Google certainly knows how to throw a shin-dig, and did so to announce a $100 million campaign to push new premium and professional
YouTube channels. Guests such as
Jay-Z,
Flo Rida and the Neon Trees,
Julia Stiles,
Jennifer Beals and
Virginia Madsen were in attendance and some performed on the night. Unsurprisingly, Jay-Z’s appearance has already been
uploaded to YouTube.
Google also announced a $200 million campaign to push these channels across Google’s portfolio. It hopes to put YouTube on a par with other entertainment mediums. The company is currently attempting to train users to think of YouTube as an entertainment source and destination. Google’s Vice President of Content,
Robert Kyncl, said that the team has taken a look at TV and learned from it. He added, “You can press a button and relax."
The success of this campaign ultimately comes down to the users and content providers. Content providers are what draw people to the site and YouTube has to hope that premium channels and shows will pay off, rather than people visiting to watch endless cat videos. Secondly, the visitors must adapt to changes that YouTube is bringing and identify the content it wants to see. The interesting argument made by Kynci is that YouTube has learned from TV; wasn’t YouTube supposed to be different to what TV is and that’s why it was popular?