"Youtube"- The Starmaker

In class, we talked about the power of Youtube as both a marketing tool, and as an overall buzz-generator. Our book, "The New Influencers" , devotes a special section to the importance of Youtube, and it's counterpart, Myspace, in the emerging world of Web 2.0.

The book discusses the success of several different youtube-rs, such as the incredibly popular "lonelygirl15", and, as we watched in class, the Mentos example. These are of course really powerful examples of how a video can be distributed virally, and essentially become a sensation on the web. More than that, Youtube has the power to turn the average joe-schmo into an internet star.

For example, take William Sledd. Sledd, a 24 year old Kentucky native, worked at the Gap. He purchased a Mac, and with the help of his new computer, made a youtube profile, and started uploading videos. In time, he came to be a Youtube sensation. To this day, he has 3,534,187 channel views on his youtube profile, and that doesn't count the views of his individual videos. Due to his buzz, Sledd has been offered television deals, was asked to participate in New York fashion week, and, was offered a chance to interview Issac Mizrahi:



What I'm getting at here is that anyone can become a viral sensation these days. Like the book says, Youtube is an excellent way for marketers to reach coveted demographics. Just as importantly, it serves as a marketing tool for individuals to market themselves. In the movie Ratatouille, Chef Gusteau claims that anyone can be a chef. Thanks to youtube, if the content is worthy, anyone can be a star.