Imagine a world where no one has seen the video “Charlie bit my finger” and you will begin to feel the pain of an existence without You Tube. Sadly, a life with no cats wearing bread, sneezing baby pandas, or even a dramatic chipmunk was a harsh reality for those of us born before the new millennium.
In 2005 the video sharing website lauched after the founders were unable to find clips of either Janet Jackson’s famous ‘nip-slip’ or the tsunami which occurred in the Indian Ocean in 2004. It soon became clear that there were millions of people worldwide looking for the same service as 65 000 videos were reportedly being uploaded everyday by mid 2006.
At its most basic, You Tube is merely a place to share videos; the perfect way to show friends your recent holiday to Spain, your kid’s dancing show, or just a rant about your views on the latest Tom Cruise movie. Inevitably though, precious gems which were only meant to be seen by a few have gone viral and been heralded as internet gold. We hate to be that guy at the party saying “You NEED to watch David after the dentist” for the millionth time, but seriously, go watch that because it’s still ridiculously funny. Did we mention that researching this blog post has taken substantially longer than usual due to the days and weeks lost watching endless ‘guilty dog’ clips?
FREE GUIDE: 5 Types of Video to Improve Your Business
Sometimes videos have been so good that they act as a marketing campaign for a product, such as the Blendtec videos “Will it blend?” which shows an iPhone whizzed to a powdery black pulp. Other wonderfully painful advertising campaigns with varying success come in the form of taxidermist Chuck Testa and not forgetting the informative ‘Head on’ commercial which when put on repeat will seriously tick off whoever sits next to you in the office.
With blogging becoming a viable career choice in recent years, the video equivalent known as ‘vlogging’ has offered a way for the regular Joe to share product reviews, life advice and general chit chat to anyone interested. Sound boring? Apparently not, as consumers genuinely take the advice on board and the beauty industry in particular has seen sales of products increase thanks to new trendsetters like Zoella and Tanya Burr who are now essentially self-employed journalists making a hefty living through their own channels and even releasing their own products.
Not only has it acted as a haven for bored office workers all over the world but it has had positive results raising awareness for some serious issues. The Sabin Vaccine Institute recreated the well-know ‘reaction’ video by filming six celebrities getting visibly upset whilst watching one of their campaign videos. The result is a 60 second montage of uncomfortable gazes and teary eyes which inevitably makes you want to watch whatever they just saw. After two and half minutes the viewer is drawn in and more than likely to donate. Now that’s what we call successful for all the right reasons.
So having videos online is kind of a bid deal, whether you’re Miley Cyrus or just a cat in a box, but not just any video is going to make it. You need a story, a style, and the expertise to make something great; something that people will want to share with their friends. Have we convinced you yet?
Get an instant quote today, and find out what we can do for you.
