Is Advertising Important to YouTube?
Friday, 07. 10. 2009 – Category: Enversa Companies
YouTube draws over 100 million viewers each month with hundreds of thousands of videos that span the gamut of topics, from cat’s flushing toilets to ninjas giving dating advice and more. YouTube is home to advertising campaigns by major brand players, and homemade movies shot in backyards with shaky digital cameras. YouTube is the home of choices, and as such is leading to choices by parent company Google. Does YouTube need advertisers?
If the goal of online advertising is eyeballs, the YouTube fits the bill. Sidebar ads appear next to the thousands of videos streamed daily, and the video site is close to breaking even, even as the internet audience becomes more jaded to banners, ads, and other methods to attract attention online. It just becomes a part of the background, white noise around the “good stuff” the audience wants to watch.
There are some examples of success by attaching a quick ten to fifteen second ad to the beginning of a video, and at the end when playing is complete. But by attaching these commercials, YouTube runs the risk of losing eyeballs as start up video streaming companies look to chip away at the huge advantage the market leader holds in the industry. Google has to wrestle with ways to monetize the site, even as savvy marketers are beginning to make videos for products that don’t look like commercials, but still promote the product, or reinforce the brand to the viewers.
YouTube has done the hard part; it’s become a part of the cultural lexicon. Everyone knows YouTube and talks about YouTube (over 100 million visitors each month) and when a viral video hits the web, if it isn’t forwarded by a well meaning friend, most viewers turn to the site to find it. What YouTube must discover is a better method to monetize the viewers and the content, while still continuing to provide the simple easy interaction with viewers. There are possibilities that exist by using a crawl, similar to what CNN has used for headlines, but advertising products or click through instead of breaking news. The partnership with Google, who seems to release a new AP every month, will create the great possibility of ad supported content that remains free in the future, but marketers will have to evolve to become ever more creative to stand out from the background and noise.
The key for most products, including videos on YouTube, is to be worth talking about and to be worth passing onto a friend. YouTube can be a great gateway for generating interest in a product through a viral video, and may also be an avenue for advertising the product. Successful businesses aren’t waiting for YouTube to decide how they want to interact with advertisers. They are using professional marketing companies to create original fun, fresh content to post on the site, and build word of mouth. Advertising may not be important to YouTube now or in the future, but YouTube is important to business owners. With 200 million eyeballs visiting each month this medium can’t be ignored, nor should it be. Even if a business can’t create or won’t commit to building a viral video based campaign, a quick search on the site will reveal what people are watching (the most viewed) and partnerships can be forged with the people who are creating those videos. A business owner doesn’t have to wait for YouTube to decide how and what to sponsor, but can assume control. Cats flushing ninjas can push kitty litter, or tear filled screams for out of control pop stars can promote “no tears” shampoo. Business owners can work with marketing experts to identify creative fun ways to push their product into the YouTube market and reach more people, and create something that everyone will talk about.
Marc Pickren is the President of Enversa- a performance-based marketing agency.
Tags: advertisers, Advertising, Google, internet, Marc Pickren, websites, YouTube