Ewom Marketing

Since YouTube officially launched in December 2005, it has attracted users at a meteoric rate. YouTube receives 71 million unique users each month and has the 6th largest audience on the Internet. No longer is Online Video the future, it's the present: 75% of Americans watched a video online last month. With YouTube usage still high, Google have been working hard to increase the advertising opportunities and trying to increase the overall experience of the site. Therefore this month has resulted in YouTube unveiling a host of new advertising methods for advertisers:

YouTube Live:
It was only a matter of time before YouTube introduced live streaming/webcasting and on November 22nd YouTube hosted its first ever live event, the event featured a range of performers whose videos on YouTube had gain more then 2.5 million views each. With this being the first of many live events YouTube has in store, how long before sponsorship opportunity for these live events becomes an option?

YouTube Adsense:
When searching the site users will now be greeted with video advertisements similar to those produced by Google AdSense. YouTube searches now produce "sponsored links" on the right side of the screen alongside unpaid results on the left.

Increase of Professional Content:
YouTube announced a deal with MGM studio's to show full-length television shows on the site. Where this will bring a lot of money in for YouTube is that advertisers will be trying to outbid each other for the advertising space next to these videos. Through increasing the amount of professional content on the site, they are aiming to increase the amount of advertising by double. YouTube has struck similar deals with CBS and Lionsgate, so one would presume YouTube advertising isn’t as popular as Google had hoped and sees this as a way to increase this. When YouTube first launched its Advertising schemes advertisers were reluctant to use this channel due to a concern regarding the site consists mostly of amateur videos, and companies didn’t want to risk damaging their brand by being associated with these.

YouTube Overlay ads:
YouTube will also now begin running overlay ads in YouTube partner videos that live on other sites. This means that no matter where a YouTube video is embedded, it can contain an ad and earn revenue for YouTube partners.

YouTube sponsored videos:
YouTube Sponsored Videos allows anyone to promote their videos on the search results page. Bidding on specific keywords will promote your video to the right-hand side of YouTube’s search results along with an image and some text. Again similar to Google Adwords. By being able to target YouTube videos, advertisers will be able to give the most visibility to their videos.
According to YouTube this was launched due to requests of businesses. Of course one would presume that due to YouTube being ranked as one of the top five search engines this had a great deal to do with this. But it seems that this no longer is the case as its hard to find a video that doesn’t have a sponsored link on the right hand side.

Size does matter:
YouTube Today also announced another change – the size of their video player. They have expanded the width of the page to 960 pixels to increase the quality of the videos. A new wider player is in a widescreen aspect ratio which is hoped to provide a more powerful viewing experience.

For more information on YouTube advertising check out this link, http://uk.youtube.com/t/advertising Also please note that only some of the YouTube Advertising channels are currently only available in the U.S.A.

Making people take note of Direct mail advertising has become a bigger chanllenge then ever! Most people screw it up as soon as they set eyes on it! But Mercedes Benz (UK) have saved them that job. Mercedes Benz has created a new direct mail campaign in the form of a scrunched up paper ball.

The new insert is targeted at garages and mechanics, encouraging them to use only Mercedes parts to repair customers' vehicles.The insert arrives in foil, and can be straightened out, to reveal the strapline:

Facebook Pages:
This capability is for companies trying to create a brand image inside Facebook. Obtaining a Page is free and it is great for businesses such as: bars, pubs, music artists, and sports teams. It allows businesses to connect with customers on Facebook similar to the way users connect with their friends. Through a Facebook Page, users can show their support by becoming a fan, writing on your Wall, and other actions that automatically generate News Feed stories. Once joined advertisers can send updates to fans such as special news or offers. You can also link the page to your Facebook social ads.

When your fans interact with your Facebook Page, the actions they take are automatically generated into social stories. These stories are published to News Feed, which friends may see the next time they log into Facebook. The stories link back to your Facebook Page, inviting more people to interact with it, which generates more social stories and drives even more traffic to your Page. Viral marketing at its best!

Facebook social ads:
Facebook Social Ads allow your business to become part of people's daily conversations. Ads can be displayed in the left hand Ad Space, visible to users as they browse Facebook to connect with their friends, as well as in the context of news feed attached to relevant social stories. The social stories, such as a friend's becoming a fan of your Facebook page or a friend's taking an action on your website, make your ad more interesting and more relevant. Social Ads are placed in highly visible parts of the site without interrupting the user experience on Facebook.

Facebook Beacon:
This function allows customers to share with their friends the actions they take on your website. For user actions you define, Facebook Beacon will publish a story in the user's profile and to friends' news feeds with a link back to your site. Facebook Beacon actions include purchasing a product, signing up for a service, adding an item to a wish list, and more. When a user performs the action, they will be alerted that your website is sending a story to their profile. Facebook Beacon enables your brand or business to gain access to viral distribution within Facebook. Stories of a user's engagement with your site maybe displayed in his or her profile and in news feed. These stories will act as a word of mouth promotion for your business and may be seen by friends who are also likely to be interested in your product.

Facebook Platform:
Facebook Platform provides you with the tools to quickly create custom experiences for users to interact with your business and their friends while maintaining the look and feel of the Facebook interface. you can create an authentic social experience for your users by integrating your current web site or web application directly with the Facebook Platform or sponsoring an existing application. You can also integrate mobile and desktop applications with the Facebook API. Facebook Pages enable you to easily create a custom business presence on Facebook, and you can further customize the experience with a Facebook Application. You can create an application to engage even more with your users or leverage one of the thousands of compelling existing applications. Facebook Platform makes it easy to authentically connect with your customers.

Facebook Polls:
Tens of millions of people express themselves authentically on Facebook, you can accurately target your Polls by gender, age, location, interests, and other demographic data. Your poll will only be shown to the people who meet the criteria you set.

With the easy to use creation interface, you can create and deploy a single question poll within minutes. The polls will immediately start showing up in your target audience's news feeds where they can respond as soon as they log in to Facebook. Based on the level of activity at that time, your question could be answered by hundreds of people in as little as 30 minutes. The detailed results are broken down by age group and gender.

Facebook Insights:
Of course with all these types of advertising advertisers need a way of measuring the success. Therefore Facebook’s offers an Insights package that allows social ad users and pages users to see metric data, including different activities such as how many people viewed videos and photos, the fan demographics, ad performance, trends and more.

In my last blog I spoke about how Google was dominating the internet search industry, and how Yahoo was struggling to keep up! Well rumors have it that Google and Yahoo are now in the final stages of signing a deal that will combine both their search advertising programs. The partnership will enable Yahoo to show adverts that are supplied by Google alongside its own search results and on some of its other websites.

With Microsoft keep trying to get its hands on Yahoo, with offer after offer, which led to share holders putting pressure on Yahoo executives and Yahoo turning down Microsoft time after time. If Yahoo’s deal with Google does go through, is it purely to get revenge at Microsoft? Well Microsoft, have both claimed that Yahoo! was pursuing a partnership with Google as a "poison pill" to block Microsoft's advances, with many in the internet industry also sharing this opinion. As a Yahoo share holder, I would much rather see Yahoo have a partnership with Google then Microsoft, just look at Google stock compared to Microsoft!

Microsoft’s latest offer was to pay more than $7bn (£3.6bn) for a 16% stake in Yahoo as well as taking over its search business. Yahoo turned this offer down due to wanting to retain its search business, which they considers important to its strategic direction.