by Catherine-Gail Reinhard

Catherine-Gail Reinhard is creative director at Videasa, an agency that focuses on creating video infotainment for the web and emerging media platforms. You can follow her on Twitter.

As YouTube () has grown into the preeminent video sharing service online, marketers have tried, with limited success, to broadcast themselves and to reach audiences with their messaging. And while individuals have used YouTube as a platform to step into the spotlight, most brands have been left behind in the shadows. Save for the occasional media-supported viral video blitz, or user generated contest, commercial success on YouTube has been elusive to the many brands that have tried to reach for that brass ring.

This is not to say that brands will ever reach the heights of popularity on YouTube that individuals have achieved, and it would be naive to start a Sponsored Channel with the expectation that millions of viewers will tune in right away. However, YouTube does represent a great opportunity for marketers to reach consumers who are searching for information about a brand or related products and services. YouTube can also be a powerful direct marketing tool, provided that it is considered as part of the marketing mix rather than a tactic in a vacuum.

One thing is becoming apparent: The brands that achieve long-term success on YouTube are the ones that consistently and frequently publish refreshing content that has intrinsic value for audiences online. Here are some of the standout brands that have created a strong position on YouTube by understanding the zeitgeist of collective content generation and some of the clever marketing tactics they are using to build their presence on the site.

Some brands are missing the boat

I have also specifically excluded some very large brands from this post that have created one or more viral “one-hit wonders” but continue to use their branded YouTube channel to only post their television commercials online. These global brands tend to generate buzz for their one “viral” video but these efforts prove to be largely campaign-centric and media supported. Many of these brands still neglect to publish content on an ongoing basis.

Additionally, I have not included brands on this list that professionally create content as their primary product or service (i.e. newspapers, magazines, TV shows, Internet TV, entertainment companies, music industry, movies).

5 YouTube case studies

1. Quiksilver & Roxy

The fantastic aesthetic of wicked waves and big beautiful swells help make Quiksilver and Roxy’s content hypnotically captivating. Companies that market products with an exciting angle or naturally beautiful aesthetic have an easier time creating content, to be sure, but Quiksilver and Roxy’s webisodes and mini-documentaries go beyond cool surf footage and give consumers inside access to what goes on behind the scenes on the professional surfing, skating and snowboarding tour circuits. The video selection also features vlogs by the pros, lifestyle profiles of up and coming musicians and a potpourri of other content.

The marketers at Quiksilver Inc. are bringing consumers value by offering them a look behind the scenes and giving them access to free content that, in the past, might not have been available at all or would only be available by purchasing surfing or skating DVDs. At the same time they are also extending the value of their sponsored Surf, Skate and Snowboarding event marketing dollars by using these events as opportunities for filming exciting videos.

Quiksilver posts a new video about once a week (Roxy posts slightly more frequently), which helps them both maintain a consistently fresh presence. Eventually, these brands might benefit from producing shorter videos on a more frequent basis. For a relatively niche apparel company, posting almost 200 videos in 2 years is no small achievement and the marketing teams at Quiksilver Inc. deserve recognition for their forward-looking efforts.

2. Ford Models

Let me start out by saying this; it’s really not fair to include Ford Models in this list. They have access to the most beautiful women in the world, are a part of what is perceived as an ultra-glamorous industry and have resources that the average brand marketer can only dream of. Unfair advantage? Sure. But there are plenty of other brands that spend huge dollars on YouTube without realizing a fraction of the results of Ford Models. Even without all the in-house resources, the marketers at Ford Models deserve a hand because they are doing a lot of things right:

1. Publishing multi-lingual content: Broadens their potential audience to include an international contingent. Also, by widening their appeal, they are working the system and increasing their chances of appearing on the lists of “Most Viewed” Channels on YouTube.

2. Offering a wide range of practical infotainment: From vlogs of models traveling to exotic locations, to tips from pro stylists, to behind the scenes videos of photo shoots and fashion shows, the content on the Ford Models YouTube page provide valuable information to their target audience.

3. Patience is a virtue: Since 2006, Ford Models has uploaded over 554 videos. With so many videos produced, Ford Models has learned what works for their brand and what doesn’t. By constantly producing and uploading videos, they have learned to tailor their messaging and have also created a large archive of searchable content that continues to accumulate views.

Online video is a relatively new medium and brands need to understand that their video content, like their websites, will continually be refined and will evolve to the needs and expectations of audiences. The smart tactics employed by Ford Models have led to the slow and steady growth of their large subscriber base but they have invested a significant amount of effort to get to this point. Brands that want instant results should expect to spend a great deal of money on media.

3. University of Phoenix Online

As broadband has become widely available, the dream of attending college online has come to fruition. Private online education programs have become so popular that even the old guard Ivy League Universities have begun to offer classes or access to lectures online. But when it comes to marketing its online classes via video, University of Phoenix Online leads the charge. On YouTube, University of Phoenix has hundreds of video testimonials, reviews, mini-documentaries and webisodes.

It’s not that their videos have huge numbers of views, or that their channel has that many subscribers (some have only a few hundred views); In this case, building a subscriber base is not important in terms of University of Phoenix Online’s marketing objectives. What is important is that they have at least one video to connect with each prospective student that searches for an online school or visits their channel.

Where University of Phoenix Online’s video marketing excels is in having a large number of videos, which increase the odds that the prospect will find a video featuring a real, relatable student with whom they can identify. Among the most watched videos on the channel are a compelling testimonial by MSNBC Anchor and graduate, Christina Brown, and a mini-documentary series featuring a diverse cast of graduates with inspirational stories about their life experience.

By being the first in their category to create a sponsored channel on YouTube, University of Phoenix Online automatically falls at the top of any search on YouTube for online schools—even if a user searches for a competitor. Using compelling, emotionally charged content, University of Phoenix Online has turned their YouTube channel into a virtual recruitment machine to convert prospects into enrolled students.

4. The Home Depot

The Home Depot stands out in their category because they publish content about subject matter that is relevant to their brand without being over-the-top in promoting the specific products that they sell. The smart marketers at Home Depot know that bringing value to consumers in the form of free educational content does three important things:

1. Establishes Home Depot as a trusted expert resource for Home repairs and renovation projects

2. Promotes the products and tools that they sell by using “product placement” instead of outright commercial-style pitches.

3. Humanizes a faceless corporation: Home Depot has a long history of featuring employees in its advertising campaigns: The tutorials online are hosted by the same straight-talking, orange-apron-wearing folks who work in their stores.

From simple repairs around the house (like replacing a toilet) to more complicated home-renovation projects (like re-tiling the bathroom), the free content offers practical knowledge and money-saving tips. One key point of distinction between The Home Depot and other players in their category is that they have not over-designed their YouTube page and have opted for the standard layout with a custom background image. The overall production values of the videos are not slick and overdone–they feel native to the Internet instead of “made for TV.”

5. Nikefootball

Few companies can even dream of having the marketing resources of a brand like Nike. Nike has lots of marketing dollars and yes, they hire big celebrities like Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, but that success on YouTube isn’t necessarily only about hiring big names–it’s about being in concord with their brand.

The takeaway here for marketers is this: To thine own brand be true. Nike as a brand is well known for celebrity sports endorsement deals. Starting when Nike was but a nascent brand with Ilie Nastase, up to the present day, Nike has made its name by associating itself with sports stars. Not that the strategy hasn’t had its share of pitfalls (Nike Air Vick III), but it would be off-strategy and off-brand for Nike to suddenly start releasing a string of poorly-produced, low-budget videos just because the videos live on YouTube.

That being said, some of Nikefootball’s most-viewed videos (mostly from a specifically urban-targeted campaign) are filmed with a mashup of unconventional production equipment like Closed Circuit Security Cameras, Webcams, and Cellphones. But I want to draw a distinction here that there is a difference between cool videos created using experimental filmmaking techniques and just plain garbage.

The Nikefootball channel is targeted to the UK but Nike cleverly maintains Nikefutebol, an additional Portugese language channel to cater to the fierce Brazilian soccer contingent. Indeed, of all the sponsors on YouTube, Nike probably maintains the greatest number of channels (Nike, Nikefootball, Nikefutebol, NikeBasketball, NikeSoccer, NikeGridiron, NikePlusTV, LeBron, insidenikerunning, NikeWomen, NikeWomenUK, nikecorre, nikecorresp, etc…). While not every brand has the resources to maintain so many channels, it is notable that Nike has opted to create a variety of branded and lightly branded channels that cater to the different audiences for each of their product lines instead of trying to silo all their content inside a single Nike channel. This makes it easier for consumers to find content that is relevant to their needs without having to sift through hundreds of extraneous videos.

Catherine-Gail Reinhard is Creative Director at Videasa, an agency that focuses on creating video infotainment for the web and emerging media platforms. Recently, Catherine completed an extensive research study of marketers about online video. Contact her on Twitter () @catherine_gail for more information about the study.

Prosecutors dropped charges on Friday morning, as expected, against the bicyclist who was shoved off his bike in July by a police officer in Times Square. The confrontation between the cyclist, Christopher Long, and a New York City police officer, Patrick Pogan, was captured on amateur video and circulated widely over the Internet.

Mr. Long, 29, had been charged with assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct on July 25 after Officer Pogan wrote in his report that Mr. Long had been weaving in and out of traffic and that he had tried to hit the officer with his bicycle.

But video recorded by an onlooker soon surfaced on YouTube, showing Officer Pogan lowering his shoulder and shoving Mr. Long off his bike on Seventh Avenue at 46th Street as Mr. Long tried to steer out of the way. (Officer Pogan was stripped of his badge and gun and placed on desk duty pending the completion of an investigation into his conduct.)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUkiyBVytRQ]

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YouTube has turned on the ability to add full closed captions to videos. This will not only allow videos to appeal more directly to foreign audiences, but will give YouTube excellent data for searching videos and targeting ads to them. After all, a complete set of subtitles is the same as a transcript of the video. And you can upload subtitles for as many languages as you want. It’s excellent data. From the YouTube blog:

You can add captions to one of your videos by uploading a closed caption file using the “Captions and Subtitles” menu on the editing page. To add several captions to a video, simply upload multiple files. If you want to include foreign subtitles in multiple languages, upload a separate file for each language. There are over 120 languages to choose from and you can add any title you want for each caption. If a video includes captions, you can activate them by clicking the menu button located on the bottom right of the video player. Clicking this button will also allow viewers to choose which captions they want to see.

Here’s a Japanimation video with the closed captions (cartoon nudity alert). They can be turned on and off by clicking on the “CC” button that pops up at the bottom right. More info here.

• One in two Canadian business leaders say social media is becoming more important than mass media. 46 per cent say social media tools such as Facebook, YouTube and blogs are becoming even more important than television, radio, newspapers and magazines.
• The results are contained in a poll of 444 Canadian business and marketing leaders, conducted by Pollara Strategic Insights for com.motion, a new offering from Veritas Communications.
• Veritas Communications has launched com.motion to help Canadian brands and organizations navigate the social media marketing space.
• The survey also found that executives are sharply divided over the use of social media in the workplace. Two-thirds (66 per cent) said employees shouldn’t use social networking sites such as YouTube and Facebook at work, while 34 per cent said it is important for employees to participate in and understand the medium.
• One quarter (26 per cent) of business and marketing leaders say they are less familiar with social media marketing than their customers. Among those who describe themselves as “executive management,” one-third say they’re less familiar than their customers.
• Veritas is also launching several blogs to help Canadian marketers stay on top of the latest developments:
  • breakthrougblog.ca, written by Beverley Hammond, provides insights into ideas and campaigns that break through the clutter
  • com.motionblog.ca, written by Keith McArthur, covers the social media marketing landscape
  • glossblog.ca, written by members of Veritas’ marketing PR team, zeros in on marketing to the 22-to-30 year old female consumer
  • mededblog.ca, written by David Airdrie, focuses on communications in health care sector and the specialized services offered by Veritas’ IHC division

quotes

From Keith McArthur, Principal of com.motion and Senior Director of Media Innovation at Veritas Communications:
“It is astounding that one in two executives say social media is becoming even more important than television. TV advertising is still where marketers spend most of their money, while social media represents a tiny sliver of the budget. It’s clear that’s going to change.”

From Robert Hutton, Executive Vice-President & General Manager at Pollara Strategic Insights:
“Canadian marketers appear to understand that social media represents a ground-shifting communications opportunity, but many are unsure how to proceed. This is an evolving medium with an evolving set of rules, but marketers who watch from the sidelines will be left behind.”

From Beverley Hammond, president of Veritas Communications:
“Our clients are telling us loud and clear that this is somewhere they need to be in 2008. We are launching com.motion to provide brands and organizations with the support they need in this evolving medium. Veritas is committed to being a leader in social media marketing.”

48% of internet users have been to video-sharing sites such as YouTube and the daily traffic to such sites on a typical day has doubled in the past year. The basic findings in a national phone survey that ended in December show:

By JEFFREY R. YOUNG

Forget Lonelygirl15, YouTube’s 2006 online video phenom. Professors are the latest YouTube stars. The popularity of their appearances on YouTube and other video-sharing sites may end up opening up the classroom and making teaching—which once took place behind closed doors—a more public art.

What’s more, Web video opens a new form of public intellectualism to scholars looking to participate in an increasingly visual culture.

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