Youtube, the ever-growing video website is possibly the best website on the net to kill time when your bored/ procrastinating doing your Uni work (don’t deny it, we all do) but did you ever think that it could ever become more than just a fun website to watch videos from? Almost any videos can be viewed on Youtube from aspiring musicians to business entrepreneurs. The way I see it, Youtube could be seen as the doorway to the Nouveau Niche.
The Nouveau Niche is a term that was first coined by Trendwatching.com in 2005. It is a term used to define the new form of consumers that are emerging. As their article explains, the mass market business model is fading away because we consumers no longer want to be told what we need or have what everyone else is has, we will search for what we want and find it. The internet has facilitated this by being one of our main “searching tools”. On Google I can search for “bird skirt” and get hundreds of results (I have been shopping around for a skirt with a bird pattern on it for a while now and have found some lovely independent designers). I believe that the same could be done with Youtube. Youtube users could search for what they want and find videos made by new businesses advertising their products/company.
Attract your Niche
What makes Youtube so great in my opinion is that it is free to join and free to upload videos. It is also a very simple website to use, so simple that my own grandmother can use it. This makes accessing a wide variety of people from different niches easier by targeting them through the form of videos. Shawn Janer’s article on Niche websites lists a number of website that have utilized Youtube to target specific Niches. These include weight loss encouragement video sites, Yoga instructing videos site, online video dating websites and even knitting advice websites. Janer states that most of these small online businesses are only a few weeks old. I have viewed a few of the websites and I think they are very well made. I found the Yoga video website really interesting as it had plenty of videos on different types of yoga (slow paced, fast etc). This just goes to show how easy it can be to access a Niche market through Youtube videos and how simple it can be for consumers to find what they want.
A different way of utilizeing Youtube to attract your niche would be to broadcast video advertisements of whatever your business is trying to sell. I found a perfect example of a small online store business that did this the other day when I was searching random videos on Youtube. I searched “Rayban Wayfarers” (really cool sunglasses design) since I was curious what videos could have been made about them. Along with many silly video posts of people playing around with sunglasses, I found this video (link) from a website named Speleotherapy that sells Rayban sunglasses 90% off RRP. [Click the link to access the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA6r9Co2iCo] The video is nothing special and I probably could have done a better job, but that doesn’t matter because they got their main point across and included a link to their website in the information bar. Now I am writing about this website on my blog and shareing it with others which I wouldn’t done if they hadn’t posted this advertisement on Youtube. Small businesses can now use Youtube as their advertising platform and best of all, it’s free.
The Youtube Partner Program
The Youtube partner program is a program that started in May 2007 and recently opened in Australia this year. (Kaplan 2008) The benefits that Youtube partners have are that they receive a percentage of the ad revenue profits that Youtube gets. This means that a youtube partner can actually get paid for their videos and the amount they receive depends on the amount they get. As stated in an Internet news article , “The program is open to both individual content producers and media companies looking to broaden their reach by tapping the viral Web.” By being a Youtube partner, companies can also receive profit from the advertising on the site as well as advertise their company.
Anyone can be a Partner
One good thing about the Partner Program is that although it was first developed for companies, it is also available to almost everyone. As long as you are over 18 and do not use copy-righted material, you can become a Youtube partner, easy. From what I have read from some blogs, it is quite easy to apply and get an approval from Youtube. The most subscribed Australian Youtube channel is the channel of a 21 year old University student named Natalie (as her Profile page-Community Channel states). From what I’ve seen, her videos are simply funny skits of her making fun of herself and are nothing high tech or advanced. Yet that doesn't stop her from having just under 65,000 people subscribed to her channel and earning some money from it.
Conclusion
Youtube has proven that it is not just a fun website to view videos from, it can actually be beneficial to businesses and even ordinary citizens. Youtube enables businesses to access their Niche through videos, wether that be advertiseing their products or making the videos the basis of their business. The youtube partner program is another way of getting profits from videos.
References
Kaplan, David. 2008. Fodder: Youtube Doles out $1 Million In Ad Rev share; CPMs Nowhere in Range, Paid Content: http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-youtube-spreads-1-million-ad-revenue-payout-to-partner-program/ (accessed April 28 2008)
Anonymous. 2005. Nouveau Niche.Trendwatching.com: http://www.trendwatching.com/trends/nouveau_niche.htm (accessed April 27 2008)
Janer, Shawn. 2008. Ten Youtube Niche Video Sites. Marketplace Sitepoint:http://marketplace.sitepoint.com/auctions/34588 (accessed April 2008)
Corbin, Kenneth. 2007. Youtube Broadcast youself: Get Paid. Internet News: http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3715931 (accessed April 28 2008)
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2 comments:
Hi Steph. This was a really great blog, I love the idea of using YouTube as another platform for people to advertise be they a part of a big business or a small business, YouTube is a great way to advertise to those niche markets that don’t really get attention from mainstream media. Although, I do believe that YouTube managed to use this style of advertising for small businesses within the niche market, I would have to say that big companies and companies have been using this platform for some time. Whilst, reading your blog I remembered how I used to watch music videos on the computer before discovering YouTube, I used a website called Launch. Before every music video a short 30 second ad would play promoting companies and brands like Yahoo (who sponsored the site), Nike and Coca Cola. These companies obviously paid to advertise on the site, but I believe that this is where the idea for advertising on YouTube came from. But, overall I think that YouTube started a great idea for promoting small niche businesses that would probably never have reached their specific audiences if not for advertising on YouTube.
Hi Steph!
As an advertising student I was very interested in your blog about niche marketing on Youtube. I completely agree with your view that Youtube is a valuable way to target niche segments, not only for its acutely targeted approach, but for its extremely low cost. Being a free platform, the only cost for advertisers is the actual ad creation and this can be as simple or elaborate as the producers desire.
I am now wondering if Youtube will be the next frontier for in-video product placement. Some Youtube content creators are INCREDIBLY popular and produce videos that receive massive amounts of traffic. It makes sense for companies to approach these users for product placement in their productions. I am certain many Youtube members would comply to make a few extra dollars. Not only could advertisers easily and effectively reach their target market, they could do it in such a subtle, focussed way that consumers would not feel as though they are being pressured to buy.
If you are interested in online niche marketing you should take a look at the Second Life game. Dozens of real-world companies, both small and large have set up in-game stores to target specific consumers. It is a VERY interesting area to consider.
All things considered the niche marketing landscape is fascinating at the moment. I can’t wait to finish my degree and get out there!! Hehe
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