by: David Wigder
According to Jupiter Research, more than 20% of online users in the US regularly view videos online today. This segment is growing rapidly, driven by the adoption of broadband and emergence of video sharing sites such as Grouper, Veoh, vSocial, and YouTube, recently acquired by Google.
Marketers are taking note. Once the domain for sharing consumer-generated content, such sites are increasingly being seeded with professional content including movie trailers, TV commercials and news stories.
For green marketers, video sharing offers a powerful new channel to reach consumers and promote their message. Specifically, video sharing enables marketers to:
- Engage consumers through compelling, multimedia experiences
- Facilitate word-of-mouth marketing efforts
- Attract highly influential online users they can leverage as brand advocates. In fact, 28% of users that view online videos regularly “ranked themselves as the first person people come to for recommendations about TV and movies, compared with 12 percent of all online consumers” according to Jupiter Research (Online Video Search, 11/06)
To assess the state of green video sharing, Marketing Green recently surveyed YouTube’s top “green” videos (based on number of views). Here is what we found:
- Green marketers are experimenting with online video, though with varying degrees of success. Green videos can be categorized as either pro-environment or anti-environment. They are being produced by an array of organizations - including Hollywood film studios, non-profits and news agencies – as well as independent filmmakers. Somewhat surprisingly, no product companies made the top list, though a quick search yields content from eco-friendly campaigns by GE and Toyota.
- Overall, the most popular videos had a mix of entertainment and celebrity appeal. Moreover, most top-viewed videos were distributed to support more extensive, multi-channel marketing effort – say to promote Al Gore’s movie or TBS’s Earth to America! comedy, rather than produced as stand alone content in of themselves.
- Only three videos, all directly related to An Inconvenient Truth, have been seen by more than 100K viewers* to date. This is significant because it says that most environmentally related videos appeal to niche audiences that perhaps have high pre-existing levels of awareness and understanding of these issues.
Top 10 Pro-Environment Videos on YouTube Video Title Global warming Paramount Futurama Al Gore 1,287,858 Movie trailer Paramount Al Gore 659,940 Global warming “Earth to 137,710 Protect ANWAR NRDC Robert Redford 106,910 Hydrogen-powered vehicles Fox News NA 102,968 Global warming Independent Film Maker, WordofMouth NA 56,619 Global warming Health Politics.org NA 43,248 Global warming “Earth to Blue Man Group 42,359 Global warming TheDaily Background. com NA 34,984 Anti-gas guzzler Greenpeace NA 32,448** Top 5 Anti-Environment Videos on YouTube Video Title An Inconvenient Truth Parody Anonymous NA 471,871 Refutes Global Warming Competitive Enterprise Institute NA 105,042 Refutes Global Warming Competitive Enterprise Institute NA 43,849 Refutes Global Warming NA 41,705 Anti-Al Gore Competitive Enterprise Institute NA 30,177 Jupiter Research reports that the top three ways for video users to “discover” videos include recommendations from friends, search engine results, TV/movie preview or trailer and directly from online video sites. For green marketers to have significant impact, they must leverage these tactics in order to appeal to a mass audience. (Programming for Three Screens, 12/06). Tactics for green marketers to consider: Yet, serious documentaries can play to broader audiences but may require celebrities that leverage the affinity of the actor to legitimize the cause and broaden its appeal to do so. Two examples include Al Gore and Robert Redford, the latter paring up with the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) in a video that promotes saving the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from drilling. News articles may be more challenged to generate broad appeal, not by the nature of the content, but rather by its apparent lack of exclusivity which may diffuse the audience base across multiple channels. *Interestingly, the top anti-environmental video, “Al Gore’s Penguin Army”, was released by DCI Group, a PR agency, while the producer and financial backers remain anonymous. ** Listed twice. Other listing has 25,733 views. Original Post: http://marketinggreen.wordpress.com/2006/12/26/video-sharing/
Topic
Source
Celebrity
Views
“A Terrifying Message from Al Gore”
America”, TBSWill Ferrell
America”, TBS
“Greenpeace anti-SUV Commercial”
Topic
Source
Celebrity
Views
Individual
“Al Gore: An Inconvenient Story”
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