting deeper insights in YouTube, I can see 3 simple YouTube must-do’s for any brand, starting now (and by the way, I don’t have stocks in that company!):
- make YouTube an integral part of your campaigns (it’s one of the “screens” !)
- set up a YouTube channel for your brand, and make it a “destination” in your social media communication
- do frequent video uploads for optimal brand storytelling; YouTube and your channel will give you the opportunity to highlight different sides of your brand story
Check out some of YouTube branded Channels that seem to get it right:
- AUDI : http://www.youtube.com/user/AudiChannel, appr. 2 million views (Audi have taken it one step further by launching their AUDI CHANNEL, a digital sattelite tv broadcaster: http://tv.audi.com/#/01)
- NIKE: http://www.youtube.com/nikefootball, appr. 7 million views
- STARBUCKS : http://www.youtube.com/Starbucks,appr. 7.5 million views
- Check out YouTube’s “show & tell” channel where you can find best practices on YouTube marketing: here.
What makes those channels “get it right” ?
- they have something intriguing <essential when you compete with a gazillion other YouTube items!>
- they have great content <even more essential when you compete with a gazillion other YouTube items!>
- they offer variety, change, novelty <again essential when you compete with a gazillion other YouTube items!>
- they show things you can’t see anywhere else
- they are well linked to other platforms & social networks
Having said that, I think YouTube can do a loooooooooot more to make the YouTube Channels more attractive:
- visually stronger: i.e. with a “neater” design
- simpler: and therefore more tv like … less of a website with a tv-like frame
- power content: sourced from fb, twitter, linkedin, etc etc (YES, YouTube, invite your competitors to play along!)
Jeben Berg, Creative Director at YouTube talks about how to make the most of your videos on YouTube:
The founders of YouTube about the early days, and their ambitions to build the next platform:
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