No, there’s not much money out there for independent web video publishers. In fact, Perez Hilton said he only made $5,000 on 25 million video views on YouTube (that works out to a lousy .20 CPM, if my math is correct.) So video producers are starting to look for product placement opportunities, explains this TV Week story.
This is a logical next step for online video, which is still in its infancy. If you ask me, online video will continue to niche down until you can “subscribe” to just about everything under the sun, either to your TV, mobile device or PC. The majority of this video will originate from family and friends — baby’s first steps, etc. — but let’s focus on the other stuff. The most successful “shows,” for lack of a better term, will be passionately loyal to their niche and deliver useful information in unique and entertaining ways. (For example, I’d love a “show” about mountain biking in Seattle that combines crazy hijinks with useful trail information. And shows like these would have serious long-tail benefits). They’ll also be produced on a budget, and many of them, like blogging, will be labor of loves. Now, what’s missing here is two things: 1) an easy way for consumers to discover this content and seamlessly “subscribe” to it on their TVs, mobile devices and PCs and 2) an easy way for advertisers to discover shows that match their needs, and then scale enough advertising and product placement across them, with full back-end accountability. For example, K2 Snowboards should be able to quickly find and traffic video ads/placements across every snowboarding show in the country that meets minimum audience parameters and general standards.
But one thing should be very clear here: like blogging, there won’t be much money in it for video producers. Some will become hits and score some cash, especially if like-minded shows are networked together. But this isn’t Hollywood, by any stretch of the imagination. Thoughts on all this? Please let me know in comments…