49 e-Branding 3: YouTube

49

E-BRANDING 3: YOUTUBE

Even the BBC put their own trailers on YouTube, despite having their own channels and the BBC iPlayer. YouTube is an Internet resource where everyone can upload their own short fi lms. If they are good, they can go viral. Meaning that people will send links to their friends urging them to watch, or post them on their Facebook pages, Twitter or other social media sites. It’s a way to get your brand seen by people who don’t usually watch television.

YouTube is now one of the world’s biggest search engines. If you aren’t there then you are missing an opportunity to be found and watched by millions of people.

The idea If you have something to say about your brand, you can fi lm it and upload it. If it’s good, then it will be forwarded; if it’s not that interesting it will fade away. There’s a difference between buzz and hype; buzz is when people start to chat about your brand because they think it’s worthwhile – because it’s entertaining, amusing, useful, interesting or all those things. Hype is when you push too hard.

You can use YouTube to upload all your old advertisements, including the ones that were never released. Ford’s banned SportKa “Evil Twin” ads did the rounds as people recommended them to their friends. Don’t show them to animal lovers. They’re not real,

but they are quite evil. They were successful because they were very funny, in a twisted kind of way.

In practice • Take a look at YouTube’s top fi lms to see what captures the imagination. Read the comments for the short clip to get a better idea. • Look at what your competitors do. Then consider what you can upload to help build your brand identity. • You can build your own YouTube channel, and brand it with your own colours, then host your own fi lms there for your customers to see.