Thought Leaders in Mobile and Social: Jim Ackerman, Founder of Ackermania Creative (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: And that’s a classic consumer product situation. So, let’s continue. I think we’re in sync. The net of all this discussion is that there’s a certain barrier to entry based on the quality of the videos. The reason I probed a bit is because funny is not the only vector by which you can gain virality.

Jim Ackerman: Absolutely.

SM: Let’s get to next set of points. Let’s say you have a good video with a compelling message or a compelling, entertaining storyline. What are some of the mechanics of, I would say, “seeding” the virality?

JA: That’s a terrific question. It alludes to what you mentioned earlier, which is especially when it comes to anything commercial, seldom is there any automatic virality. The pump has to be primed or the ground has to be seeded, as you mentioned. It’s necessary to promote your videos. That’s where typically pay-per-click advertising comes in. That has really been the greatest secret to the Orabrush’s success. Their videos are promoted, and consistently promoted, over time through an aggressive pay-per-click strategy. Ads are purchased. They’re consistently tested and tracked for their effectiveness. We genetically engineer the marketing for ever-increasing success through the testing and tracking process. So, the ads are tried in a variety of different formats, everything from simple pay-per-click ads in a Google search to banner ads to channel sponsorships, these kinds of things. All are used to drive people from the ad to the YouTube channel or to a specific YouTube video. And from the specific YouTube video, they’re then driven, we hope, to the website to make their purchase.

SM: Would you explain why you chose the strategy or you are choosing the strategy of driving traffic through advertising to the YouTube channel as opposed to the website itself?

JA: The nature, of course, of the YouTube viewer is that they’re looking for entertainment or they may be looking for how-to information. They may or may not be looking for an opportunity to buy something. Just as direct mail, for example, is kind of an in-your-face sales push, driving people directly to websites is often very much the same thing. We drive them to the YouTube first, let them watch a YouTube video, and begin there to cultivate a relationship. Can we get them, for example, to subscribe? In other words, we recognize there’s  multistep process, in many cases, to get them to actually buy the product. If we can get them to the YouTube video, and therefore our YouTube channel, we can get them possibly to subscribe. We always have the subscribe opportunity embedded into each YouTube video so that they have an opportunity to do that. We ask them to like our channel. We ask them to pass it along. We ask for the virality.

SM: How do you do that? Talk about that. In a YouTube channel, the subscription option is right there. If people want to subscribe, they subscribe. Very few people actually do subscribe. How do you steer that along to make people subscribe?

JA: Again, you’ve got to provide them with content that they like, number one. And number two, you have to provide them with the promise that they’re likely to get more of it. And this is a good question because very often, I think companies go and they think, well, we’re going to put up a YouTube video. We’ll have a viral YouTube video, and people will buy all kinds of stuff from us. Well, it doesn’t happen that way. Number one, like we’ve been saying, you don’t automatically achieve virality. And number two, people don’t necessarily just go on, see something they like, and buy immediately. There is an engagement aspect to the whole thing that’s vitally important. This engagement aspect has to do with not doing just one YouTube video, but doing a series of YouTube videos.

SM: Hence the YouTube channel.

JA: Hence the YouTube channel. Technically speaking, you’ve got to have a YouTube channel to post on YouTube, but many people, like you say, will put up a video and expect something to happen. It rarely does. But if people go to your YouTube channel, and they see a video that they like, that entertains and/or informs, and there’s the promise of additional videos, this then gives them a reason to subscribe. In the case of Orabrush, for about 18 months a YouTube video came out every single week, at least one a week. It was an episode, so there was an ongoing theme to the thing. In the case of Orabrush, we have Morgan the Dirty Tongue; “Diaries of a Dirty Tongue” is what it’s called. Each week this rather obnoxious character comes out and does something ridiculous and outrageous. It is funny and entertaining, and people have subscribed by the tens of thousands. In fact, they so look forward to these videos every week that Orabrush is the third most watched commercial channel on YouTube, behind only Old Spice and Apple.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Thought Leaders in Mobile and Social: Jim Ackerman, Founder of Ackermania Creative
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