YouTube Registration Act in South Korea

According to a new regulation, YouTube users in South Korea are required to provide their identification information before they are allowed to post videos and other content on the media sharing site.  The public has responded that Google, who owns YouTube, is compromising its user’s freedom of speech on the Internet.  This follows right after last week’s incident of China blocking access of YouTube to its citizens, leading us to wonder if more governments will try to regulate content on the Internet, for social or political reasons.

South Korea which has the highest number of broadband connections per capita may have reasons to justify their new regulation.  In the country where 75% of households are connected to the Internet on broadband, cyberviolence (from harassment to online death-threats) is on the Internet are on the rise.There have been dozens of people indicted on charges of criminal contempt or slander for writing or spreading malicious online insults about victims.  Many victims of cyberviolence have lost their jobs, some even their lives, due to internet users marking them as pubic enemies.

“The idea is to make people feel more responsible for what they are posting on the Net,” said Oh Sang Kyoon, a director at the Ministry of Information and Communications. “Victims cannot live a normal life. They quit jobs and run away from society. They even flee the country. It’s like lynching victims in a ‘people’s court on the Web.’”

Case Study: Skittle’s Internet Marketing Campaign

I can’t remember the last time I had Skittles, the rainbow-colored sweet and sour candy.  I had all but forgotten about it until I saw mention of it on Twitter.  And then I saw it on YouTube, then Wikipedia and then Facebook.  Then I heard about it on Twitter again.  Finally, it was picked up on the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the rest was history.

Skittles made waves in the online marketing community early last month when it decided to relaunch their website.  What was special about the website was that it was in fact a collage of different websites.  It had an “about us” section that was pulled from Wikipedia, videos from YouTube, a “chatter” section that pulled posts (tweets) from Twitter, among other user-created content from various Web 2.0 properties.  By leveraging on these social media properties all at once, the Internet community was suddenly hit from multiple channels about Skittles.  What quickly ensued was a sharp spike in buzz around the brand.

Within 48 hours, everyone from blog owners to internet marketers were discussing Skittles.  So were spammers and pranksters.  The internet marketing campaign soon started a negative downward spiral.  Users exploited the twitter-skittles “hack” and started to post comments ranging from the purely unrelated to profanities about the candy.  Skittles eventually took down the Twitter portion of the site.  Even then, the Skittles campaign had already achieved text-book case-study status.

Skittles is a generally well-known brand.  If a lesser-known brand were to pull off the same tactic, it may not have suffered/enjoyed the same results.  What Skittles managed to do, was to gain critical mass for its campaign within an extremely short period of time, a feat that is crucial to internet marketing.

Internet marketers have been taking both sides of the campaign.  Some think that Skittles’ courageous adoption of the web 2.0 properties paid off big-time, while others scoffed at giving too much freedom to consumers, a freedom which was eventually abused.

Personally, I feel that the outcome from the Skittles campaign was positive.  Prior to the campaign, there was little mention of the brand or even candy in general on the Internet.  Then suddenly, literally everyone was talking about  it.  Skittles could have spent half a million dollars on new tvcs yet not come close to this level of buzz around its brands.  Indeed, there were some nasty comments left on its website, but I am sure a majority of visitors to the site realized that this was the work of immature pranksters, something bound to happen in today’s social web environment.  These visitors would normally not have even thought of dropping by the site.

The lesson we take away from this campaign:  we see the potential of using web 2.0 as a marketing channel but at the same time realize that it is a raw and untamed force.  Study social media marketing and master it, because if you don’t, someone else will.

The President of the US Uses It Too

THE US Senate and House of Representatives have launched YouTube channels following a presidential election in which the video-sharing website played an influential role.

Steve Grove, head of news and politics at Google-owned YouTube, announced the creation of the channels, youtube.com/senatehub, and youtube.com/househub, in a post on the YouTube blog on Monday that also featured appearances in a YouTube video by the Democratic and Republican leaders of the chambers.

‘Both Democratic president-elect Barack Obama and his Republican rival John McCain made heavy use of YouTube during the presidential race, posting official campaign videos on the site and encouraging its use by supporters.

Since his November 4 election victory, Mr Obama has also been putting his weekly addresses to the nation on YouTube.

‘Find your Senator and Representative on YouTube and make a connection … and if your elected representative doesn’t have a YouTube channel yet, give them a call or an email and encourage them to get started,’ Mr Grove said.

‘These YouTube channels have the potential to make Congress more transparent and accessible than ever before – but only if you continue to connect and engage with your government on the site,’ he added.

To read the full article from the Straits Times, click here.

Marketing through Youtube, why?

• In Aug 2006, video views reached 1.73 billion (source: Wall Street Journal)
• Youtube’s user base is broad in age range, 18-55, divided between males and females, and spanning all geographies. Fifty-one percent of users go to YouTube weekly or more often, and 52 percent of 18-34 year-olds share videos often with friends and colleagues. (source: YouTube)
• Viral nature of videos offers potential exponential return on marketing
• It’s free! (developing your custom video is another matter)

That’s why.