“Hey, we need a ‘YouTube sensation’ for this concept to really fly.”
If you’re a producer, and you just heard those words from the creative director’s mouth, what do you do? Where do you go? The YouTubes is a rather large place to look for a sensation.
According to Ad Age, YouTube feels advertisers’ pain, and in response the Google-owned video sharing site is launching something called “Video Creation Marketplace.” The idea is to help connect brands and the many DIY content creators who make YouTube go.
People like beauty vlogger JuicyStar07, who promotes L’Oreal Cosmetics on her channel.
Wow, JuicyStar07, a.k.a. Blair Fowler, is a fast talker. Nevertheless, her video above has been viewed nearly a half million times, which L’Oreal must appreciate.
Baljeet Singh, group product manager at YouTube says there are thousands of YouTube channels that are generating six figures a year. That’s a ton of talent to sort through, especially if you want to look beyond the top earners. YouTube has over one million content creators in its Partners Program globally.
Singh boasts, “The creativity coming out of YouTube rivals that coming out of creative agencies any day of the week. And we already know that their content performs really well on YouTube.”
I think the creative community just back from a week in Cannes may beg to differ with Singh’s claims about the degree of talent available, but few ad men or women will argue with his last point. Regardless of the medium’s similarities, YouTube is not TV, and what works on TV, in many cases, may fall flat on YouTube.
How are you approaching these issues? Do you favor a tightly integrated campaign, where the TV and online videos are the same, or similar in nature? Or do you tend to generate “native” ideas for each media?
