Good-bye, Luke Sullivan. Hello, Cecil B. DeMille.

Do you remember the first time you sent an email? The first time your did a research on Google? The first time you ordered from Amazon?

Who can even imagine life before? Well, there's a new paradigm shift (to use that Web 1.0 cliche). It's YouTube. Internet video. Life will never be the same.

After all, why make the effort to read something when you can have it spoon-fed to you?

Doubt it? Well, how many hours this past week did you read a book as compared to watching TV?

Enough said.

Over the last year I have been watching YouTube daily. I guess it qualifies me to be as much of an expert as anyone. Hey, who would have guessed Google would be the company to rival MicroSoft?

Over those lost hours, I have seen patterns emerge in videos. Certain themes seem to return again and again.

I think this is important. To take advantage of YouTube, you have to know its audience. Frankly, it's no different than being a network programmer.

Here are some of the themes I've spotted in no particular order.

1. Sex: Amazingly enough, it still seems to be a strong motivator of the human race.
2. Mishaps: Some are funny. Some are bloody horrible. Watching your fellow man writhe in pain never goes out of style.
3. Comedy routines: The sketches are frequently funnier and questionably more profane than regular TV.
4. Vlogs: The video version of the blog. The most successful are generally from women.
5. Sport clips.
6. Tech clips: Shots of computer games or short deminstrations of electronic products.
7. Music videos.

Maybe this list isn't all that earth-shattering. But I think it's part of the big picture. (Forgive the pun.)

This isn't TV made small. It's different content from TV altogether.

The content is racier. More amateur. More intimate. It leans to the bizarre. The outrageous.

YouTube viewers don't want to see things they can already see on TV. After all, it's already on TV. The sole exception might be sport clips.

And there's the catch. Bizarre, outrageous, anti-establishment content is not what advertisers generally gravitate toward.

Some advertisers have had some initial success. Dove did a great job showing the manipulation of women in modern media (anti-establishment). Blendtec has breated David Letterman-like demonstrations for itselectric mixers (outrageous). Samsung has had great success with its UpStage contest (bizarre, or at least quirky). These ads are neither serious nor sentimental, the two favored sentiments throughout the advertising industry.

Others have failed. The most notable is BudTV. Millions were spent creating content that no one cared for. Bor-r-r-ing. Anheuser-Busch failed to realize that they are not competing against Miller beer, they are more competing against Jimmy Kimmel.


That's right, advertisers will be competing against the entertainment industry-not against other advertisers.

Think about it: Tivo. Shrinking TV viewership. Collapse in newspaper and magazine readership.

Good-bye, Luke Sullivan. Hello, Cecil B. DeMille.

It's that old paradigm shift again. Just like the last time you...


Philip Wilson
Sr. Copywriter
Cheil Communications New Jersey