Google builds a new YouTube brand
Google is taking an innovative approach in building out its YouTube brand, moving the brand in a direction few expected. Instead of plunging deeper into a narrow video essence, it’s creating a new context for YouTube on a broader public stage. Through this brand strategy it seems YouTube aims to become an emergent video network from the citizen up, while forging a new meaning for media.
The public road to a stronger brand
One way to advance your brand is to take a leadership role on an issue of national (or global) importance. To make this strategy work, you pursue a path that’s results driven rather than merely symbolic, one that enables you to add value in clear and decisive terms. You want your brand to become a (distinctive) method for getting (important) things done. You’re after results, not just feelgood “associations.” In this way, your brand becomes an enabler of higher forms of action and understanding—and potentially, a powerful platform in creating new market spaces.
The payoff is that strategically, your brand can extend your company value, and your product value, into greenfield areas of common good. These can change customers, and change markets.
From molten Mentos to the “YouTube Debates”
A good example of this brand strategy is YouTube’s role in the ongoing “CNN/YouTube Debates.” Who would have thought that YouTube, barely out of its molten Mentos phase, would now have a signal voice in the national political process, sharing top billing with CNN, a premier news network?
On the Web the debates are often referred to as the “YouTube debates,” as if YouTube is now an accepted kingmaker on the national political scene. That’s a tremendous brand leap from YouTube’s born-in-a-basement origins a few years ago.
This new debate format is a baby step toward a more participative democracy. It’s far from perfect, and it barely scratches the surface of its digital potential. But what currently stands out is the innovative role played by YouTube, not the mainstream shepherding by CNN.
A brand of democratic engagement
To see where the YouTube brand may be headed, check out YouTube’s new political blog called CitizenTube. YouTube is on the way to becoming a brand of political engagement, and perhaps a brand of political transparency as well. The debates in concert with CNN are only a first step.
You can also see the deeper strategy here. Just fill in the blank next to “Tube” for a new area of YouTube relevance. “CitizenTube” for politics. “SportsTube” for athletics. “HealthTube” for wellness, etc. While a marketing approach would typically create these avenues as static “channels” (for passive, static “targets”), a brand approach creates them as active fields of collaboration and innovation.
How YouTube frames its debate initiative
Here is how YouTube frames its debate initiative:
The core concept behind these debates is to let real questions from real people drive the dialogue. The power of YouTube is that it lowers the barrier to entry to engage in the political process, and levels the platform for political discussion. It used to be that a voter had to live in Iowa, New Hampshire, or Florida to engage with the candidates at this stage of the campaign, but YouTube has broken down those barriers, and has brought more transparency and access to the political dialogue than ever before. We think that politics will never be the same (thankfully).
Make your brand a springboard, not a billboard
The bottom line is that you want your brand to be a springboard, not a billboard. It’s a springboard for customers and partners to break free from current constraints. That’s why we need a new definition of brand, one that’s action-oriented, collaborative and driven by initiative and opportunity.
Our own master definition of brand seems to fit YouTube’s direction rather well:
Brands are avenues of value innovation in a creative engagement between companies and their customers.
And, as we also like to say, great brands are not meant to be seen. They’re a lens on life, and meant to be seen through. A YouTube brand that enables political transparency is a definite plus.