Let them entertain: Vloggers and Disclosure

The top 12 Youtube Vlogger are entertainers;


They are like Demetri Martin, they entertain for a profession and when a brand wants to align with them it can sometimes look really good.
Such as the Martin + Microsoft = 'Clearficiation' series


They are like Hilltop Hoods, who are entertainers who have commercial deals with brands, in particular DC (they have to wear DC at every show). However, you do not hear them mention this during one of their shows.


They are peformers...They put on a show...They act.

John Laws does not act, he is seen as news source an information source.

They are definitely not like Rene Rivkin, Rene gave financial advice that people trusted. When he had a vested interest people's money was at risk.


At the end of the day in my opinion;

-Vloggers need to disclose any commercial deals. I think that it should be on their profile homepage, I don’t think it needs to be on the video.



-The best Vloggers will put their community first. If there is no fit they will not engage in commercial terms, no matter how much financial or other value they stand to gain

Mark Pollard asked me a good question yesterday;

Show me an example of a good whisper campaign?

I think you could extend this to show me an example of a good campaign using Youtube stars which is either whisper or full disclosure?

UPDATE: 12:20PM 25/02/09
I ask and they answer

Examples of Good Branded Campaigns;
I beat you and KevJumba

Fred and Zipit

Blog TV and number of famous Vloggers

Thanks Nat for the examples, if anyone has any more please share.

Moses lurks on ma blog; Who are the vloggers moar like?

Need to sit down and work this shit out!?!??!?!

Asher Moses (Journaliste for tha SMH) is lurking ma blogs and publishing my posts in the fo real Media, gotta be careful!
Don’t want my mum reading in The Age tha bad news about Youtubers doing dodgies, need to set the record straight!
Don’t want to say stupid shit anymoar!

Adspace-Pioneers is now a news source for the worlds!

Time to tackle the big questions on this blog!


Should there be laws/rules for Vloggers around cash for comment? What should they entail?

Alright guys, Moses and I need your help working this one out.

Look at the Top 12 Most Subscribed Australian Youtubers


Who are they moar like

Demetri Martin


or

John Laws?



Another one;

Who are they moar like?

My Dads ex-bro Rene Rivkin (My dad loved your newsletter)


or

My bros Hilltop Hoods


Please guys answer, Moses and I need answers, the worlds need to solve this problem quick!

On Wednesday, I will tally votes and give you guys the ANSWER to what the rules should be around cash for comment with Vloggers. Moses might publish it in Thursday SMH Media and Marketing sections.

This post is dedicated in the memory of the late Carles pre-Hacksterbro

Hijacking Social Media Competitions for a higher cause

On the weekend, I found out that two of my friends and fellow members of my Bottle Club were directly effected by the Victorian Bushfires. One of them was 30 metres away from the firestorm, the only reason he is still alive is because 3 CFA helicopters dumped water infront of him, just in time.

However my other friend was not as lucky she lost her eldest son in the fires. I cannot imagine the hurt that they must be feeling in the community at the moment.

The other day I got an interesting Facebook request from a friend asking me to join the group Samboy is Back - JOIN NOW TO WIN $10,000 FOR THE RED CROSS BUSHFIRE APPEAL.



Kimberely Evans had taken advantage of the competition that Samboy’s chips were running to see who could create the biggest Facebook Group with the words Samboy is back in them. She had hijacked the competition for social cause. A higher need.

Samboy are also holding Flavour Hit Film Festival where they are asking to create a video of 'How the Flavour hits you?' and to include an end graphic. The most viewed clip on Youtube will win $5000. I decided to create a video to try and win the $5,000 prize for the most viewed clip so that I can donate the money to the Red Cross as well.



I think this is a win-win situation for all parties involved, The Bushfire victims get hopefully $15,000 that they were not getting before and Samboys chips gets awareness of their relaunch that looks to be their main objective of the campaign.

List of successful Facebook branded executions

At the moment, I feel there is a big elephant in Social Media/ Digital Strategist room. That is Facebook, it was the reason that social media became mainstream, the general public started creating content.

However you very rarely hear anyone talking about successful executions within Facebook.

The reason being is because it is a walled garden, it is a private space where third parties (startegist) cannot peer in and watch social media at work.

So,

I thought I would make a list of good examples of Facebook branded executions;

1. 7-11 Free Slurpee Day (set up an event for the day) (Con)
2. Ksubi Sale (high end jeans, promote really well through Facebook)
3. Burger King friends sacrifice (sacrifice 10 Facebook friends for a free burger, got pulled from Facebook though) (Gordon)
4. Burn Alter Ego (Go out without having to go out, US Energy Drink) (Deb)
5. Dell 'Social Media for your business' FanPage (This is actually a really good resource for SME to use Social Media) (Ben)
6. Samboys is back (Biggest Facebook group wins; Hijacked by Bushfire) (Peter)
7. Parking Wars (Part of the promotion for an upcoming show for an A&E) (Christy Dena)
8.

If you have any other please tell me and I will add to the list.

Cash for comment is alright in Social Media

There is currently a trend amongst Youtube Vloggers (US) that transperancy is not a rule of social media and doing cash for comment is acceptable.

TV show Lie to Me have paid a number of vloggers to talk about their latest show with no disclosure from the vlogger about being paid.





The content is good, it is engaging, it is not a stretch from what these vloggers normally produce. So that makes it okay, right?

From a Vlogging source I was told that the reason they do 'cash for comment' is because they do not want to risk losing a large percentage of their audience (by doing full disclosure, they will be deemed as a sell out), whereas with cash for comment, a large percentage of their audience will not notice.


What is your opinion on self disclosure within Youtube? Do Vloggers need to be upfront about advertorial?


Gavin made a really good point on this subject on my post about Hill88 doing cash for comment

'When individuals begin to see themselves as mini-media businesses, the lines blur. Unfortunately, very few people have the capacity to deal with where that can take you - remember, the media businesses such as Fox have legions of people who have turned people into celebrities and celebrities into household names. There are disciples and practices around doing this. The difference is that it is done in a way that always reflects back on the "parent brand" (in the same way that Channel 9's stable of celebrities reflect back on Channel 9).

Individuals, on the other hand, are personal brands. There are fewer disciplines (and sometimes even awareness levels) in place. And as personal brands are built around trust and authenticity, any undisclosed dalliance with larger brands can be very damaging.

Unfortunately, once an outcome is achieved and the hard-earned brand equity has been extinguished (for cash/product/promise), those individuals (and their personal brands) can be easily discarded ... '


If the States is anything to go by, we may need to realign our thoughts about our vision and values of Social Media Advertising in Australia.

Update: Australian Hughsnews is getting paid cash for comment by Fox in the competition.

I am Malcolm Turnbull illegitimate son, 50 Cent give me ma fur jacket

Hands up in the air who remembers the ol beef that 50 Cent and Ja Rule had about four years ago. They both came out and sledged each other in songs and then did some other jazz, and then Ja Rule career was pretty much over.

50 Cent is bringing the beef sandwich again, this time he is unloading it all over Rick Ross. 50 Cents communication beef weapon of choice: The Tubes!

(5:20) Why the hell does Fiddy buy this girl a leather jacket? Clearly she needed the sweet ride! Damn Fiddy listen to the woman!


Soulja Boy and Bow Wow are having a beef casserole at the moment too; arguing who has the biggest Lambo.




What does all this mean for Marketers?

Having your own channel of communication with your consumers is one of the real advantages of online communication.

When you get attacked or need a quick response you at least have a channel of communication to defend yourself through and get your full message across.

Check out ma little homeboi Malcolm Turnbull and the way he defended not giving me ma $950!




Learn more about S***** M**** from Hip Hop stars in my series Blogging like a Rockstar (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3)

The Boys from Bannerblog are minted; free lunches all round

So if you didn’t hear, the brains trust behind Bannerblog (Australia's No.1 Marketing Pioneer Blog) have been pretty active lately; Ashadi Hopper just put the downpayment on his new Penthouse overlooking The Bridge and Ash Ringrose just bought a 156 inch television screen so he can play WoW in real life and shit.


I broke into Ashadi's new apartment, stole a bottle of D.P from the fridge and took this photo on my iPhone


Ash's new television and the person he bought to explain how to run the damn thing.

If you didn’t hear the boys got their blog sponsored for massive bucks by Double Click.

So are we all going to be getting payouts?

Well when you look at the category of blog that Bannerblog would fall under it would be more of a news source and information storage blog. Unfortunately there would probably be only a handful of Marketing blogs in Australia that would fall under news (B&T, CampaignBrief and new hot shot Mumbrella) and I don’t know how many would fall under storage (Inspiration Room Daily and maybe Paps is trying it out with her endless Twitter lists)

This is a great for Mumbrella though with a new revenue model (single blog sponsor) being played out a few months before he goes for it or decides against it.

I am sure if we can get the boys away from sailing their new Yacht’s around the Harbour, then they would probably be the best guys in the business to be leading this kind of initiative.

Well done guys and good luck!

7 things you didn't know about me!

Wisey has kept the link loving times a rollin with her '7 things you didn't know about me' link chain game. So seeing that this blog has not resembled anything to do with Marketing in the last 4 months, I thought my regulars will not be pissed off with yet another irrelevant post. So here goes it;

1. Adspace-Pioneers was an error
The name actually comes from me wanting to do a blog on ambient marketing. I was going to be the 'Pioneer of new spaces to advertise'. I really don’t like the name, I especially hate it when people spell it AdSpace Pioneers too. Here is a link to my first two posts

2. I used to be able to name every Melbourne Cup winner
I used to love horse racing, so much so that I got a part time job at The Australian Horse Racing Museum in Federation Square. I used to take old seniors on tours of the museum and reminisce on the good old days of SP Bookies and when women wore clothes to the races.

3. I always wanted to be a Barrister
All the way up to third year Uni where I was looking to transfer into Law. It turned out to be too hard aka my marks were not good enough, however I still think about it, especially now that Rudd has slipped me the nine fiddy, I can pretty much quit at The Pop and go back to Uni on those $$$.

The 2007 Western Antique Bottle Club Show
4. I used to be the President of the Western Antique Bottle Club
I have a collection of antique Milk Bottles from different Melbourne Suburbs. I have been a member of the Western Anitque Bottle Club for 10 years (joined when I was 13). It is kind of a dying hobby, we were one of the last clubs left in Victoria.




5. Lowriders
I was part of a Low Rider Gang called the Malvern Madness Dragster Board, we used to cause a bit of havoc, hanging on to the back of trams, going down Collins St Hill no breaks, all that kind of jazz.

6. I don’t use an RSS subscriber
I just use my memory and twitter to guide me to the goodness. I also just use the twitter.com to check my tweets.

7. I am becoming responsible
I have got a 10 year plan. I am going to start by being responsible for a cactus once I manage that I am going to move onto a real plant and then onto a fish and then a cat. Then I will be responsible enough to look after a baby. I started with the Cactus just the other day, I still need to name it?

I tagged the following people because they are sure to be more entertaining than me;
Sophie Benjamin
Truly Heinous
Bones Lawley
Yeah Right from Chronicles of Dardia
Kate Richardson
Piccolo Niccolo
Andy Miller if only to get him to start blogging again

Here are the rules...
Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
Link to your original tagger and list these rules in your post.
Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
Let them know they’ve been tagged.

TheHill88: Cash Registers before Creativity

Cash Registers before Creativity.

I was doing some homework the other night AKA watching Youtube and saw that TheHill88 (2nd most subscribed Aussie on Youtube) had posted an interesting video. On closer inspection it was clear that TV station Fox had slipped some money towards Caitlin Hill to do some promotion for the show Fringe. Sounds pretty good, using influential people in the existing (Youtube) community to endorse a new property.


How I was wrong...



Caitlin, the first was enough pain, please no more of that rubbish!



NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO


It was not until I started looking at the comments that I realised that I was by myself and that she had actually converted a number of her viewers.




If I took a step back this was actually successful for Fox. I think that sometimes I am guilty of putting my perfect new media marketing hat on, unless it is breaking new ground it is just not cutting it for me.

Its kind of like when I get all hot and flustered when I see a Alternate Reality Game or I will dismiss an ad if it has been done in another country.

Who cares if So you think you can dance have copied an overseas idea? As long as it gets people interested in the show, who cares if they were the first to come up with the concept?

EDIT:
The So You Think You Can Dance comment was in response to the recent flash mob efforts which were covered on Mumbrella which included some unhappy markerters commenting on the piece.



Cash Registers before creativity!