PR and The good, the bad and the ugly
What is YouTube? Popular free videosharing website Anyone can post videos Anyone can view videos
A little history Founded in 2005 by Chad Hurley and Steve Chen Purchased by Google in 2006 ($1.65 billion US) 1 billion views a day Demographic 18-55, even male/female split
What’s it used for? For fun – cat tricks Videos for friends Entertainment Education Online soapbox PR: promoting a brand, product, getting a message out
Famous examples RCMP tasering Robert Dziekanski Susan Boyle: record 100 million hits in 9 days Obama campaign, including YouTube/CNN debates All new movies post trailers
PR nightmare? Canadian songwriter David Carroll gets even with United Airlines 7.8 million views be.com/watch?v =5YGc4zOqozohttp:// be.com/watch?v =5YGc4zOqozo
Domino’s Pizza What can happen when a couple of employees pull off a silly prank and post the results to YouTube usercontent/2009/4/Gro ss-Dominos-Pizza htmlhttp:// usercontent/2009/4/Gro ss-Dominos-Pizza html
Domino’s Pizza Domino’s Pizza responds to the crisis President of the U.S. company posts apology to YouTube m/watch?v=dem6eA7- A2Ihttp:// m/watch?v=dem6eA7- A2I
Domino’s Pizza What are the lessons here? Companies should monitor YouTube and similar video-posting sites Companies need to know what is being posted about them Fighting fire with fire: companies should respond using the same format Be prepared to do own YouTube video
PR benefits Many firms use YouTube for: Recruitment Advertisements Contests Commercials/PSA’s Awareness Campaigns Can monitor views