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Getting engaged: Advertisers search for their voices on YouTube

April 30, 2008 | Internet Marketing

With viewers migrating online, and YouTube accounting for roughly a third of all online-video watching, the Google-owned video-sharing site is a new advertising hot spot. But finding a home in the medium is not so easy, Wharton professors say.

Advertising campaigns on YouTube or other video-sharing websites present a particular challenge, says Wharton professor of operations and information management Kartik Hosanagar, who is currently researching Internet advertising. “You cannot walk into an ad agency and say, ‘I want a video about these features of my product, and I want it viewed this many times, with this level of ratings.’” With video-sharing sites like YouTube, he says, “the goal is to create an experience the customer remembers.” Such an experience cannot simply be ordered up or manufactured.

Advertising, of course, has always been about buzz, but what’s new here is engagement, says Hosanagar. “Previously, customers were the audience, and advertisers tried to figure out what to show them. In the online environment, customers are participants.”

A spokesperson for YouTube states in an e-mail that “The entire YouTube marketing platform is about engagement. Our users celebrate what they consider to be good advertisements and promotions and feel obligated to voice their views about those they do not like. They share and comment on ads, and respond by submitting their own content, participating in contests, and engaging in creative dialogue with others who share their interests. It is this active engagement that many advertisers seek in order to communicate and reach new consumers.”

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