I’m constantly impressed with the way that marketers and Google are creating advertising campaigns on Youtube. The example below is a marketing campaign for the upcoming summer blockbuster: Get Smart. Well, it’s not quite a block buster yet, but with marketing like this I have a feeling it will be.

Viral video marketing like this is very effective in generating brand loyalty. Over a million people have watched the Get Smart Youtube contest and thousands are uploading videos to participate. I doubt the numbers will be anything substantial, but it is certainly generating quite a bit of cognizant buzz about the movie. When the movie releases people that have seen the Youtube video will certainly recall the video they saw online and will probably opt to see Get Smart verses other movies.

This GetSmart viral video has the components of other successful online viral video marketing campaigns that Youtube has helped create: users participate in the conversation. When “users participate” by uploading videos of submitting any form of user generated content the marketing campaign is a success. Numbers, therefore, become the most important component of user generated marketing - you want as many people to participate as possible. So make it easy to participate! This Get Smart campaign is simple to be a part of; videos submitted are no more than 15 seconds.

If your company is interested in crafting an online viral video that includes user generated content - please call Banner Blindness at 843-425-3566 or email Support@BannerBlindness.com

Are you a major corporation looking to make a dent in your online marketing initiative? Well I hope so. YouTube can help your corporation take its brand to the next level. I would argue that YouTube offers one of the best branding and direct response opportunities on the web today. Youtube is the #7 website in the world and has tremendous analytical tools and budgeting capabilities to help you meet your advertising needs. You can check out YouTube’s branding and media kit to help you determine whether YouTube and its publisher partner network will help your corporate branding and advertising strategy.

I prefer to see our clients invest their advertising dollars in YouTube instead of Facebook Advertising. It seems like Facebook is dead right now. Their “ppc” advertising system is great for performance based marketers. But it has severely hurt their large corporate clients looking for unique branding opportunities. Facebook offers some interesting integrated advertising opportunities at an expensive price tag. I have only seen a few large corporate clients actually purchase the sponsored profile pages. Youtube on the other hand is being embraced by major corporations in a big way. Banner Blindness is partners with Buck Hollywood - one of the top YouTube channels - and we see how much is being spent on partnered YouTube advertising buys. Quite a bit is spent on CPC Youtube advertising. Michael Buckley is interested in more private label advertising deals for his blog if you are interested - please contact us. I’m confident that major corporations can cost effectivley make a huge impact by doing large branding campaigns across the YouTube partner network.

When conducting a branding campaign on YouTube advertisers don’t have to pay CPM rates. Since you don’t have to pay CPM rates you can easily gauge the effectiveness of your advertising campaign by determining your revenue per click. A typical click on YouTube from premium publishers will cost you around $.40 cents I believe; but of course it varies. You also have to realize that for $.40 per click, if this is more then what you typically pay for CPC advertising, you are getting a whole lot more. Our partner Michael Buckley was receiving Red Stripe beer advertisements on his latest YouTube broadcast. Red Stripe beer company is not paying for these ads to be shown - they are paying for these ads to be clicked on.

Notice in the advertisements above that Red Stripe is encouraging their audience to get involved. Beer companies, tobacco companies, auto companies, consumer product manufacturers, etc… realize that showing advertisements are not enough, you need to get your audience involved. How can you get your audience involved? Through user generated media! If you offer prize money and a platform for users to generate media, you will have more then what you know what to do with. Some of it is so good that you can actually put it on TV and have a kick-ass commercial.

If your corporation is interested in finding out how Banner Blindness Inc. can help you carry out an effective You Tube advertising campaign. Please call 843-425-3566 or email Support@BannerBlindness.com

Swiffer created an excellent marketing campaign through YouTube that has received over 150,000 unique channel views.  Swiffer is offering $15,000 to whoever can create the best “cleaning break-up” video.  Two of the commercials almost look professional enough to be used on TV.  Swiffer is probably planning on using the best commercials on an actual television advertising campaign.  If your company is interested in creating a user generated advertising and promotional campaign - please contact Banner Blindness to learn how we can develop a similar marketing campaign.