My view is YouTube is not some magic panacea, but it certainly has a role to play in propagating great advertising.

It’s the worlds video library and it’s open 24/7 with your local branch fully stocked and generally only as far away as your laptop or 3G mobile phone.

As word-of-mouth becomes word-of-mouse it’s now often easier to show or send somebody the great idea you’ve seen, rather than explain it.

It’s not about YouTube itself, it’s all about people connecting with ideas and then sharing them with each other. The delineation of commercial and non-commercial blurs in comparison to the issue of relevance. When it was new I used to search the top 10 of all time and the top 10 of the day – on the scout for interesting things; however as the comedian doing dance moves has been displaced by music videos and manga movies I kind of lost interest.

The top 10 then become merely the most memorable, “stuff” I’ve seen.
I do remember Big Ad. I also remember Borat singing, “throw the Jew down the well”. Within the mix is the legend of Old Gregg and some Chuck “the Iceman” Liddell bouts.
For brands there was some nifty Durex balloon animals and an awesome Adobe house of cards…but the lines have blurred. Then there was that Matt Dances video which was huge (even made it to Sunrise) which was sponsored after-the-fact, but by who? I’m not quite sure. I don’t know whether this stuff was sent to me on You Tube or not. I do remember it was sent to me online and YouTube is just my top-of-mind online video brand.

There are propagation strategies like trying to crowd source mimics (as I believe “flight of the conchords” http://flightlipdub.com/ have achieved) or more cast based methods like sponsored videos and TubeMogul. Channels are popular if you’ve got installments and opt-in loyalty. I guess my point is YouTube isn’t a communications idea, it’s just another of the 573 different contact points which we can put our message up on. Saying, “I’m going to have a great youtube viral campaign” is like saying, “I’m going to write a best seller”- J.K.Rolling stated with an idea about a boy wizard, not with her OBE acceptance speech.

To my mind it might be valid but before you act the test remains: will you get noticed? Is what you are trying to say clear? Is it relevant (to consumers and your business goal)?
The two main targets on YouTube appear to be everyone or really niche. You probably need to take a cold, hard a look at your own segmentation before embarking on the quest for the holy viral. We still remember Outpost.com, but the business died long ago.

My only dilemma now is whether to publish this to my little -read blog at www.StepChangeCommunications.com or the relative obscurity of my podcast channel on YouTube www.youtube.com/DOWNtoBIS

It gets to the heart of the discussion that advertising is only ever one part of marketing.

Q.
WHAT SHOULD CAR MARKETERS BE DOING?
Falling sales and a collapse of finance options is threatening to cripple the automotive industry. Consequently, car marketers need to step-up their game If you had a car client, what would you advise them to do. Is it time to go retail or adopt a creative approach and focus on the brand? Should car ads be serious or use humour in the current environment? Chrysler is pushing its marques in a pro-American ‘Yes we can’ campaign – are there any tips in this for other car marketers?
A.
“SELLING LIKE HOTCAKES”
* First Toyota Prius on sale in Australia in 2001 – 137 sold.
* In 2006 – 2000 sold.
* First five months of 2007, 1300 sold. May tally of 380 sales is monthly record.
* Costs $37,400 to $46,900.
* Honda Civic Hybrid costs $32,990, but regularly sells out its 80 cars a month allocation.
Source: Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.
Ok, so it’s a year out of date, and a lot happened in that year, so let’s look at some very recent numbers from another category:
“Apple revenue grew 35% year-over-year to $9.6bn, an increase of almost $2.5bn, according to its first quarter 2009 results” Posted Jan 2009.
My point is people don’t buy the ads, they buy the products and it’s the underlying innovation where car manufactures have to start. I had had been given 40 personal demos and rave reviews (oh and actually bought one) for the iPhone before I saw an ad for one. Don’t start with a wacky ad formula to try and charm consumers into buying- start with some value that rewards them for buying.
This doesn’t always mean retooling the entire factory, depending on the task at hand you might want to:
• Personalise: allow consumers to create personal designs on the outside of their cars and express their personality (can’t the industry do better than an optional racing stripe of a Ford Laser?)
• Harness WOM: seriously reward and incentivise passionate owners to entice others
• Target: produce, frame, price, package, sell and service to an aged, female, asian, gay, urban, mothers (any other sizable/relevant group or community)
• Innovate: Where’s the car that comes standard with LPG? Where’s the car that’s built for grubby kids in the back seat (can be hosed out)?
• Finance: Why screw punters with a separate finance company? Make your money on the car and provide company finance at cost, lease, hire-purchase. Retail companies have x4 year interest free. What are the options around cars?
• Engage: If the game’s test drives – then get experiential! Offer an alternative to public transport, weekend- come-to-your-home test drives, pick-up from work test drives- hell, start a manufacture “at cost” car rental company. What about a free community car pool?
• Empower: Which brand is getting behind hypermiling? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypermiling providing the information, games, community, events and rewards for this to gain momentum (pardon the pun)
• JV/ Licensing: What car brand might JV or licence a co-branded model with interior designed by Benetton, Prada, Apple, bang-olufsen?
People aren’t just consumers, they’re people first. They want a car that they like the look of, the features of and that will suit their lifestyle. Then they buy into the brand to take away any risk and for the self-expressive and emotive benefits it can bring.