ROI: Where’s the $ @?

“On TV, watching the content is the end of the experience. Online, watching the content is the beginning of the experience” - Matt Cutler, Visible Measures

Payoff Over a Web Sensation Is Elusive

I would start this post off with the embedded video of Susan Boyle’s performance (not like you all haven’t seen it at least once) except the most viewed post of this video on YouTube - at over 60 million views - has this feature turned off…

“The broadcaster and producers allowed the copies to stay online because they created buzz for the program. The clips have received more than a half-million user comments.”

I love that idea, social media used to promote traditional media, that is a big component for many of our clients’ campaigns. But if these videos are posted to help raise awareness, why is the embed feature found standard on every YouTube video not available? That’s a big point this article brings attention to; FremantleMedia Enterprises, who owns the digital rights to the show, does not have a revshare agreement in place with YouTube for its content.

“In the days after Ms. Boyle’s debut, The Times of London published what it called a “crude estimate” suggesting that the parties involved had left $1.87 million on the table.”

That is not only a great deal of money that the content creators will never see but it also means there is a great deal of money that YouTube/Google has spent in hosting and steaming fees, which they have to take as a loss in promotion of their service.

That is a huge financial blow to both those involved in creating the video content and YouTube/Google, and something that is happening to content creators and user generated video sites across the board every single day. But, lets not forget where that money would have come from to pay both parties - advertisers.

The question that I have to ask is, is advertising enough? How relevant is online advertising today (see Banner Blindness)? How relevant is advertising in general? Do advertisers see the returns needed to continue spending money online so that content like this can continue to exist as “free” content?

What the internet has taught me, because of the free for all / wild west environment, is that it is a fantastic promotional and sales space but to take advantage of it you need a product to sell that cannot be easily pirated using the same resource.

Where were the “Susan Boyle Gives Me Hope” t-shirts? Pins? Ringtones? Co-branded Facebook Applications?

Using social media to promote businesses is a new thing and most traditional companies have not had sufficient experience within the space to understand. This content is the beginning of the experience, it is the beginning of the potential to sell something. This is the best example I could ever ask for as to what can happen when you don’t hire bigMETHOD!