Just watched a re-run of Oprah on satellite.... YouTube Special!
She invited Tyson the skateboardin dog, who's owner posted a video of him skateboarding on Youtube, which is one of the most widely viewed videos on the website.
Yup, it got a section on Oprah, the most widely watched US daytime talk show EVER. Goldmine! Well done pooch.
AND NOW OPRAH HAS A YOUTUBE CHANNEL!
with videos selected to promote her show.
check it out.
Wednesday 26 December 2007
Saturday 22 December 2007
YouTube - The Cameron Case
Last April, YouTube announced it would begin new promotional services for two established media companies. Their reasoning behind this venture was to "establish its popular video-sharing service as a legitimate ad vehicle." Almost two years on and we can see how promoting products, people and services via YouTube as part of a campaign can give you quality media coverage.
Whenever a video becomes popular on YouTube it almost always gets mentions in various online and print media, whether it is from a politician's news desk or a wannabe hollywood gossip giant's bedroom.
We all remember the David Cameron YouTube fiasco:
Tory leader Cameron set up WebCameron project, a website of video blogs of him talking about key political issues and interviewing guest speakers (which now has its own YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/webcameronuk). His first video blog showed him washing up dishes in a noisy household while talking about what he wished to achieve with this new form of political broadcasting,
"I want to tell you what the Conservative party is doing, what we're up to, give you behind-the-scenes access so you can actually see what policies we're developing, the things that we are doing, and have that direct link ... watch out BBC, ITV, Channel 4, we're the new competition. We're a bit shaky and wobbly, but this is one of the ways we want to communicate with people properly about what the Conservative party stands for."
(http://politics.guardian.co.uk/conservatives/story/0,,1884396,00.html)
In response, Labour MP Sion Simon (Birmingham Erdington) created a spoof video mimicking Cameron and posted it on YouTube. The one minute video clip shows Simon referring to himself as "Dave" and donning a basebal cap. He looks at the camera and announces
"Yo. My name’s Dave, yeah? Thing is, I’m just like you. I’ve got the same worries, the same troubles, the same cares, the same trouble and strife.
"Want to sleep with my wife? That’s cool. Come down, check it out, we’ll sort it out. Safe."
"I’ve got two kids - kid one, kid two. You like them? Take one - that’s cool."
The video was posted by Tom Watson, a West Bromwich MP who posts under the name "Baggymp".
The video sparked political outrage and soon the story was plastered all over the web and print. By publicising the video, the media indirectly herded more and more people towards seeing the short video. It became an online phenomenon, a vessel for politicians to reach the people on an informal front.
Early this year, Blair created a YouTube channel "LabourVision" in an attempt to catch up with his rivals (Catch it at www.youtube.com/labourvision). His first video showed a rather uncomfortable Blair sitting in front of a dank purple backdrop stating:
"The purpose of coming into the YouTube channel is to enable you to hear unmediated, fresh, first-hand, what it is we are about,"
While their videos are watched by the press and commented on on occasion,
Whenever a video becomes popular on YouTube it almost always gets mentions in various online and print media, whether it is from a politician's news desk or a wannabe hollywood gossip giant's bedroom.
We all remember the David Cameron YouTube fiasco:
Tory leader Cameron set up WebCameron project, a website of video blogs of him talking about key political issues and interviewing guest speakers (which now has its own YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/webcameronuk). His first video blog showed him washing up dishes in a noisy household while talking about what he wished to achieve with this new form of political broadcasting,
"I want to tell you what the Conservative party is doing, what we're up to, give you behind-the-scenes access so you can actually see what policies we're developing, the things that we are doing, and have that direct link ... watch out BBC, ITV, Channel 4, we're the new competition. We're a bit shaky and wobbly, but this is one of the ways we want to communicate with people properly about what the Conservative party stands for."
(http://politics.guardian.co.uk/conservatives/story/0,,1884396,00.html)
In response, Labour MP Sion Simon (Birmingham Erdington) created a spoof video mimicking Cameron and posted it on YouTube. The one minute video clip shows Simon referring to himself as "Dave" and donning a basebal cap. He looks at the camera and announces
"Yo. My name’s Dave, yeah? Thing is, I’m just like you. I’ve got the same worries, the same troubles, the same cares, the same trouble and strife.
"Want to sleep with my wife? That’s cool. Come down, check it out, we’ll sort it out. Safe."
"I’ve got two kids - kid one, kid two. You like them? Take one - that’s cool."
The video was posted by Tom Watson, a West Bromwich MP who posts under the name "Baggymp".
The video sparked political outrage and soon the story was plastered all over the web and print. By publicising the video, the media indirectly herded more and more people towards seeing the short video. It became an online phenomenon, a vessel for politicians to reach the people on an informal front.
Early this year, Blair created a YouTube channel "LabourVision" in an attempt to catch up with his rivals (Catch it at www.youtube.com/labourvision). His first video showed a rather uncomfortable Blair sitting in front of a dank purple backdrop stating:
"The purpose of coming into the YouTube channel is to enable you to hear unmediated, fresh, first-hand, what it is we are about,"
While their videos are watched by the press and commented on on occasion,
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2057126,00.html
- http://video.aol.com/video-detail/tony-blair-labourvision-interview-life-as-pm-child-poverty/849626412 etc.
It is still developing itself into a powerful communicating tool, with its latest video of a Gordon Brown interview stacking up 15,000 views.
Tuesday 18 December 2007
The politics of YouTube?
So it seems that YouTube has created a new section of its website for the 2008 USA elections. Titled "YouChoose '08", the page has videos of 15 presidential candidates.
Candidate No. of videos Average views on YouTube per day
Edwards 20 1,641
Obama 20 359
Clinton 20 2,442
(http://www.online-pr.com/Holding/YouTube_PR.pdf)
All videos were created by press officials for each individual and uploaded accordingly.All of the candidates' videos show clips of news events and speeches, however, Clinton's shows video of a publicity stunt which seems to be the most popular video. In total the videos were seen:
Clinton, 1.2 million times
Obama, 39,000
Edwards, 328,000.
Does this show any indication in the individuals' popularity?
By utlising YouTube, the press officers for each campaign were able to get their message seen by hundreds of thousands of people for no costs whatsoever.
On Another note, a film makin fun of Al Gore, thought to have been made by an amateur filmmaker, has recently become a incredibly popular. It depicts a fat Al Gore boring an army of penguins about Global Warming, in fact he blames EVERYTHING on the environmental threat. It currently has over half a million views and has been favourited 633 times. Most people believed it was created by an anti-Gore average Joe, however, when the Wall Street Journal tried to located the "29 year old" user, "toutsmith" they found out that the movie wasn't created by an amateur at all, in fact it was created by a Republican public relations firm called DCI (whose clients include oil giant Exxon) as part of a smear campaign.
You Tube and Self Promotion?
YouTube is an online video sharing website where users can upload any kind of (non offensive) video content which is then streamed online and can be viewed by millions. Currently, it is an important tool in numerous new media marketing, a trend that is appearing in more and more PR campaigns.
Record labels, politicians, film studios and even private individuals upload films and videos to promote their own cause or products. It's free, accessible and extremely popular, what's there to lose? In August 2006, The Wall Street Journal reaveled that YouTube was hosting about 6.1 million videos online.
While film studios often upload trailers of new upcoming films and record labels show music videos of all their artists, it is the constant Self-Promotion of private individuals that shows the true power of YouTube PR. This year, Dutch singer/songwriter Esmee Denters (Youtube name: Esmeedenter) got signed by Billy Mann based on her YouTube videos of her singing (filmed by herself). Terra Naomi (terranaomi) also uploaded personal videos of her singing and was approached by Universal Music group. Gone are the days of sitting in front of your cassette player singing your heart out, sticking the tape in an envelop and sendin it off to any record label you think may sign you. All you need to do to promote your talent now a days is to film yourself, stick it on YouTube and show the world what you can do. What comes off quite sweet is that if you really are talented, more and more people comment on your video and rate it. The more comments and ratings you have the higher up your film gets on YouTube searches. Thus, true talent has a chance to shine through into your lap. Talent scouts need look no further than YouTube!
Record labels, politicians, film studios and even private individuals upload films and videos to promote their own cause or products. It's free, accessible and extremely popular, what's there to lose? In August 2006, The Wall Street Journal reaveled that YouTube was hosting about 6.1 million videos online.
While film studios often upload trailers of new upcoming films and record labels show music videos of all their artists, it is the constant Self-Promotion of private individuals that shows the true power of YouTube PR. This year, Dutch singer/songwriter Esmee Denters (Youtube name: Esmeedenter) got signed by Billy Mann based on her YouTube videos of her singing (filmed by herself). Terra Naomi (terranaomi) also uploaded personal videos of her singing and was approached by Universal Music group. Gone are the days of sitting in front of your cassette player singing your heart out, sticking the tape in an envelop and sendin it off to any record label you think may sign you. All you need to do to promote your talent now a days is to film yourself, stick it on YouTube and show the world what you can do. What comes off quite sweet is that if you really are talented, more and more people comment on your video and rate it. The more comments and ratings you have the higher up your film gets on YouTube searches. Thus, true talent has a chance to shine through into your lap. Talent scouts need look no further than YouTube!
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