Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion essentially for the site’s popularity. Google has its own video offering, Google Video, but it never took off like many of YouTube’s other rivals.

It seems like the world’s currency has suddenly shifted from dollars to eyeballs. However one major hurdle that the likes of Google is going to have to overcome, and which will determine whether the purchase of YouTube was inspired or another sign of a new tech bubble, is whether these media organisations can maintain the popularity of the likes of YouTube (especially if it struggles to keep copyrighted content online.)

Mike Walsh has an excellent post discussing this subject - Context is King. Here’s a snippet:

But that’s the magic and mayhem of social networks - best summed up as the difference between products and platforms. Media companies have traditionally been geared up to produce the former. Newspapers, DVDs, TV shows, or channel brands like Discovery, ESPN or MTV. If you have enough talented producers, programmers and marketers, you can move with the times with engaging, high rating fare. If not, the times move past you. Platforms are radically different. You play host, not dictator. That means being prepared to deal with the zany, illegal and inappropriate as well as all the stuff you secretly hoped that people would contribute. Media companies, meet your audience.

If you think that’s scary, imagine how advertisers feel. Sure there are clever algorithms that match advertising with on page text references, but its a brave marketing custodian who lets their billion dollar brand casually hang out in a world where content runs free. That’s why despite the fact that MySpace, YouTube, and the Web2.0 bratpack are getting so much media hype at the moment, their 25 year old sibling still has one big advantage - context. MTV might have lost some of its cutting edge with their audience, but at least brand marketers know what they are getting in for. Ironically, its no so much about controlling material - as have some degree of confidence about the environment in which an ad might appear. Call it editorial coherence if you will.

Since the Google takeover, copyrighted clips have begun to be removed in their droves from YouTube. It’s a worrying sign in my mind because it’s been a long time since I’ve watched anything on YouTube that didn’t infringe some sort of copyright. If the trend continues, what’s to stop me switching platforms? That’s one set of eyeballs that is likely to close, but how many more to follow?

Without the content, it’s harder to attract eyeballs and that ultimately impacts on advertising revenues. Companies need to stop focusing simply on viewership figures and look at the content because that’s what you’re really investing in.

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