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YouTube Celebrates 5th Birthday

youtube_logoIt’s hard to believe that five years ago YouTube didn’t exist and uploading and sharing personal videos online was actually challenging.  On February 14, 2005, the YouTube.com domain was registered.  Less than 2 years later, in October 2006, YouTube.com was sold to Google for $1.65 billion.  Today, it’s the most trafficked online video site with over 100 million unique visitors watching over 7 billion videos each month (source).  YouTube is a powerful global brand and is positioned as the market leader in the online video industry.

Now, that’s a brand success story!

It’s well known in branding theory that being first to market is an important element of strong brand positioning, but it’s not a guarantee of success.  The founders of YouTube created the right site at the right time.  They recognized an opportunity, and they capitalized on it.  Fortunately for their wallets, the almighty Google also recognized the opportunity, and coughed up a lot of money to purchase YouTube in 2006.  It’s interesting to wonder if YouTube would have grown to the massive size that it is today without Google behind it.  However, it’s equally interesting to wonder what YouTube would have grown into without Google behind it.

Other competitors have come and gone, but YouTube still holds a massive market share advantage over those competitors.  While YouTube has become the go-to site for personal videos and video sharing, many businesses and brands are also creating branded YouTube channels to leverage the growing interest in online video among consumers.  The problem for online video viewers is finding the credible content amidst the clutter that has become one of the biggest criticisms of YouTube.

YouTube will remain the leader for some time, but it seems apparent that changes need to come to the site to separate the branded content from the content uploaded by teenagers lip synching to Hannah Montana.  That’s the current opportunity for YouTube.  The YouTube brand image has shifted to focus more on personal video sharing over the years, leaving a large market open for a competitor to snatch if YouTube allows it.

What do you think?  Will YouTube look the same on its 10th birthday or will changes be made?  Leave a comment and share your predictions.

Pushdown Ads Bring Brand Stories Above the Fold

The Pushdown ad unit is becoming more popular now that some major Web properties have adopted it.  In case you’re not familiar with the Pushdown ad unit, it’s those annoying ads that appear at the top of a Web page and actually ‘push’ the content of that Web page down further on your screen (sometimes a long way down your screen).  Sometimes it can be hard to make them go away.  However, advertisers are learning to love them, and it’s not surprising really.  The surprise is actually that Pushdown ads didn’t gain momentum faster.

Pushdown ads are intrusive, and that’s exactly what the Online Publishers Association wanted when the ad unit was created a year or so ago.  You may have seen them on sites owned by the New York Times, Discovery, ESPN or Conde Nast — some of the first well-known publishers to test the Pushdown ad format.

According to an article from BrandWeek, more and more companies are actively seeking Pushdown ad placement, including AT&T, Anheuser-Busch, Universal Pictures, and Nokia.  In fact, Yahoo! has started testing Pushdown ad units in response to advertiser demand (and a desire to increase advertising revenue, of course).

The Online Publishers Association claims that Pushdown ad units allow advertisers to tell more complete brand stories and helps to provide a more creative advertising opportunity that should stand out from crowded online display advertising industry.

There is no doubt that Pushdown ads fall into the realm of ‘interruption marketing’.  The question is whether or not people will feel the ads are too much of an interruption.  Does the extra scrolling to get to a Web page’s real content bother consumers?  Would it bother you?

We’ll have to wait for the inevitable research and statistics about click-through rates, abandon rates, and so on before we’ll know exactly how effective Pushdown ads are.  I know I’m curious to hear how this one shakes out.  What are your predictions?  Will Pushdown ads be embraced by consumers or will Pushdown ads make consumers click away and search for another Web page that provides similar content without the extra scrolling requirements?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

The Future of Marketing Communications and Social Media

According to a new report from Gartner, companies will learn to embrace social media in the future not only for external marketing and brand-building but also for internal communications.  Earlier this month, Gartner released its five predictions for social software in 2010 and beyond.  They are:

  • By 2014, social networking services will replace email as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20% of business users.
  • By 2012, over 50% of enterprises will use activity streams that include microblogging, but stand-alone enterprise microblogging will have less than 5% penetration.
  • Through 2012, over 70% of IT-dominated social media initiatives will fail.
  • Within five years, 70% of collaboration and communications applications designed on PCs will be modeled after user experience lessons from smartphone collaboration applications.
  • Through 2015, only 25% of enterprises will routinely utilize social network analysis to improve performance and productivity.

You can get more details about the Gartner predictions in this press release.

In terms of marketing and branding, the most interesting prediction from Gartner is the first one listed above — within 4 years, social Web tools will replace email as the primary tool for communications for 20% of business users.  The shift is already happening as companies move marketing budgets from email marketing to social media initiatives.  I’m actually surprised that the 20% prediction isn’t higher.

The third prediction, that over 70% of IT-dominated social media initiatives will fail through 2012, doesn’t surprise me though.  I can’t imagine that anyone will fully figure out the perfect way to leverage the social Web from an IT, marketing, or any other discipline’s perspective within the next two years.

I also find the fourth prediction listed above to be very interesting, which states that 70% of collaboration and communications applications designed on PCs will be modeled after lessons learned from smartphone applications within five years.  The move from computers to smartphones for an incredibly wide variety of tasks is already happening so quickly since the iPhone hit the market.  The 70% prediction doesn’t surprise me at all.  I wonder how many businesses are prepared for that shift?  If it’s not already on your radar screen, it should be.

emarketer_social_networks_policiesGartner also predicts that companies will become more open to employees using both business and personal social networks for business purposes, but with that change in policy will come the need for companies to create specific guidelines for use.  According to a study by Manpower (via eMarketer), only 20% of companies worldwide had formal policies for how employees could use social networking sites in 2009 (see the chart for a breakdown by region).

It’s amazing how quickly the social Web has caused the business landscape to change, and these predictions are just a small sampling of additional changes to come as more people and businesses around the world fully embrace the tools of social networking and collaboration.

What do you think of Gartner’s predictions?

2010 – The Year of Brand Transparency, Honesty and Trust

brand_honestyEarlier this month, I wrote an article that was published on Entrepreneur.com where I listed 10 marketing trends for 2010.  The top trend on that list was transparency and trust (which includes honesty), and that trend should define 2010 for brand strategy.

The question is – will companies actually follow the trend like they should?  Some will, but unfortunately, more will probably not.

So why are transparency, honesty and trust so important for brands in 2010?

It’s simple.  Consumers aren’t naive anymore.  There was a time when consumers believed the marketing messages in ads.  There was also a time when many people believed in political propaganda, but thankfully, with advances in communications and technology, more people than ever can see through those skewed messages.  The same holds true with advertising claims.

Banks have collapsed, economies are faltering or failing, auto manufacturers took multi-billion dollar bailout packages, and many consumers have lost their last hopes that the pie-in-the-sky claims made in ads are even remotely true.

And that’s why transparency, honesty and trust are so important for brands in 2010.  Give people something to believe in.  Create expectations for your brand in consumers’ minds that they can believe and rely on.  Then, deliver on those expectations every time and in every customer interaction.

Make them believe in your brand through truth, not veiled propaganda.

Yes, I’m a copywriter and I’m saying this.  It might seem like a contradiction to say I’m a copywriter and promote a brand strategy of transparency, honesty and trust in 2010.  However, successful copywriters, brand managers, and marketers understand that the world has changed thanks to communications and technological advancements like Twitter, social networking, online video, and more.  Brands that stretch the truth are called out faster than ever and word of a brand’s dishonesty will spread faster and farther than you can imagine.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, and you need to analyze your brand, audience, competition, and so on before you modify your own brand strategy for 2010.

In fact, that’s a great area for discussion here on the Corporate Eye blog.  What brands, industries, categories, etc. would fare better to avoid embracing the transparency, honesty and trust trend?  Can you think of any?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Flickr