YouTube Marketing - Brand-focused videos

Viral videos in this sense — videos that seem authentic, but aren’t — may be too time-consuming or difficult for what you need to accomplish. But this doesn’t mean you can’t still use YouTube to create and curate more brand-focused videos that have the potential to drive business for your company or brand. A good example of the potential of more straightforward, brand-focused videos is seen in Old Spice’s recent campaign featuring the Old Spice Man. The Old Spice Man is a character from a wildly popular pair of Old Spice ads. He is over-the-top manly, amazing at everything and funny. Recently, the Old Spice channel on YouTube asked viewers to submit questions to the Old Spice Man. Some of the selected questions were then answered by an in-character Old Spice Man. The campaign was an astounding success. Immediately after it ended, the channel became the most viewed channel on YouTube, and the third-most subscribed YouTube channel of all time. Here are some pointers to keep in mind when trying to replicate the success of these brand-focused videos:


1. Make it very engaging. The Old Spice Man’s responses lack any special effects but are all strongly written and well-acted by Isaiah Mustafa. And the jokes are so rapidfire they encourage viewers to rewatch the videos to catch all of them. The lesson here is to keep your videos short, dense and, if possible, funny.


2. Make sure your video has important content. If comedy is not your strong suit, or your product or service is not something that lends itself to comedy, informative how to videos can be just as effective. The Internet is seen as a give-and-take medium, and viewers demand more than just an unfiltered sales pitch from advertisers.


3. Make it interactive. Another factor in the success of the Old Spice campaign is that the Old Spice Man is responding to viewers. Even if you are not as popular as Isaiah Mustafa, the ability to engage with customers’ concerns in video form shows that you care. Amazon did a good job of this when they provided a video explaining why they acquired Zappos.


4. Work across platforms. The Old Spice Man answers questions from Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Reddit and more. By drawing attention to and encouraging viewers to use the different platforms, you encourage consumers to get more deeply involved with your brand or company. Respond to a question from Twitter on YouTube, for instance. Consumers will appreciate that you put a human face behind the response.


5. Make it professional. Don’t sink a lot of money into it, but since these videos are seen as messages from your company, make sure they look and sound good. Hire a professional videographer if you have to. You don’t want people’s first thought when they think of your company to be “shoddy.”

Source of Information :  Website Magazine October 2010

YouTube Marketing - Brand-focused videos