YOUTUBERS: A NEW WAY TO TARGET THE RIGHT COSTUMERS

YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, trailing only Google.
There are over two billion videos streamed every day. When the three former
employees of PayPal registered on February 15 of 2005, the domain
Youtube.com, the never imagined that 10 years later this platform would be
the most used in the world and that its creation would change the lives of
thousands of people.
Background
On 2005, in the middle of a dinner party, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed
Karim came with the idea of create a platform where the people could share
videos of their special moments. The website was developed month by month
and it only took 6 months to be released to the public. It was so popular, that
one year latter Google, one of the biggest companies in the world, paid $1.650
millions, after failing in the creation of a similar platform. And with just a few
months of being lunched, the website reach around 50 millions of daily visits.
The growth of the company was fast, but the question that was on the minds
of every one was how the search giant would make money from its video site?
The solution came in August of 2007, when the company started showing
advertising banners in the bottom of the screens.
Over the years, Google has realized that using the platform to promote small
and large companies would bring great benefits, which is why it has adapted to
reach all corners of the world and has made several researches to find out
about the true impact they can have on the marketing world. In some of their
explorations, they found that not only banners and advertising campaigns can
influence the behavior of people, but also members of the community can do
great things with the simple use of a camera.

Using YouTube to market business

Cost-per-view (CPV) is one strategy that Google is using to attract business.
The objective of this tactic is that each company set the price they will pay for
theit AdWords video ads. Business can set the max CPV bid when setting up
their campaigns as they select their targeting groups. They can select a default
max CPV bid for all ads associated with a targeting group, or define an
individual CPV bid per every TrueView video ad format (which means that the
viewer had the possibility to skip the advertisement after five seconds). The
more targeted the audience, the country they are targeting, and the view rate,
are some of the factors that affect the CPV cost.
With this strategy present, YouTube is reaching more acceptance between
companies as it lets businesses show their products in action to the customers
before they buy them, which means that the people that use the products after
seen the videos, are the ideal costumers, those ones that really will bring
benefits. This is particularly useful for companies with limited physical
distribution channels, including those who mostly sell over the Internet. Also
because it works as a powerful tool to share and engage with customers,
because the platform gives them the possibility to share directly with each
company, their doubts, concerns, and opinions that can add more value to the
brand.
Some businesses use YouTube to provide solutions for their customers.

video can be a great way to address a frequently asked question or help

troubleshoot common problems with the product. It is better explain to the
customers how to deal with an issue and showing them precisely the steps
they have to follow, rather than letting the market do it for the company and
criticize the product in the process.
A study from Boston-based content-sharing Shareaholic, shows YouTube
potential impact in the difficult task of engage new and maintain old
costumers:

YT drives the most engaged traffic. These referrals have the lowest average
bounce rate (43.19%), the highest pages per visit (2.99) and the longest
visit duration (227.82 seconds). Why are visitors from YouTube so
engaged? Because viewers are likely to maintain a similar level of
engagement with related content. Therefore, video watchers are especially
receptive to links within video descriptions, which complement the
audiovisual content they just consumed. Another reason YouTube takes
home the crown is because viewers are simply used to spending minutes
perhaps, hours educating and entertaining themselves with awesome
video and may have fewer qualms about taking extra time to discover more
great content post-click.
Source:

https://blog.shareaholic.com/social-media-traffic-engagement-03-

2014/

A great advantage can also be that the videos of the business can appear at
the top of the search engines, which means that people who don't even know
about a product, yet can go directly to an specific company that can satisfy
their desires and wants.

The rise of YouTube vloggers

The expression vlogger is an association between the word video and blogger.
A vlogger, also kwon as YouTuber, is a person who uses videos as their
vlogging platform, using images and sound instead of text to provide their
reviews on a certain subject. Since the rise of their popularity in 2005 many
corporations are taking up vlogging to drive customers to their site or increase
sales.
The existing vloggers can work like celebrity endorsers, consumers trust on
their opinion when they give attention to the products. If a brand feels like it
could benefit from a social boost, a vlogger can give this. For this to work well,
the type of followers the vlogger has on their social accounts needs to be
suitable for the brand. Which means that, if the vlogger has amazing figures
(some with over 1 million Twitter followers), a social buzz around the brand
would increase engagement.
A clear illustration of this is Zoella Sugg. The
content of her videos ranging from makeup and
hair tutorials, to tips for overcoming panic attacks
and anxiety. She is so appreciated between her
fans that in a 10 minutes video, se can garnered
more

tan

million

views.

The

7.6

million

subscribers on YouTube, 3.08 millions followers in Twitter, 4 millions on

Instagram and 2.1 millions likes on Facebook, just show that Sugg can deliver
an audience far beyond what brands can hope to expect from their own viral
videos.
Although, because vloggers will give the brand a human face; it makes it more
relatable for the consumer. It feels more personal to them and will make it
easier for them to move to a purchase. They feel like they are buying from an
individual not for a business.

Another way of creating content is to invite vloggers to experience the brand in

a exchange for a brand featured video blog. For example, the UK branch of
Kelloggs Krave cereal look for those YouTubers that can help them create cool
content to their audiences. One of the YouTubers invited was Carry Fletch, a
well know UK vlogger and sister of Tom Fletcher, a member of one the biggest
bands in UK, McBusted.
The idea of the challenge was that Kelloggs ships a Krave Challenge kit to
some popular YouTubers. Each challenge
was funny, ridiculous and personalized
appealing to a particular interest or talent
of

the

YouTuber. After

completing

the

challenge on video, each YouTuber invites

his or her audience to complete a similar
challenge and tweet about it for a chance
to win various prizes. The YouTuber tags a friend who is also doing a Krave
Challenge, so the audience can find more hilarious Krave content.
Additionally, Vloggers can also put a link to the corporate website in the
description box or link their name to the brand. When following this strategy it
is important to choose a vlogger that is relevant to the brand, both in content
and audience.
An alternative aspect to consider is that with a piggyback strategy the brand is
not in charge of the video content. It is up to the vlogger in what way it will
give the brand attention. It can even affect the brand later same as with
celebrity endorsement when the vlogger receives negative media attention.
Unfortunately, work with vloggers can be a problem, if the companies that
partner whit them dont have clear the regulations that control this type of

advertising. Example of this the problem between Oreo and the Advertising
Standards Authority (ASA)
The case involved popular and wellknown

YouTubers

Dan

Howell,

Phil

Lester. They were recruited by Oreo and

paid

to

videos.

create

promotional

Oreos

The vloggers created videos

showing their Oreo lick races. The

vloggers did make it clear that Oreo was involved with the campaign, by for
example saying, Oreos asked me to take part in a lick race, and explaining
that they had been given free Oreos.
The ASA did not agree that the free Oreos messages were enough to disclose
the commercial, paid for, relationship between the YouTubers and Oreos and
upheld the complaint and asked that the content wasnt shown again in its
present form.
For this reason, ASA has held that, where an
advertiser is paying a vlogger to create content
and say something about their brand, and the
advertiser

has

(at

least

some)

aspects

of

editorial control over the content, then there will

need to be a clear and prominent statement such as Paid advertisement or
Advertorial. The ASA has not mandated any particular wording; anything
that clearly indicates the nature of the commercial (and paid) relationship
between the advertiser and the vlogger will suffice, formal language or not.
If done right, a product can be exposed to a huge following that might not
have known the brand before. Also, it makes for perfect video content for the
brand to use as they wish. What is tricky is to define what type of vlogger is
suitable for the brand.

Questions
1. Which marketing problems does brands have to anticipate when partner
YouTubers?
2. What values/benefits can YouTubers transfer to their partners besides the
ones named here?
3. Do you think is necessary that the world begins to regulate this type of
marketing? And make them stricter?

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