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YouTube looks to generate marketing buzz - May 14, 2008

YouTube on Wednesday quietly rolled out the first of a promised series of new products and services that the company hopes will begin to generate meaningful revenue from the money-losing web video platform. Called "buzz targeting," the new service relies on an algorithm that weighs the rate at which particular videos are being viewed, added to favorites lists and ratings activity to identify clips about to make the leap to viral propagation. YouTube will then let marketers to target their ads specifically at those videos.

"Every advertiser hopes that their campaign will to be the next big viral hit online, and they come to YouTube to reach the millions of video viewers who are on the site every day," YouTube product manager Shiva Rajaraman said in a press release. "Buzz targeting lets them do both at the same time. They associate their brand with the hottest content of the day, while reaching the most engaged users in our community."

First advertiser to get buzzed is Lionsgate, which is using the new program to promote its upcoming Jet Li/Jackie Chan kung fu buddy flick The Forbidden Kingdom. Ads are funning against about 500 videos on the site.

The program only targets videos created by "YouTube Partners," i.e. professionally produced content, not the user-created material that made YouTube popular in the first place. Advertisers by and large remain wary of associating themselves with uncensored amateur content, regardless of the amount of "buzz" it may be generating. Although the amount of professionally produced content on YouTube is growing--music videos created by the major record labels are consistently among the most popular videos on the site--it still represents only a small fraction of the total material found there.
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