Meet YouTube's Most In-Demand Brand Stars

Great summary from AdAge about the future face of 'talent'


For Marketers, Web-Video Celebrities Offer Trusted Voices and an Engaged Viewership

by Irina Slutsky
Published: September 13, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO (AdAge.com) -- Once upon a time, YouTube was considered the Wild West -- its so-called "stars" more likely to produce cringe-worthy performances than to displace the pitch-men and -women of traditional media. But now big-time brands like Lancome, McDonald's, Ford and Kellogg's are trusting YouTube celebs with their money and reputations. "The reason we turned to them is because they have a valid voice in their community, and people trust what they say and what they think," said Scott Monty, head of social media for Ford Motors.

They've got trust and, it turns out, engagement.

"What these YouTubers have proven is that they have engaged viewers -- they comment, they talk on the YouTuber's Facebook page, on Twitter. The brands want millions of views, but they also want engaged viewers," said Caroline Giegerich, director of innovation at Initiative, which was one of the first agencies to run a successful YouTube stars campaign with Carl Jr's. "If they're engaged with the stars, clearly they are engaged with the brand ... it means someone is not just seeing an ad and forgetting about it."

In the beginning, neither the brands nor the YouTubers themselves had much of an idea how much they were worth. But the price of hiring a YouTube celebrity to pitch a product is now comparable to hiring a B- or C-level Hollywood celeb.

Ryan Higa publicly lists his starting rate as $75,000 per appearance, a fraction of what someone like Paris Hilton charged for her Carl's Jr. commercial. Some, like Joe Penna, a.k.a. MysteryGuitarMan, feel as comfortable pitching themselves to brands as they do their audiences. "I get millions of hits, and I know my demographic -- I know what kind of video will be in line with my channel," Mr. Penna, a 23-year-old former pre-med student, said. "The best thing the brands can do is come to me with a blank slate and ask me, 'What can you do with this product for us?'"

Ad Age teamed up with TubeMogul to find the stars racking up the views.

CHARLES TRIPPY

Charles Trippy

WHO IS HE? Mr. Trippy, 26, and Alli Speed, 21, vlog a "home-made reality show" called "Internet Killed Television" that is widely known as CTFxC. Mr. Trippy has been on YouTube since 2006 and continues to vlog almost daily -- he hasn't lost interest or enthusiasm for the venue.

CONTENT: Daily life vlogs with his fiance.

VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 159,489,749

BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 2,122,380

BRANDS: Gillette, Google, Xacti Passion

DUDEPERFECT

dudeperfect

WHO ARE THEY? Garrett Hilbert, Cory Cotton, Cody Jones, Sean Townsend, Panda, Coby Cotton, and Tyler Toney -- a team of trick-shot basketball entertainers from Texas

CONTENT: Impossible basketball shots

VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 27,712,318

BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 3,241,856 (top campaign for GMC snagged 1,917,028 views)

BRANDS:GMC, NBA (Sacramento Kings)

FRED

Fred

WHO IS HE? Lucas Cruikshank

WHAT HE MAKES: Videos in which he pretends to be a child in a dysfunctional family with an alcoholic mother

CONTENT: Screechy voice, occasional meltdowns

VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 585,136,315

BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 101,698,863 (includes promos for films and his own merchandise)

BRANDS:20th-Century Fox, Hot Topic, Nickelodeon, Taptivate

IJUSTINE

iJustine

WHO IS SHE? Justine Ezarick, 23, LA-based freelance graphic designer. Ms. Ezarick's almost unbelievable ability to create videos several times a day, her deft editing skills, her Apple obsession and her long, blond hair and good looks snagged her a young, male techie fan base.

CONTENT: Techie girl vlog

VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 171,403,990

BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 7,408,587 (top campaign was GE, with 1,913,481 views)

BRANDS:AT&T, Fox, GE, Intel, Mattel, Nikon, Mozy, MTV, Carl's Jr. and Dick Clark Productions

MICHAELBUCKLEY

Michael Buckley

WHO IS HE? Michael Buckley, 35, is a comedian who started with a public-access chat show called "Table for Two." He's benignly malicious -- the opposite kind of meany to Perez Hilton.

CONTENT: Celebrity memes/gossip

VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 261,715,708

BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 4,370,345 (top campaign was for Fox's Teen Choice, with 865,885 views)

BRANDS:ABC Family, BabelGum, 20th Century Fox, Discovery Networks, Fox television, Nickelodeon, OpenFilms, PriceDoc, Pepsi

MICHELLE PHAN

Michelle Phan

WHO IS SHE? A Vietnamese-American who gained popularity afterher Lady Gaga "Poker Face" make-up instructional got 20 million views. Before YouTube stardom, Ms. Phan worked as a waitress in a sushi restaurant and studied illustration.

CONTENT: Cosmetics tutorials

VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 221,989,434

BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 22,095,935 (of which Lancome Paris represents 12,234,338)

BRANDS:Colgate, Lancome Paris, PriceDoc, Sandisk, Verizon

MYSTERYGUITARMAN

Mysteryguitarman

WHO IS HE? Brazilian-born Joe Penna, 23, is an L.A.-based filmmaker, guitarist and animator who graduated from UMass with a pre-med degree.

CONTENT: Music videos and clever mash-ups of himself in his apartment in front of the camera

VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 138,614,194

BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 5,125,862 (top campaign is for Microsoft, with 8 million-plus views)

BRANDS:Garnier, Pop Tarts, Microsoft, McDonald's, Coca-Cola

NIGAHIGA

Nigahiga

WHO IS HE? One of the highest paid YouTube stars, Ryan Higa is a Japanese-American comedian from Hawaii who started making lipsyncing videos with his friends during college breaks. YouTube stardom followed, and his content is now varied and wide.

CONTENT: Comedy, short films, parody videos, "rants," how-to comedy videos ("How to Be a Gangster"), advertising spoofs

VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 546,333,874

BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 13,405,781

BRANDS:Google, Carl's Jr.

RHETT & LINK

Rhett & Link

WHO ARE THEY? Comedy duo Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal

CONTENT: Humor that's actually funny; not as viral but high-quality videos like "Facebook Song," and "T-Shirt War"; actual commercials

VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 66,294,209

BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 25,093,462 (top brand campaign was Microbilt, with 9,986,225 views)

BRANDS: Alka-Selzer, AJJCornhole (not a joke), Baby Ruth, Coca-Cola, Dentyne, GM, McDonald's, Spy Associates, Taco Bell, Microbilt

SHAYCARL

Shaycarl

WHO IS HE? Shay Butler, 30, lives in Idaho with his wife and kids and produces family vlogs with a funny, edgy "cool dad" twist. His user name is ShayTards, his baby is BabyTard, and his other children are PrincessTard and SonTard. You get the idea. His most recent Footlocker campaign takes place in a school cafeteria and involves a giant food fight.

CONTENT: Family vlogs

VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 250,954,220

BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 5,725,254

BRANDS: AT&T, A1, Google, Kia, Kodak, Sanyo, Footlocker

SMOSH

Smosh

WHO ARE THEY? Comedy duo Anthony Padilla and Ian Andrew Hecox, both 22, gained initial fame with the "Pokemon Theme Music Video," and this led them to be featured in Time Magazine's 2006 Person of the Year issue.

CONTENT: Sophomoric teen humor; video games

VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 465,534,527

BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 12,310,844 (top brand campaign was GE, with 4,717,047 views)

BRANDS: Carl's Jr., GE, Google (Nexus One), Kia, Nintendo, Puma

VENETIAN PRINCESS

Venetian Princess

WHO IS SHE? Jodie Rivera, 26, studied opera at the New England Conservatory of Music before becoming one of YouTube's first partners. Ms. Rivera has said, "I can make anywhere from the mid-five to six figures per one- to two-minute video with product placement."

CONTENT: Parodies of popular music videos

VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 258,098,945

BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 1,697,996 (top campaign, for Pop Tarts, notched 1,562,269 views)

BRANDS: Pop Tarts, Samsung

WHEEZYWAITER

Wheezywaiter

WHO IS HE? Craig Benzine, went to school for TV, radio and film, worked as a waiter at Big Bowl before YouTube success. He's a hungry up-and-comer with a promising start.

VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 13,350,225

BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 290,145

BRANDS: Ford

Pictures that move, not moving pictures

Ok... i'm not about to buy an iPad anytime soon, but thinking like this does make the format seem way cool

VIV Mag Interactive Feature Spread - iPad Demo from Alexx Henry on Vimeo.

13th street - interactive horror film

Yep... the coolest thing i've seen for a while. A 'pick-a-path' adventure experience carried out via mobile and cinema. Awesome! Great work Jung von Matt

Hit the bitch

Powerful, anti-violence campaign from Denmark, Thanks Adverblog

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Sorry for the strong language, but this is the title of a new social campaign from Denmark. The campaign is literally in your face as you have to punch the featured girl to get the message. Most disturbing is that you want to go all the way through, which make you feel like a 100% idiot once finished. But the message, even though it's in Danish, is very clear.

‘Virtual Street Corners’ Connects Socially Isolated Neighborhoods

Cheers psfk once again... awesome project

October 22, 2009

Roxbury and Brookline are connected by the Route 66 bus line and separated by only 2.4 miles, but socially they are worlds apart. Roxbury is a poor, urban neighborhood in Boston proper and Brookline is a wealthy, suburban neighborhood just outside the city. As of today, the communities rarely interact. Thanks to an interesting project named Virtual Street Corners that is all about to change.

Scheduled to debut May 15th 2010, Virtual Street Corners takes a large storefront window located in front of a bus stop in each neighborhood and transforms it into a video screen. These video screens, which will stream a real-time feed 24/7, will literally provide a window into the other community in an effort to encourage the residents to interact. The screens will also serve as media centers for news collection and reporting, creating a ‘virtual town hall.”

In order to facilitate personal interaction and news reporting, Virtual Street Corners has organized three citizens from different areas of each town to report daily news on a scheduled basis. In addition, there will be a website that streams both live feeds and hosts podcasts/videocasts for download.

Virtual Street Corners

[via Kenji Summers]

Video painting

Thanks Piero for sharing this mad stuff from SWEATSHOPPE

SWEATSHOPPE, 4spots, the landing extras

by SWEATSHOPPE

SWEATSHOPPE, 4spots, the landing extras from SWEATSHOPPE on Vimeo.

In an effort to establish new platforms for public art and performance, the
multimedia duo SWEATSHOPPE has developed a new interactive technology that enables
them to explore the relationship between video, mark making and architecture. Dubbed
"video painting", this technology allows them to essentially "paint" video onto any
surface. Shooting in Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, the duo spent weeks
documenting their work in urban settings to create "The Landing" the first in a
series of episodes that showcases their work as artist, technologist and performers.
This video shows 4 full uncut extra clips form the landing.

sweatshoppe.org
myspace.com/sweatshoppe
brunolevy.com

P&G moves soap opera genre online

OK... work drowning out all chances of sharing some of the great sutff that's happening out there around, but in a rather pathetic attempt to keep the flame alive, here are a few of the little tidbits i've come across in the last few weeks. Enjoy

This from cincinnati.com about how P&G are taking some large steps into online content...

By David Holthaus • dholthaus@enquirer.com • October 4, 2009

Now that "The Guiding Light" is a part of soap opera history, the newest stars of a Procter & Gamble drama are not Reva and Josh of GL's fictional Springfield, but Suzie and Steve Barston of real-life Los Angeles.

The Barstons are the stars of a 12-part series called "A Parent is Born," found not on television, but on the newest medium of choice for the world's largest advertiser, the Internet.

The Webisode is the latest example of how P&G, the inventor of the daytime drama, has moved beyond the soap opera and into the digital world, but with the same purpose it had when it launched the "Ma Perkins" radio serial in 1933: to create an interested audience it can use to build loyalty to its brands.

With the demise of "The Guiding Light," which ran on radio and then on TV for 72 years, P&G owns only one soap, "As the World Turns." The company that once produced more than 20 of the daytime television staples has turned its entertainment attention squarely to the Internet, practically abandoning the daytime TV genre it invented.

"We literally moved from radio to TV, and now we're in the digital world," said Pat Gentile, who heads P&G Productions, the Cincinnati-based unit that oversees P&G's entertainment properties. "We're putting our focus on creating digital content."

Just as it did with the soaps, P&G is creating places where it can gather a big audience, with the goal of building goodwill toward brands such as Pampers diapers, Iams dog food, Febreze fabric freshener and Dawn dish soap.

Case in point is "A Parent is Born," which follows the real-life Barstons from early pregnancy through the birth of their first child in a series of four- to five-minute videos available on the Web. The series is sponsored by P&G's Pampers brand and is found on the Pampers Web site. A 30-minute version aired on DirecTV in late August, and P&G plans to syndicate the series in other online venues.

"A Parent is Born" doesn't directly sell Pampers but helps shape how consumers feel about the brand, building what Gentile and other marketers call "brand equity." Following the young couple as they learn the baby's gender, decorate the child's room and talk about their hopes for their budding family can build an emotional connection to the brand that is valuable for creating long-time customers.

For Pampers, a $9 billion P&G brand, the show helps position it as a product concerned not only about keeping babies dry, but about the well-being of families, a key marketing message in the company's plans to double Pampers sales over the next several years.

A just-launched Web site, www.dinnertool.com, like the soaps, doesn't carry only P&G advertising, but is meant to be a destination site that brings a like-minded audience together. Dinnertool is a meal-planning site that generates recipes from a given list of ingredients, giving Moms a place to go when they need ideas for mealtime. "It fits nicely with our brands," Gentile said, especially after-dinner cleaning products such as Joy, Dawn and Cascade.

Its other destination site is www.petside.com, designed for dog, cat and bird lovers. More than a million of them call up the site each month, Gentile said.

Like the soap operas that preceded them, the Web sites don't simply pitch P&G products, but are meant to be sites that people return to over and over again, creating an interested audience that may be more receptive to the P&G message.

"People believe you more," Gentile said. "They don't feel like you're trying to shove something down their throats."

Providing good information is the key to creating a loyal audience, said Chris Allen, a University of Cincinnati marketing professor. "It's about providing content that attracts specific communities of users," he said. "It's the future of marketing."

The Web sites enjoy a major marketing advantage over television: e-mail. Visitors to the sites are asked to register, enabling P&G to capture potentially millions of e-mail addresses that it can use for surveys, for regular e-mail newsletters or to tout new products.

"A big part of the whole agenda is building that marketing database," Allen said.

The decline of the soaps as a marketing technique is due partly to its limited flexibility as a one-way medium; we can only watch, not interact. But it's also due to their aging audiences, those that are outside the marketer's ideal demographic.

City Life, One Minute At A Time

Thanks PSFK for this post on a great programme underway to give us 1 minute glimpses of life in other cities. Fascinating stuff

cityoneminutes is a global web video project that allows you to observe 41 different cities around the world in one-minute intervals.

From a drunk man staggering to hail a cab in Addis Ababa to a serene San Francisco cityscape in the wee hours of the morning, there’s a wide range of cultural and behavioral morsels to absorb, in addition to all of the architectural and design idiosyncrasies of each area.

You can search for videos by city or specific time of day, watch an entire day in one region, or skip around from place to place.

The project is part of a greater collaboration between Dutch public television station VPRO and many different sponsors (including UNICEF and the Netherlands China Arts Foundation) called theoneminutes, which is a site that applies the same one-minute video idea to different scenarios- such as train rides, weddings, and abstract video art.

theoneminutes is also accepting submissions for all of their different categories at present. The best one minute videos will be picked out at year’s end for an annual awards show. Click here for more information.

[via Pop Up Cities]

Great Google project gallery

"A collection of awesome Google-related projects from people around the world" - thanks PSFK

http://goollery.org

Viral mashing?

OK, not trying to coin a new term here but there does seem to be something interesting happening, and worth exploring further, in building on great content.

A few examples:

Snoops dog's Heineken fridge:


Will it blend does an Olympus camera blend


Numa Numa guy's piece for GEICO

Blend up!

Fantastic. ‘Will it Blend’ Tom has become such a star that he’s now selling other peoples’ products:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FWv21EgRZU

Building alive with lights and sounds

Just pain beautiful...

lights on from thesystemis on Vimeo.

Via psfk

Great use of the site around the player

Honda Shine on Viemo makes an excellent use of the whole space to really make the video experience seem bigger: http://vimeo.com/4281939

Just plain cool

SCINTILLATION from Xavier Chassaing on Vimeo.

Presenting: 10 of the Smartest Big Brands in Social Media

Thanks MASHABLE for these great case studies:

As we battle a global recession, corporations are looking for new ways to sell their products and engage their consumers. Many have turned to the Internet, with Social Media in particular, to market their goods. Let’s take a look at 10 companies that have done a phenomenal job of taking advantage of social media platforms.

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1. Blendtec Blends it on YouTube

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Who doesn’t know about the “Will It Blend” series on YouTube? Created by George Write, the marketing director of Blendtec, the campaign was low cost and instantly became a hit. In the video, Tom Dickson the CEO of Blendtec, attempts to blend objects in their blender. This simple idea led to a “five-fold increase in sales”.

Blendtec leveraged YouTube’s subscriber base and tried something fun and original. The campaign was a success and continues to entertain and sell.

Lesson: Social media marketing doesn’t always need to cost a lot of money. Creating funny, original video and leveraging an already large user base can be used to increase sales.

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2. Burger King and the Sacrifice Facebook Application

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Recently, Burger King has really been pushing the envelope with their marketing. They first started with whoppervirgins.com, then entered the social space with the “sacrifice ten friends” facebook application. The campaign quickly went viral and was adopted by over 20,000 users, sacrificing 200,000 friends for free whoppers.

Sadly, the application was shut down as quickly as it started by Facebook, citing privacy concerns. Regardless, the application was beautifully built and the idea was perfect. Burger King built in the ability to share it, the incentive to use it, and added just enough humor to make the campaign a hit.

Lesson: Successful and viral campaigns don’t just test out social media, they jump in it. Pushing the envelope can create the buzz that makes your campaign memorable.

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3. Starbucks Asks for Your Advice

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Social media isn’t only about using existing websites, but sometimes creating your own. To get a better handle on consumer feedback, Starbucks did just that with “My Starbucks Idea.”

The site allows users to submit suggestions to be voted on by Starbucks consumers, and the most popular suggestions are highlighted and reviewed. Starbucks then took it a step further and added an “Ideas in Action” blog that gives updates to users on the status of changes suggested.

By empowering their exceptionally web savvy consumer, Starbucks strengthens their campaign to add a personal touch to coffee.

Lesson: Thinking of ways to build your company are great, but directly asking your consumers what they want, is better. Acting on that information and doing it publicly is key to the success of this campaign.

Starbucks has also embraced Twitter, you can see their stream at @Starbucks.

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4. Sun Microsystems and the CEO Blog

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Want your blog to really make a splash? You could learn a lot from Sun Microsystem’s CEO blog. Jonathan Schwartz’s blog received about 400,000 hits a month (in 2006).

It’s not the number of hits that make his blog a social media success, but the openness on it. Positive and negative comments are allowed, and even the most inane are approved. Transparency from the highest position in a company trickles down and increases trust from consumers.

Lesson: Social media is a culture of transparency and honesty that must be embraced, leading by example is one of the best ways to introduce it to a company. Few things are better than a CEO that blogs or uses twitter.

Sun Microsystems also has a network of blogs, friends on Facebook, friends on Twitter, and their own Twitter account as well.

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5. IBM With Lots of Blogs

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When IBM decided they wanted to start using blogs, they didn’t just create one blog, they created an entire network. IBM created a way and allowed their employees to write about their experiences, what they’re working on, or any other topic of choice.

IBM capitalizes on the intelligence of their employees to give consumers insight into what happens behind the scenes. By giving the industry experts they’ve hired a voice, IBM is able to highlight the people behind their products. Users get to see how IBM operates, and are given a direct connection with IBM employees.

Lesson: Having a CEO that blogs is great, but increase the number of blogs and you increase the number of connections. Leveraging your employees to write about what they love conveys the corporate dedication to the industry.

You can also find IBM on Twitter giving updates on events from their calendar.

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6. Zappos on Twitter

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Obviously we had to talk about Twitter, this is a social media post after all. The most obvious of companies to make Twitter work is Zappos, an online retailer that has really led the way in corporate Twitter use.

The idea of micro-blogging and the sense of exceptional customer service is ingrained in the corporate culture. Most Zappos employees have an active account, and the Zappos site has a page that aggregates all the streams.

The reason why Zappos stands out on Twitter is because of their ability to bring the company to life. The Zappos CEO has lent his personality to the company brand, a personality that is friendly, helpful, funny, and trustworthy. They use Twitter to highlight interesting facts, and to talk to their consumers. Talking to Zappos is like talking to a friend that happens to sell shoes.

Lesson: Take a CEO that twitters, add in a great personality and you have a recipe for social success. Ingraining social media into the culture of a corporation means that every consumer interaction is personal.

Zappos also does a great job of using their blog and Facebook to engage their avid fanbase.

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7. Comcast on Twitter too

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I never expected to be writing good things about Comcast, but because of Frank Eliason things have changed. Frank is the man behind @comcastcares, a Twitter account setup to help Comcast users in need.

Comcast has found a way to offer exceptional customer service to their consumers, but the thing that really makes them stand out is how well they monitor discontent. Complain about Comcast and you can bet you’ll hear from @comcastcares to see if they can help.

Lesson: Being active on Twitter is great but tracking and seeing who’s mentioning you, is the next step. Social media allows for the possibility of great customer service, and with it, better brand loyalty.

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8. Ford and Social Media PR

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You’d think I’d talk about how Ford uses Twitter (they use it well), but the thing that makes them really shine is how they did a great job quelling a would-be public relations disaster online with the use of social media.

The basic story is that there was an internal gaffe where Ford’s legal department sent out cease and desist letters to forum owners using Ford trademarks. Obviously the story was twisted and changed, and in the end people were outraged.

What makes this a success story for social media is that Scott Monty (Ford’s community manager) was quick to find out what happened and let us know the true story. Not only that, but as things were being fixed and a compromise was ironed out, the public was informed every step of the way.

Although we don’t know if social media has shown a direct return on investment for Ford, the public relations fiasco it helped avert (think Motrin) should help make the case for more funding for social media.

Lesson: Social media can be used to inform consumers in real-time of how a corporation is reacting to events that affect the customer. Transparency in the process and access to constant information can help stop a negative story from going viral.

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9. Graco Uses Pictures on Flickr

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Social media is about sharing all types of content, including photos. Facilitating the sharing is easy, but gaining something from it requires a sound strategy. Graco did just that, by building a community around their product using Flickr.

Flickr isn’t the center of their campaign, but they promote it heavily with the Graco blog which also creates an incentive for others to submit pictures. The photographs help highlight the people behind Graco and the consumers using their products.

Graco takes their strategy one step further by introducing offline marketing in the form of community gatherings. The pictures from these meet-ups are posted to the Flickr page, further humanizing the community around the product.

Lesson: Social media doesn’t have to exist wholly online. Blending offline marketing with online efforts can build a community around a brand.

Graco has a blog and leverages Lindsay Lebresco (the corporate blogger for Graco) to be active on Twitter.

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10. Dell Doing it Everywhere

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Embracing social media is a huge undertaking, and involves a large investment. Dell didn’t shy away from these obstacles, instead they’ve gone above and beyond, truly cultivating a cross-platform community. They’ve created multiple Twitter handles, a network of blogs, and are very active on Facebook.

Dell is also one of the few companies to publicly state that they created a return on investment from Twitter. Apparently, Dell’s social media efforts help create “$1 million in revenue“.

Lesson: Social media isn’t all about ROI, but it is possible. Creating cross-platform strategies can lead to the most success, especially when your demographic is already Internet and technologically savvy.

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Other Brands

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We’ve explored 10 companies and picked out 10 lessons we can learn from them. As social media evolves, we’ll see how many of these are replaced by new innovations in marketing. Is there a company you think evolved the industry, that deserves to be on this list?

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More brand resources from Mashable:

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- 40 of the Best Brands on Twitter and the People Behind Them

- 35+ Examples of Corporate Social Media in Action

- Top 10 Free Tools for Monitoring Your Brand’s Reputation

- Top 10 Reputation Tracking Tools Worth Paying For

Heidi Cohen Eight Ways to Use Video to Boost Your Marketing

Thanks ClickZ for this:

Online video is white hot. It's being used in many ways and delivered anywhere your target audience is. The U.S. election was a watershed mark for streaming video in terms of the length of time and number of viewers. Marketers should be device indifferent since users may view your content on mobile devices, computers, and flat-screen televisions.

To better understand the state of online video, consider the following:

• Almost 80 percent of U.S. Internet users watched videos for roughly five hours in December 2008, with an average duration of 3.2 minutes per video, according to comScore.
  
  
• 65 percent of online video views were streamed between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, making this video primetime due to the faster Internet connections available at work, reported Nielsen Online.
  
  
• In 2009, online video advertising is projected to grow 45 percent to $850 million, according to eMarketer's latest forecast.
  
  
• 5 percent of mobile subscribers accessed mobile video on their phones each month, according to Nielsen in its Q3 2008 Mobile Video Report.
  
  
• About one-third of online retailers offer video on their sites, according to Vovici Corp.'s September 2008 research for Internet Retailer.

Online Video's Five Subject Categories

Consider your target market's needs when creating online video content because they can have a major impact on the video's optimal length and its shelf life. An SIIA Information Industry Summit panel advised attendees to think about whether their audience snacks on short videos or engages with longer formats. Here are five popular types of video content you can use:

• News, including weather. Viewers often look for short tidbits to be informed about what's happening in their world. Think about the type of news most relevant to your target audience.
  
  
• Sports. Typically, these videos consist of clips highlighting a single sports play where the audience is highly engaged.
  
  
• How-to and research information. Viewers often look for answers to specific questions, so make it easy for your videos to be found. This content can be evergreen.
  
  
• Entertainment, including comedy, music, TV shows, clips, and movies. Everyone looks for fun diversions. While entertaining content can be short, users are also watching longer formats, such as complete television shows and movies.
  
  
• Social media, including user-generated content. These videos often focus on humor.

Eight Ways to Use Online Video

Regardless of whether you're a retailer, media company, or brand marketer, think holistically about how to incorporate video into your communications strategy. Here are eight ways to use online video to extend your marketing mix:

• Extend news coverage and other media events. While established brands like CNN dominate, any Web site can create its own channel.
  
  
• Provide product-related information to aid use, including how-to for complex products that require training or further help. For example, Janome sewing machines partnered with Threadbanger
  
  
• Create videos for product placement. Develop or partner with a video series that highlights your product and engages your target market, like Starburst has done with Nite Fite
  
  
• Portray products in a real environment to help customers experience the product without seeing it in person. Extend your Web site to give customers a more retail-like environment.
  
  
• Show real customers giving their honest reactions, like an infomercial.
  
  
• Sponsor an ongoing video series created by a third party to associate your brand with special personalities or other brands, such as Degree's integration with TMI Weekly's Little Black Dress episode.
  
  
• Extend other forms of content you're already creating, such as Webinars, analyst presentations, and quarterly meetings.
  
  
• Use video to connect with remote staff or customers.

Keep in mind that you need to drive traffic to your videos. Matt Cutler, VP, marketing and analytics of Visible Measures, suggests releasing related videos at the same time and cross-promoting them to help concentrate views over a short period to optimize distribution of related videos. The goal is to help your video reach top-viewed status that increases video views.

Four Ways Online Video Contributes to Profitability

Media companies, brands, and e-tailers can benefit from using online video. Here's how it can add to the bottom line:

• Advertising vehicle. From a consumer perspective, quantity and length are an issue. Product placement and sponsorship are other ways to create revenue on media sites.
  
  
• Paid products. Depending on the availability of the information or event, viewers may be willing to pay for downloads.
  
  
• Product sales support. Retailers can gain by using videos to better illustrate product use prior to purchase and to support product use and community building after purchase.
  
  
• Branding enhancement. You can enhance branding through the use of online videos that engage viewers, like the Blendtec blender videos.

Seven Online Video Metrics

To ensure that online video meets your marketing goals, track the following factors to ensure you're on track:

• Viewers. How many people have seen your video? What's the pass-along rate? Is it going viral?
  
  
• Views and Time. How many times are the videos viewed? How much of each one is viewed?
  
  
• Interaction. Since online videos tend to drive user interaction, assess comments for frequency and content and watch how viewers are using the video to create mashups and the like.
  
  
• Branding. Have your branding metrics improved as a result of online video use?
  
  
• Revenues. How have the videos helped support sales in terms of supplying direct identifiable sales leads or adding to the prepurchase research phase? Also, consider whether videos have helped reduce returns through post-purchase support.
  
  
• Costs. What is the expense of developing the video and related Web site support? How does this compare to the benefits you are realizing?

As online video evolves, there are bigger audiences to be had and increasingly more exciting ways to get their attention. The cost of creating and serving video has come down. It is time to get creative by using video to extend your marketing reach and complement your marketing plan

Interesting use of Youtube video links

Really lazy post with some stuff i found last year

From Contagious - a story about a cool geotagged, mobile documentary in South Africa: http://tinyurl.com/56lhdd

Uniqlo's Human vending machine, from PSFK: http://tinyurl.com/6tzfok

Cool street art location community: http://www.streetartlocator.com/

Techcrunch article about predicting the success of youtube videos: Researcher Claims “Attention Spirals” Hold Key To Predicting Success Of YouTube Videos

Cool community build around 3D modelling / printing and creation of objects: http://www.shapeways.com/

And finally, the full text from a Social Media Success Story by Econsulantcy:

I'm a professed 'social media' skeptic. I believe that much of the hype around social media is unjustified.

I believe anyone arguing that every corporation should be seeking out 'conversations' and becoming 'friends' with customers on social networks largely reflects a misguided and naive marketing philosophy.

That said, I don't doubt the power of 'connection' and 'community.'

Before the phrases 'Web 2.0' and 'social media' had even been coined, I had been intimately involved in the creation and development of websites with strong community components. All told, these websites had generated hundreds of thousands of thousands of registered users and millions upon millions of interactions in the form of message board posts, content uploads and user-to-user communications before Friendster had even launched.

I still employ 'connection' and 'community' to this day in several of my online ventures, although I would argue that artificial attempts at getting consumers to develop relationships around toothpaste and laundry detergent are not the best uses of these concepts.

If one considers that 'connection' and 'community' are the key components of 'social media,' there is perhaps no better recent case study highlighting how social media can be applied in a truly effective manner than the Twilight series of vampire-romance novels that teenagers have really bitten into.

If Twilight sounds familiar to you, it may be because the movie adaptation of the first Twilight novel (also called Twilight) was recently released and in less than 10 days grossed nearly $100mn. Blockbuster status, to be sure.

How did a then 32 year-old stay-at-home-mother named Stephanie Meyer, with no prior novels published, take a dream she had about a romance between a vampire and a teenage girl and turn it into every author's dream - more than 25 million books sold and a knockout Hollywood adaptation?

The Internet had a lot to do with it.

As the Los Angeles Times details, despite the fact that publisher Little, Brown paid $750,000 to win a bidding war for the Twilight manuscript, the book house initially only published 75,000 copies and created a less-than-inspired website to promote the new book.

That wasn't good enough for Meyer. So she created a personal website, StephenieMeyer.com, that was far more personal and intimate than the website Little, Brown developed. She posted blogs and was eager to engage personally with those who would comment. Not content to relegate the 'conversation' to StephenieMeyer.com, she went to other websites and interacted with individuals on their online turf.

In the process, Meyer built up a small but passionate fan base. She encouraged her fans and supported their efforts to build and contribute to the "community" that was growing around Twilight.

To be sure, it wasn't easy and success didn't come overnight. The Los Angeles Times notes that Twilight didn't 'go mainstream' until the third novel in the series was released in 2007. The rest is, as they say, history.

Before we praise Meyer's savvy use of the internet, however, we need to praise the quality of her product. Twilight's success is obviously not only the result of her promotional prowess but the result of the creation of a 'product' that appeals to its target audience.

If Twilight didn't have enough substance to spark readers' imaginations and to keep them turning the pages, no amount of strategic marketing would have taken the series as far as it has come.

In short, Meyer had a viable product and using many social media components, was able to help it get the exposure it needed to thrive in the marketplace.

Today's breed of social media proponents, of course, will extoll the virtues of Meyer's use of social media and they'll eagerly highlight how the same principals that provided promotional umph for Twilight can be applied by corporations.

Unfortunately, it's not that simple.

Twilight is a story, an idea, fantasy, entertainment. It is not toothpaste. It is not a commoditized consumer electronics product. It is not a soft drink.

People interact, engage and build communities around passions, causes, ideas, fantasies - not everyday products.

The same principles that Meyer employed to help gain exposure and build loyalty amongst readers can be applied by corporations but they're not likely to produce a similar result.

Of course, this isn't all that surprising.

One need only look at the popularity of virtual worlds like World of Warcraft and video games like the Legend of Zelda and the relative lack of popularity of most of the virtual world initiatives created by corporations to see that what people want to interact around is based on a lot more than the mere availability of something to interact around.

Twilight is a fantasy world in novel form and Meyer, through her personal interaction with readers and support of the formation of community around the fantasy world that original appeared in her dream, was able to inspire others to make the Twilight fantasy their own.

Fans were interacting with Meyer - the author of a book they liked - not a 'Community Manager' at a multi-billion dollar corporation that makes pet food.

Creating similar types of interaction around products like pet food and toothpaste isn't likely and trying to do so probably isn’t a worthwhile investment for a consumer goods brand, which has a different set of marketing goals, different resources and more formal ROI criteria than Meyer did when she went online to engage in her own life's passion - the books she wrote.

In my opinion, the success of Twilight demonstrates perfectly the value inherent in taking a holistic approach to marketing. When evaluating which parts of the media mix are ideally-suited to achieving the desired outcome, one needs to understand his or her product and its place in the world.

Had Stephanie Meyer promoted Twilight in the same fashion that Gillette promotes shaving products, for instance, I probably wouldn't be writing about Twilight. Conversely, it's no surprise that as companies try to foster 'community', 'engagement', and 'relationships' around everyday products, I am not writing about their successes.

top 10 consumer web apps

And thanks again ReadWriteWeb. My personal favourites have to be QIK, lastfm and Ning... probably Hulu if it would work outside the US.

It's a well-known fact that our readers are on the cutting - if not bleeding - edge of technology. But sometimes, it's important to take a step back and realize that the apps to which we've grown so incredibly accustomed are just barely beginning to register with the general public.

With the Top 10 Consumer Web Apps of 2008, we've tried to select the apps that have burst onto the radar of the everyday user this year - or if not quite, then perhaps they will next year.

This was a year - after years of build up - in which two major events had worldwide impact on the Web. These events focused the world's attention, had more consumers creating more online content, and had more people online searching for information than ever before: the Beijing Olympics and the US Presidential elections. Many of these apps have those events to thank for their exposure and adoption.

This is the third in a series of top products of 2008:

1. Top 10 Semantic Web Products of 2008
2. Top 10 International Products of 2008

Note: We attempted to order this list from most obvious to least obvious.

1. Twitter

Twitter is the de facto leader of the microblogging scene, a realm usually rife with witty repartee between leading social media consultants and Web 2.0 developers. But when household names like Lance Armstrong, Richard Branson, Al Gore, Shaquille O'Neal, Britney Spears, and politicians across the US started using it, this year, it was clear that our selection as the Best Web LittleCo for 2007 had grown up - and entered the public consciousness.

Twitter was a constant fixture on ReadWriteWeb this year from its use as a source of news to its growing use as a customer service channel. But it wasn't without its hiccups. Midway through the year, Twitter - and its more and more frequent showings of the Fail Whale - was rapidly becoming persona non grata. In June 2008, Amazon's Jeff Bezos poured more cash into the service. And with the US elections, Twitter proved its mettle, becoming a critical forum for debate on the issues at hand.

2. Firefox

November 2008 marked the fourth birthday for Firefox, arguably one of the most successful open source projects and clearly the most popular Web browser that users have to actually install. In 2008, more and more of the consumer population gravitated to the browser that strives to deliver the Web the right way.

Firefox has continued to grow in popularity throughout 2008, but it was the download day for Firefox 3 that began to truly turn heads. Site crushing traffic to download a Web browser? Believe it. So much traffic, in fact, that it set a world record. That, and a number of other factors, had Firefox reaching a 20% market share in October of this year.

3. IntenseDebate

IntenseDebate - dubbed by RWW as the "the sophisticated blog comment system with the silly name" - provides a commenting add-in for blogs and Web sites that allows users to better manage their profiles and comments across multiple conversations. It also supports OpenID.

In 2008, distributed commenting was still a very young space with no clear leader. But when IntenseDebate appeared as the comment system on US President-elect Barack Obama's change.gov, it stepped into the public eye. Now, thousands of people are using the commenting system. This makes Automattic - the company that manages the development of WordPress - look pretty insightful for acquiring IntenseDebate this year.

4. Hulu

If Hulu - a joint video content sharing venture between NBC Universal and News Corp. - is any indication, traditional mainstream media companies are beginning to get this whole "online thing."

And with good reason. In 2008, Hulu shed its ugly duckling image and came into its own and was projected to earn a staggering $90 million in its first year. How? Again, the true turning point was the US elections. Consumers turned to Hulu as much for the political content, as for the satire - like Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show. Now, consumers are hooked and that affinity for the service is showing no sign of slowing.

5. Ning

Ning is a service designed to help anyone build a social network about anything that interests them. And in 2008, consumers flocked to the site to do exactly that - to the tune of a new social network created every 30 seconds.

As of October 2008, Ning was host to half of a million networks. And it will only continue to grow in the consumer space. Why? Much like Twitter, Ning has begun to attract celebrities who find the service a viable way of interacting with fans. Plus, with its integration of OpenSocial, Ning gains access to tech savvy consumers on a variety of social networks who already understand the dynamic.

6. Last.fm

Any app that incorporates consumer media and makes it easier to use is a winner. And that's why Last.fm, the socially driven music recommendation service, is a shoo-in for top consumer apps of 2008.

We at RWW spend a great deal of time focused on Last.fm - from the most popular songs to mashups created using its data to visualizing Last.fm friends networks - because we spend so much time on Last.fm. One thing is for sure with its redesigned site, the growing presence on mobile platforms, innovative programs, and interesting features, Last.fm is sure to continue gaining more and more fans.

7. Meebo

Meebo, always a favorite here at RWW, provides a centralized instant message platform that's accessible from any Web browser. While they've always been popular with the overly connected crowd, 2008 marks the year where Meebo has a growing opportunity to become a consumer favorite, as well.

In March 2008, we saw Meebo as having the opportunity to bring Web IM to the mainstream. Throughout the year, they continued to improve - including adding a revenue stream. And by October, Meebo had begun to roll out a partner program that will place its functionality on niche consumer sites throughout the Web. Even if consumers don't recognize Meebo yet, they will soon.

8. Mogulus

If YouTube taught people about online video and Ustream taught folks how to stream video, then Mogulus will be the service that teaches consumers how to broadcast online. And in a burgeoning HD market, where users are coming to expect crisp video and audio quality even online, Mogulus stands to become the streaming service of choice for serious videophiles.

In June 2008, we reported that Mogulus - which launched in May 2007 - was already reporting 4.5 million uniques. By September, that number had grown nearly 30% to 5.8 million. Clearly, the numbers are on the upswing.

9. Qik

Qik, the service that allows users to stream video to the Web from a mobile handset, may not be as prevalent on the consumer radar as some of these other apps. But it's safe to say it will be. While services like Mogulus have focused on the quality of the video stream, services like Qik have focused on the converse: the ability to stream content with devices that consumers are already carrying around. And that will be their key to success - the ability to deliver more content while hauling less gear.

At the beginning of the year, we wondered if Qik might be one of the breakout apps at SXSW 2008 given the number of tech types participating in its early testing. By the middle of 2008, Qik had opened its beta to more participants. And since that point, they've focused on making the service available on both mass market phones and some smart phones. No doubt, the ability to shoot video with that phone in your pocket will be as compelling to consumers as taking photos - if not moreso.

10. Cooliris

Cooliris may be the least obvious - and least recognized - of our consumer app selections, but it has that certain something that makes us sure its going to be popular with the less technically savvy. For those of you who haven't had the chance to try it, Cooliris is a browser extension that provides a 3D environment for thumbing through visual sites - like photo and video sites. What's more, it makes it fun. And that's why consumers will continue to be attracted to it.

We covered Cooliris - then called PicLens - in February 2008, finding it "a lot of fun to play with and makes searching and viewing images on the web very enjoyable." By June 2008, they had added Amazon items and YouTube videos. Even the iPhone got the Cooliris treatment with the Cooliris iPhone app. Most recently, Cooliris has unveiled features that allow users to personalize selections - and that allows Cooliris to sell more advertising. Visual browsing is still coming into its own, but Cooliris is leading the charge in a way that consumers will embrace.

Now, it's your turn. What's your opinion on these selections? Are we off? Did we miss something? Are you seeing consumer adoption elsewhere?