New Media Marketing - YouTube Baby

Over the next several months I plan on posting some information and examples of using digital media as a marketing tool. Digital media from websites to blogs give the average person the incredible ability to simply and effectively market a product. The product can be an individual, company, product, artist, idea, or anything else. I will typically refer to generically as products.


YouTube is the first digital marketing tool that I will discuss. As most people know YouTube has changed the landscape of the media and marketing. Anyone can post almost anything and there will be someone who watches it. The goal for marketers is to go viral - which is simply stated the spread of the message from person to person through several means including word of mouth and mainstream media piggybacking. Wikipedia has a good article on Viral Marketing with some examples of successful viral campaigns.

I will discuss YouTube (and other web video sites) in terms of how it has changed other media namely television more in depth later.

The example I wanted to demonstrate how YouTube is being used to market products is a young man who has been dubbed as "Kindergarten's top prospect." A young man named Marquise Walker is being poised by his father to be the next basketball phenom. The whole campaign began on YouTube and is document very well by ESPN's show Outside the Lines. It is a fairly long video, but very informative on how to initiate a plan using YouTube (the website is very well done too). Click her for Video.

Marquise's YouTube page.

This type of marketing could easily be adapted to position a church, business, musical artist, actor, etc.