YouTube – Get ready for “Click-to-Buy”

October 9, 2008

It finally looks like Google (or at least at the requests of it’s investors) is going to start taking advantage of the eyeball-pulling power of YouTube. They’ve announced that they will begin placing ads that allow viewers of videos for a lucky few producers to “click” and make purchases.

The first of these include Amazon, iTunes, EMI Music and Electronic Arts.

According to analysts Piper Jaffray Research, the site could generate $200 million in sales in 2009.

But for all of us, it means that this is the first step towards throwing other products into the mix. Like products and services that we offer! Screencast marketers may soon be able to use video promotions (which Camtasia videos are perfect for) that include the ability for a viewer to click a Buy-Now kind of function.

According the the Official Google Blog:

This is just the beginning of building a broad, viable e-commerce platform for users and partners on YouTube. Our vision is to help partners across all industries — from music, to film, to print, to TV — offer useful and relevant products to a large, yet targeted audience, and generate additional revenue from their content on YouTube beyond the advertising we serve against their videos.

Lots of open questions on the User Interface and how all this will work, look, and be received but certainly a step that we can all be interested in!

NOTE TO OLD-SCHOOL VIACOM: Hey! Instead of suing to the tune of making only the lawyers rich, how about, oh I don’t know…profiting by advertising?? Duh…

Posted in Video Marketing, YouTube