YouTube Most Memorable Videos of 2009 Lack Branded Content
December 31, 2009
Online video represents a huge opportunity for brands to connect with consumers, raise brand awareness, and more, but the most memorable viral videos of 2009 (as determined by YouTube) included very few branded videos.
Will 2010 be the year that brands finally learn how to capitalize on this growing marketing opportunity?
We’ll have to wait and see about that.
In 2009, the top 31 YouTube videos were dominated by humorous videos uploaded by individuals (e.g., David After Dentist and Scared Kitty) and inspiring videos (e.g., Inspired Bicycles and the story of Susan Boyle), but mixed in with those entertaining videos were several videos directly related to brands. The unfortunate part of the story is that many of them were not intended to make those brands look good.
Case in point — YouTube Top Video of the Year #7: United Breaks Guitars
I wrote about this video on my own company blog earlier this year (you can read that post here). Check out the video below. It’s about a man whose guitar was broken at the hands of United Airlines baggage handlers and his inability to get compensated for the damage. Suffice it to say, that’s not a brand message that you want to spread across the web and become one of the most popular YouTube videos of the year.
Lesson: Learn from United’s mistakes and be aware of what’s being said about your brand online. Provide great customer service and you won’t have to worry about this kind of problem happening to you.
Case in point — YouTube Top Video of the Year #15: What the Snuggie?
I also wrote about this video on my own company blog earlier this year (you can read that post here). I’m not going to post the actual video here because the language used might be offensive to some readers, but if you’re not easily offended, it’s a must-see. It’s very funny! You can watch it here.
It’s unfortunate that one of the most watched YouTube videos of the year related to a brand is for the Snuggie, but it’s true. However, this video pokes fun at the Snuggie. While the parody might have actually helped raise awareness of the Snuggie and may not have truly hurt sales that much, this is still a video to learn from as a brand manager. Many established brands would not fare as well as Snuggie did despite this video and an online buzz that often mirrored the sentiments proclaimed in this video.
Lesson: Again, search engine reputation management (SERM) is essential for brands. Without it, you’d never know if a What the Snuggie video is made about your brand until it’s too late. I’m not saying you want to send a cease and desist or try to stop the spreading of information across the social Web. However, you do need to be aware of what’s being said about your brand, so you can respond to it positively and nudge the online conversation in the right direction to help you meet your goals.
You can check out the full list of the top 31 videos on YouTube in 2009 here. What do you think? Will more branded content make it onto this list in 2010? Let’s hope so!
My Pick of the Posts: 2009
December 30, 2009
As we reach the end of my first year in the “Careers Corner” at Corporate Eye, it’s a great opportunity to look back over all the topics that have been covered in the column. We’ve analyzed best practices, explored fundamental issues and emerging trends, cataloged some hits and misses, asked serious questions—and had a little fun. Not a bad way to spend twelve months!
Year-end lists always seem to be the “Ten Best.” (Or “Ten Worst,” but I’m not going there.) So that was my goal. But it turns out to be quite a challenge. Just ten? So I’ve cheated a bit, and chosen all the series from 2009. Which actually makes sense, since the topics that merited multiple posts were among the most important.
So here they are, in no particular order:
1. Employer Brand
Three posts exploring the 2009 Fortune list of 100 Best Places to Work: Communicating the Employer Brand, Shaping the Employer Brand, and Energizing the Employer Brand. Plus a Fortune Follow-up.
2. Diversity on the Corporate Website
Possibly the most ambitious series this year! The four posts were: Hot Topic or Obsolete Concept?; Four Strategies; The Challenge of Messaging; and Disability and Unvisibility.
3. Some Really Good Advice
Part 1 and Part 2 offer a road-map to John Sullivan’s important series of articles, which add up to 127 suggested features or capabilities for the corporate Careers website of the future.
4. Surfing the Boards
Exploring a report on job rankings, which provided Thought Provoking Hilarity. The first post did the thought-provoking, so the second is called . . . And Now for the Funny.
5. A Macy’s Mystery
Part 1 and Part 2 investigate the Forrester Report on corporate websites–and consider Macy’s shift from an award-winning charmer of a site to something rather more ordinary.
6. Talent Acquisition 2009
Three posts on an important study: Considering the Aberdeen Report, No Surprises, and On the Other Hand . . .
7. Tick Tock: Recruiting Hourly Workers
Part 1 and Part 2 take a look at what’s true, what’s new, and what works in this challenging segment of the recruitment world.
8. Social Media Roundup
An informal series on the most talked-about aspect of recruiting this year: Twitterama, Fair Play for Facebook, and Leveraging LinkedIn.
Okay, that’s eight. Which leaves just two more. But—why not make it a dozen? And since no one’s stopping me, I’m going with the four I most enjoyed writing!
9. Funny Business (because it has Jack in it)
10. Exciting Sites (because it’s beautiful)
11. Get the Popcorn (because it’s always fun to think about movies)
12. Silver Linings (because it touched me)
Once I started, this review process got really interesting—so I’m going to follow up with a list of the posts I think were most significant. In the meantime . . . here’s looking forward to 2010!
(Many thanks to James Cridland for the marvelous numbers. They come from different places in the London Transport System—visit the original Flickr page for this image and you can mouse over the numbers to see where each one came from!)
Tieto a Corporate Website Worth a Visit
December 29, 2009
I believe this is the first consulting services company I have profiled. It is not one of the mega consulting firms, but it sure knows how to tell visitors about itself. The company Tieto is based in Finland and does business across the globe.
A good feature on the uncluttered homepage is that the company tells you what they do (not every company does).
Industries served and their offerings are outlined.
Want to learn more? You only need to click on Industry Expertise and Offerings and you get more information.
Next, the About Us page offers a good menu of links.
- Strategy
- Business structure
- Tieto in figures
- Operating countries
- Corporate responsibility
- Management
- History
- Addresses
- Link to us
I would like to see Corporate Governance here instead of being part of the Investors section. Good that Strategy is listed first and I think other companies would be wise to take note of this. Click on Strategy to see–
and related Financial Goals–
This is a good example of transparency without divulging the “corporate jewels”.
Next the company offers Customer magazines and Other Publications.
Here is a tidbit from the article “Grow your own financial recovery” –
Cheer up…
– some of the benefits of a recession….
1
It forces you to stop being wasteful.
2
It makes you think again about business habits.
3
It accelerates change
4
It encourages you to be more creative
5
It forces you to make tough decisions
6
It thins out the competition
7
It makes you realize that you shouldn’t take anything for granted
8
It brings you back to basics
9
It is an opportunity for a new start
10
It reminds you that business is about people… and ideas
Good advice indeed. Tieto: a corporate website worth a visit.
A Tale of Two Makeovers
December 28, 2009
Ever since Fred Astaire turned Audrey Hepburn from a bookworm to a cover girl in Funny Face, the makeover has been a Hollywood staple. And more recently, a great source of ratings for reality TV. Although a website transformation doesn’t have quite the same level of drama, it can still be entertaining—and instructive.
So here we have two makeover stories, both of which show what a difference design can make. But while one is a clear winner, I’m perplexed about the other.
Let’s start with the unambiguous improvements made by DaVita early in 2008. It was a perfect case study, with statistics to back up the effectiveness of the new design. Within a year, site visits were up 88%, unique visitors up 76%, return visitors up 128%–and applications up 97%.
DaVita, a Fortune 500 company, is the largest independent “kidney care” (aka dialysis) company in the US, employing more than 33,000 “teammates.” Also—winner of the 2009 ERE award for Recruiting Department of the Year, which makes the makeover worth a revisit. For a fairly detailed presentation of DaVita’s approach to talent acquisition, watch this slideshow.
Here’s the single slide from that presentation which deals with the website:
Although the build text left on the published presentation makes it a little hard to see the old site, this side-by-side depiction of the old and new website designs clearly shows the increase in visual interest. The lively new look features lots of people, along with clearly marked one-click paths to high-interest content.
The makeover goes beyond just improving look-and-feel qualities. A big addition to the new site is a “Life in the Village” tab that focuses on this core message: “The DaVita Community is a unique place where we care for our patients, each other and our world.” One of the components is a Community and Charity section that goes far beyond the token presentations found on many sites. DaVita organizes its wide-ranging collection of Village programs into three tabs (“Each Other,” “Patients,” and “The World”), ranging from employee recognition plans to clinical research grants to Bridge of Life, the medical missions program that “allows teammates to bring quality dialysis care to underserved regions, such as Africa, Latin America and Asia.”
With a full complement of social media connections, video tours, You Tube links, and other modern must-haves, DaVita touches all the bases nicely. And it does so with a clean look that is cheerful without being frivolous.
Turning to the other makeover . . .
Earlier this year I picked the education/publishing company Pearson as one of the websites that charmed me unexpectedly. It wasn’t slick and didn’t have all the bells and whistles we’ve come to expect—but it had an authentic, quirky feel. Here’s how the “Our People” page looked in March:
As to whether this is an improvement, I think it depends on what measures you use. The page is a component of a whole new site design that flows along a sort of bright, contemporary line—and there’s no doubt it looks more up-to-date and offers better functionality. But it also seems generic. The headline text on this page still emphasizes creativity and imagination, yet (to my eye, anyway) the design does not reinforce that message. Perhaps there could have been a more engaging approach to modernization?
I’d love to hear other opinions!
2010 Branding Challenge – Don’t Let Them Say ‘So What’
December 28, 2009
The first decade of the 21st century is coming to a close, so I thought it would be a good time to think about, I mean really think about, your brand message, image, promise and positioning as we begin 2010. To do so, consider the brand kiss of death.
What’s the brand kiss of death? Simple …
When a brand name is mentioned, the common consumer reaction is to think, “so what?” And asking “so what?” about your brand, is the brand kiss of death.
In other words, you never want anyone to think, “so what” after they hear your brand name or any kind of messaging related to your brand. Your goal for 2010 should be this: make sure that your brand image, message, promise and position is so clear that no one ever has to ask “so what?”
Let’s take a step back and consider why people ask “so what” after hearing about a brand, product, etc. It’s actually very simple. People want to know “What’s In It For Me?” (WIIFM) if they take out their hard-earned money and choose your brand, product, etc.
I talk about the WIIFM concept a lot in my book about copywriting, Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. In short, the concept tells us that no one cares about you. They care about what your brand, product, service, etc. can do for them. They want to know how it make their lives easier or help them. If they don’t know what’s in it for them if they choose your brand or product, then they’ll ask “so what?” when they hear about it.
And that’s what you don’t want to happen.
So I challenge you in 2010 to create a strategic goal in 2010 to ensure no one asks “so what” about your brand before the year is out. Do you think you can do it?
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