Readers who spend enough time on the beach this summer will probably see the following sentiment stretched across the front of a t-shirt: “Old age and treachery will overcome youth and idealism every time.” Today’s exercise in youth and idealism comes from Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, the twenty-something founders of YouTube.com.
For the uninitiated, YouTube is an online video-file sharing service. Would-be Martin Scorseses can upload video clips of pretty much anything, ranging from elaborately produced fantasies to random clips captured on a mobile phone’s video card. These can then be viewed and rated by anyone logging onto the site.
Hurley and Chen, as befits their youth and idealism, have set this up as a no-cost venture. They’ve only recently started accepting advertising onto the site. Ah, youth.
YouTube offers marketers who use direct response television (DRTV) a chance to soft-launch their spots before spending money on broadcast or cable time. Site metrics would allow them to track which spots were getting multiple hits and recommendations (“Like this? Know someone who needs it? Send it to a friend!”). Some spots may even generate pre-launch buzz. And — so it shouldn’t be a total loss — there might even be a few customers linking through to the marketers’ own Web sites, or calling into contact centers, and making a purchase.
Alas, YouTube may not be the right vehicle for this. While the site allows users to retain all rights to their submissions, its terms of use grant it “a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Submissions in connection with the YouTube Website and YouTube’s (and its successor’s) business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the YouTube Website (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels.”
That thumping noise in the background is the sound of every intellectual property lawyer in America crashing to the floor in a dead faint. There is a way to circumvent this — and it’s where the old age and treachery come into play.
As of this writing, competitors to YouTube have already sprung up. The problem they face is that YouTube already exists — there’s no need for an imitation. Unless, of course, such an imitation is built to meet the needs of a specific vertical industry. That industry is direct response television.
I propose that a neutral organization, such as the Electronic Retailing Association or the Direct Marketing Association, set up yet another competitor. But this one would exclusively serve agencies and marketers that use DRTV. For a nominal fee, which would cover site hosting and administrative costs, marketers would get the right to soft-launch their spots and get a wide swath of feedback.
For potential customers, such a setup’s participatory element would be a draw in and of itself. Think of it as an “American Idol” for the DRTV industry — one which has the added benefit of exposing advertisers’ messages to them.
Through a combination of buzz and metrics analysis, marketers could get a much better handle on whether to go ahead with a DRTV campaign before making a media buy. They might even get some additional insight as to where the ads are playing well, if they make reviewers register and provide some basic demographic information before voting. I’m personally against this: As an older and treacherous type myself, I find that being asked to register is a significant hurdle to participating in most online sites.
In a way, it’s a pity that direct marketers can’t just jump onto YouTube and co-opt it. It would be fun to see masses of young folk mobilizing to keep this service pure. That would be a first — the younger generation screaming at us to keep off their lawns.
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