• Ad Age, Friday, September 1, 2006 12 PM

Following Paris Hilton's lead, marketers now know they can buy visibility on YouTube. It's more like a content-distribution partnership, in which marketers pay YouTube for the right to upload content and promotional materials to an interactive channel. They get all the measurement trappings of their very own hosted Web site. It also lets consumers interact with brands, by letting them leave feedback, send content to friends and bask in total brand immersion. But it's not for everyone. How could a consumer packaged-goods marketer, for example, leverage this? Also, there are questions of control: Anyone can say anything they want about your brand on your brand page, and it can't be erased. As Ad Age says: "It has already been proven that confident brands win in the Web 2.0 culture." There you have it--move forward confidently, or don't move at all. Let the haters hate, the lovers love--but enjoy the fact that people care enough to talk about your brand. It won't be for everyone, but for entertainment and technology marketers, a brand channel on a popular Web site could prove an opportunity to give consumers what they want.

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