In an effort to find its marketing niche, YouTube is experiementing with what they describing as branded channels to create platforms for promoting of people or products. In some cases they're both the same.
The first branded channel? Paris Hilton! No kidding.
"YouTube, which has become one of the most visited websites over the past 18 months, said Paris Hilton, the celebrity hotel heiress, would spearhead a push to offer “brand channels” to advertisers that wanted to promote their products to the You-Tube community."
I guess you got to go pretty low to start somewhere. Reports are that Warner Brothers has created the "Paris Hilton Channel" to promote her album "Paris." News Corp's Fox Broadcasting has also become involved by paying for a two-minute ad for their Prison Break series.
Chad Hurley, YouTube co-founder and chief executive added:
“This new medium requires finding a balance between traditional online advertising and new creative approaches that engage consumers in an active way. Advertisers now have a highly targeted opportunity for aligning their brands alongside the entertainment experience people are enjoying on YouTube.”
This is the problem YouTube is facing. Not only how to integrate a monetization strategy, but how to do it without alienating their user base. If they decide to go mainstream, which it seems that have indicated they are, it will be interesting to see if the users abandon them for the original experience and reason they interact with YouTube in the first place. Do you think they will abandon YouTube if they continue in this direction?
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