book, Online Video

Why Marketers & YouTubers Need a Translator

13 Comments

Marketers and their agencies really shouldn’t talk directly to YouTube “stars.” I say that with some authority, since I’m both a product director and a guy who’s crappy videos have been seen 65 million times. You see, the marketer in me is decisive, impatient, driven to move sales and “target” customers. The creator in me is sensitive, procrastinating, egoistic and temperamental.

My sister, a news producer, lived in NYC and California, and refers to the rest of the country as “fly by states.” Indeed, the impatient Madison Avenue and expressive Hollywood are coasts apart, and that’s perhaps out of necessity.

bar-fight

This Great Divide is punctuated by a comment on a recent Fast Company article, titled “Move over Simon Cowell. Make way for Nalts and P0YKPAC” (and we all know this WVFF post is just an excuse to reference that headline). Said the comment by Janet Coldini:

I couldn’t disagree more. I work for a very large, successful media company that has executed 30-plus campaigns (across multiple brand categories) using YouTube talent like the ones described in your post. I can assure you that what we learned is very simple and straight-forward: YouTube celebs can attract people to watch their videos, but they can not deliver against a well-defined set of business objectives. Why? Because these YouTubers are self-absorbed amateurs grappling for 15-minutes of fame. They were inconsistent, expensive and difficult to work with. Worst of all, none of our campaign goals were achieved because the audiences were mostly generated by “bots” – maybe that’s what they call “views” in their world.

Janet’s story isn’t unique, and indeed many YouTube “weblebrities” are sudden (and temporary) pop icons, and can hardly make it to Blockbsusters on time for their shift, much less deliver for a corporate “branded entertainment” assignment. Some can attract a crowd (so can a a loud bipolar person in the park), but can’t find the delicate balance between entertainment and promotion. The result is a crappy cable-tv looking advertisement, or an entertaining video that doesn’t increase awareness, intent or purchase. Yet the vitality of sponsored videos is dependent on the balance, otherwise nobody wins.
As a marketer I know that it’s not scalable for brands/agencies to work individually with YouTube stars. As marketers awaken to online-video “stars” influence and reach, we’ll see more sponsored videos. That’s one of the reasons why, despite doing a lot of direct work for brands, I like working through Hitviews. Brokering between brands and YouTube stars is tough to do well even when it’s a company’s sole focus, and if there are other companies like Hitviews I’m not aware of them.

I am not aware of any credible YouTuber partners using “bots” to drive views  (which is hard to do, and would certainly breach their contract with Google). But I do think Janet’s experience has some merit, and I believe a value-adding intermediary is vital. Someone has to translate the brand objectives into terms that captivate the creator, and keep them focused. More importantly, someone has to know whose side to take when there’s a conflict. If the “star” is being ridiculous, then they need to be told so diplomatically. In other cases, the client may have an unrealistic sense of how promotional the videos should be.

There are so many critical factors to make this work — find the right talent, handling them appropriately, brokering edits — that it’s a specialty skillset that will grow in criticality as the medium matures.

13 thoughts on “Why Marketers & YouTubers Need a Translator”

  1. You’re just describing your dream job, is all.

    I remember the “viral video broker” piece you did a couple years ago. Quite funny, have you forgottent that? Why didn’t you reference it here?

    My goal in life is never to be mentioned in the same headline as Simon Cowell. So far, so good.

  2. Kevin, I couldn’t help but notice you wore two different socks yesterday. Bah hahaha. Victory is mine!

    Ok. Back to “Don’t break the ice” with Charlie.

  3. “Because these YouTubers are self-absorbed amateurs grappling for 15-minutes of fame. They were inconsistent, expensive and difficult to work with. Worst of all, none of our campaign goals were achieved because the audiences were mostly generated by “bots” – maybe that’s what they call “views” in their world.”

    Whenever I read stuff like this I’m always reminded of this little ditty.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqhreQQ4glA
    en español http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi86n9fV7Fc

    That said, she’s probably correct, but it also tells me her outfit doesn’t have a very good vetting system , which as a potential client says the organization she works for isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, not very professional, nor up on trends. This is just fear coddled by old media ways of thinking.

    So, in regards to your last point “When you find a gem, ask them for others.”

    There’s a new headache, I mean profession that needs creating, a Marketing Agents Agent. Which BTW I’m happy and willing to vet and consult.

  4. Nalts: I’d like your opinion on a YouTube Partner I’ve had my eye on. No videos over 92,000 views… 41,000 subscribers. Yesterday it was 39,000 subscribers. He has no videos blowing up. No features. This happens now for more than a week. Where are these subs coming from? He’s cracked the most-subscribed Directors list (#89 today), and methinks he did it with Shennanigans:

    http://www.youtube.com/keeptheheat

  6. ^ were we just sideswiped with a blog commercial?

    Hey Kevin Peter tells me Yahoo is scraping Geocities . Took them 10 years and more than $4.7 billion to kill it.

    Think this is where You Tube User Content is headed?

    back up people!

  10. Didn’t read it…I tend to develop a stint of narcolepsy whenever one of your blogs is longer than 3 sentences so instead I just wanted to say hi to all my peeps!

    =)

  11. I actually read the whole thing. I don’t know why. Not that it wasn’t entertaining and informative, but that is not us commenters’ job to read the posts. Commenters need to unionize. We need representation.

  13. Decisive, impatient, driven to move sales and target customers?

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

    Like you could ever be decisive.

Comments are closed.