Is there a stigma around the YouTube brand ?

How important is choice of video host ?  This is a question I've found myself asking lately after quite a few clients have raised concerns about using YouTube as part of e-marketing strategy.

The concern seems to be that YouTube has a reputation as being primarily for young people, with lots of copyrighted content and not suitable for professional and scientific organisations.  Combined with the fact that YouTube and many services like it insist on having their logos on embedded videos as part of their free service makes many potential content providers think twice.

My personal opinion is that it is beginning to shake this image off, and I made this clear in a recent post.  Despite a few objections to YouTube (namely 1. restricted lenght/size of videos; 2. private/non-searchable videos; and 3. low quality and compression), YouTube is a very strong and progressive brand which is associated with many quality content providers.  With the association with Google (itself one of the strongest search engine brands) and means that it works well in searches to get the organisation much better exposure.  People expect YouTube to be low quality which has its own benefits, but because it is so popular it is by far the most feature rich, flexible and easiest to integrate platforms to work with.

 

Here is an interesting article about YouTube’s use by content providers:

http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=80504

 

The Liberal, Labor, National, Greens, Democrats and Family First federal political parties all have their own individual YouTube channels. The Prime Minister, John Howard, often uses the Liberal channel to make announcements before turning to traditional mediums such as television and radio.

Australian providers including Network Ten, ABC, Seven, Sky News, Southern Cross View and Fairfax Media.

ABC has published on its various YouTube channels clips from Summer Heights High, The Chaser's War on Everything and Enough Rope with Andrew Denton.

CometTV is the only local YouTube partner using its channel for long-form content, posting complete episodes of Secret Life of Us.

Overseas content providers already partnered with YouTube include CBS, BBC, New Scientist, Al-Jazeera, National Geographic, EMI, Warner Music, Universal Music and various European TV networks.

 

We have created content provider accounts for many of our customers using YouTube, including several local councils and the Optometrists Association of Australia.

 

But if you are still not for YouTube, then what other options are there ?  I thought I'd explore some briefly.