YouTube, the Future of Business Marketing

With YouTube having announced in January that it is now receiving well over four billion daily video views, the popularity and power of web videos has become increasingly apparent, as a shift has occurred towards the internet, and more specifically web videos, as a primary source of entertainment. What may not be so apparent is the effect that this growth spurt will have on the future of business through web video marketing. Web videos are quickly becoming a major promotional strategy, and businesses that don't hop on the band wagon will soon be left by the wayside.

Now, the real issue is how to make your videos stand out against a throng of billions. YouTube also revealed last month that there are more the eighty-six thousand videos being added each day, a number roughly equal to Hollywood producing around three-hundred thousand feature films per week. One interesting example of the variations of content, which also illustrates the marketing power held by YouTube, can be seen in a pair of Star Wars related videos. Two weeks ago two videos were added to YouTube on the same day. One, titled Star Wars Uncut: Director's Cut, is a two hour film put together by several filmmakers working separately and then combining their clips to make the final video.

The second video added that day, entitled The Bark Side, is a VW web marketing video which lasts one minute and shows a group of dogs barking out the Star Wars theme song. In their two week run, Star Wars Uncut has accumulated a noteworthy two million views, while The Bark Side has brought in a staggering eleven million. Given the quantity of views that can be produced by such a simple video, one would suspect that companies would be climbing over one another to join the video marketing trend. The numbers say differently however. Stats show that 99% of those four billion daily views go to about 30% of the site's total videos. Of that 30%, only about 10% is made up of sponsored web marketing videos.

That small 10% represents nearly seventeen thousand hours of video each day. Because web video as a marketing strategy is such a relatively new idea, companies seem to be aware to make use of it. This won't last however. It's only a matter of time before promoters begin to realize that full potential offered by using web videos. However, for those looking to begin marketing their companies online and branding themselves through web video, now is the time to do it. Once the benefits of such a strategy are realized by the rest of the business world, video hosting sites like YouTube will never be the same.

By acting now you have the chance to stay one step ahead of the competition and branch out into the limitless marketing potential offered by web videos. The success of VW's The Bark Side is just one example among many of the advertising power of a viral video. The proof is in the numbers, and the numbers say that web video marketing is the future of both the internet and advertising.

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