On my iGoogle one of the widgets that I have installed is the Youtube clip of the day. I do not always watch it, but because it is there, it catches the eye and every now and again, the image or the caption entices me to spend my time watching the featured clip of the day.

Recently however I have spent a bit more time than usual following Youtube clips. The reason for this comes from our (Tourism Tasmania’s) success of the Youtube campaign, which we ran surrounding Australia the movie. Unfortunately if you would believe the international press reviews of Australia the Movie it sounds like no one should have even bothered buying a ticket.

Because the film was set in the Northern Territory, which has very different scenery to Tasmania, Tasmania was left a bit on the sideline. Therefore, what we did in Tourism Tasmania was create a spoof movie. The video clip which we created, featured a pretend feature film that was going to be released soon. The sell line was “Came for the weekend, and took Monday off as well”. The video did really well on Youtube with 49 156 hits recorded and achieving featured video for two days in a row. A lot of the buzz was driven by the comments which ranged from witty to vulgar and unfortunately a lot of Tasmania bashing.

As I have spent a bit more time looking at what other types of videos are making it, it seemed that huge numbers of videos were just plain silly. Some of the sales appeal videos are using is where the creator uses funny voices or other strange techniques to get the message across. This makes me wonder as to who is watching and is this really necessary.

Tracking the click through and flow on traffic from our video success, it seems to me that it is a lot more difficult making a Youtube video translate into real long term benefit. When making a video for promotion a lot of thought needs to be given to driving the traffic (especially conversion traffic) from the video through to the actual web pages that will be the long term beneficiary of the work of creating a video.
The different types of traffic that are possible from a video would be

• Viewing traffic –search traffic leading to brand building
• Traffic that will link to the video or your subsequent pages – linkerati
• Traffic that will be inspired enough by what you have to say to take some real action

Each type of traffic category is very different and I am not sure that all can be effectively courted at the same time. What may be necessary is follow up or a stream of video’s that will possibly start to appeal to a group of browsing viewers. If quality and consistence is coupled with quantity the link and conversion traffic will eventually start to build. I suppose what I am saying is that a flash in the pan video that has success is near useless. For real benefit connectivity with audience is what counts, much like any form of social marketing online or offline.

Creating a stream of hits does take time and effort. A good example of this is some of the music artists who are using youtube to create a brand and a following. Before embarking on any video campaign or any social campaign for that matter, I believe a commitment to the process is essential along with a solid plan defining where the appeal lies and at what stage you will be targeting the different traffic streams..

PS: There is one form of traffic that I have not considered, that of universal search, which is becoming more relevant. Here is a link that explains more about it and how to take advantage of Video in search results