USA Today reports that yet another reason for traditional TV outlets to worry about their relevance: YouTube.com, the hot new outlet for people to post and share homemade videos, has caught the attention of big-name marketers.
Nike, Warner Brothers, MTV2 and Dimension Films are among the firms seeding the site with 'commercial' clips. Now, along with consumer-made videos of newborn babies, weddings and teens pulling pranks, is a short of soccer star Ronaldinho in his new Nike sneakers.
Part of YouTube's lure is its ease of use. Consumers � and advertisers � can upload clips quickly. As broadband penetration grows, and consumer appetite for on-demand entertainment swells, video-sharing sites such as YouTube are taking off. In December, when it formally launched, users watched 3 million videos daily. Now, it's about 40 million.
Creative marketers embrace this model for two very simple reasons -- consumers gladly view the content, and like-minded viral interest drives additional qualified viewers to these product advertisements. The low-cost production includes shooting a digital video, then all that 'global distribution' requires is merely uploading the video to the site(s) for free 'unlimited' playback by eager consumers.
Nike, Warner Brothers, MTV2 and Dimension Films are among the firms seeding the site with 'commercial' clips. Now, along with consumer-made videos of newborn babies, weddings and teens pulling pranks, is a short of soccer star Ronaldinho in his new Nike sneakers.
Part of YouTube's lure is its ease of use. Consumers � and advertisers � can upload clips quickly. As broadband penetration grows, and consumer appetite for on-demand entertainment swells, video-sharing sites such as YouTube are taking off. In December, when it formally launched, users watched 3 million videos daily. Now, it's about 40 million.
Creative marketers embrace this model for two very simple reasons -- consumers gladly view the content, and like-minded viral interest drives additional qualified viewers to these product advertisements. The low-cost production includes shooting a digital video, then all that 'global distribution' requires is merely uploading the video to the site(s) for free 'unlimited' playback by eager consumers.