"How
YouTube could turn your 'Achilles' Heel' into a positive and probably
bridge your relationship with traditional media in the process!" (and hurry because Twitter might beat you to it as well!)
(Based on my new suggested advertising model - 'SENSATION MEDIA' - as highlighted by Britain's Got Talent's Susan Boyle this weekend!)
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On the basis that I have a ring-fenced business model which we are developing, that I believe will in execution reward any objective insights I might have on subjects outside that scope, I feel compelled once again to profer an opinion on yet another seemingly obvious missed opportunity. I have geared this towards Google, because you are currently in the best place to make the changes and I suspect the timing could be most relevant.
To explain the thought process I have focused on one specific example as follows:
Like roughly 15 or 20 million other people in the UK this Saturday, I was watching Simon Cowell's 'Britain's Got Talent' with the family and though typically I usually also have half an eye on my Facebook, Outlook (sorry!) and the FT, I did catch the introduction of a woman called Susan Boyle, who at the age of 47 and looking like one of those pre-makeover disaster cases, seemed likely to fall pretty flat. The moment she sang however, the word 'sensation' sprung to mind and the panel confirmed it was one of the biggest surprises the show had yet produced! (VIDEO HERE!)
Later the next day, I duly updated my Twitter and FB status to a You Tube recording of her performance and at that stage she had already had 830,000 views. As at today that same version has had just shy of 5,500,000 views and probably 25,000,000 in all, taking into account other uploads!
I'd now like to point out that none of those 25,000,000 people, who were likely in a positive, happy and optimistic frame of mind, were shown an advert of any sort. Sure we'd all be irritated by anything that interrupted our pleasure directly, but I would have been very receptive to any brand association that was apparent within the window. Nokia's music phone, iPhone's, Android...whatever! But NOTHING? That just seems crazy to my unencumbered and objective mind!
In my humble opinion, your own Achille's Heal is your ability to own valuable quality relationships with the big chip advertisers/ brands who rely on style, elegance and exclusivity...and here it is staring you in the face! I call it 'Sensation Media' and you could so own it as a new genre of ad model. You have the mechanisms in place to react instantly if a video (or any media sensation) is taking off and if you do it right, you could also work with the networks and content providers, newspapers etc. to mutual advantage. If it were me, I'd do a deal with them to share ad revenues around particular examples like this one so as to encourage pre-airing (or pre-print in the case of a news item) notification to give you time to offer it out as a 'Sensation' opportunity to advertisers in advance. You could even sell the mutual opportunity jointly and turn your enemies into partners! All this also before you face increasing pressure from networks on copyright issues.
Susan Boyle will now inevitably be famous (and soon be profiled on www.famebook.com of course) and the moment of her discovery could be owned by one or a few brands, who would have paid handsomely to capture that privilege. The fact that you weren't 'on it' just seems like ripping up dollar bills to me, and in the face of claims that You Tube is a drain on your finances, this is surely just plain wrong! How many opportunities have gone the same way over the past couple of years? (I would strongly advise against adding them up, because you could have solved the world's economic crisis with the money lost, I suspect!)
It would cost you a tidy penny, but if you want me to come and sort this out, just let me know! I might even tell you some of the other ideas I've got!
Yours respectfully,
Jan
© 2009 Jan Simmonds
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