by Peter Vaughan, Copywriter

Both Yahoo Buzz and Digg allow users to submit news and vote on articles, with the most popular rising to the top. But according to a recent study by comScore, Yahoo’s user-generated news site, Yahoo Buzz, is vastly outperforming the incumbent, Digg. Is this for real?

Well, the data doesn’t lie. During the month of April, Yahoo Buzz outperformed Digg with 7 Million unique visitors who spent an average of about 14 minutes on site. More importantly, 51% of Yahoo Buzz users are women, compared to Digg’s 39%.

While I’m a loyal Digg fan, I’ll be the first to admit that this is a long time coming. Digg’s site has long been criticized for being overly male, childish and, for lack of a better word, geeky. If you’re into video games, politics (if you count Ron Paul), gadget news and the occasional LOLcat image, Digg is the place for you. If you like sports, music, movies, celebrities and “reliable” news from “trusted” media, Yahoo Buzz might be your new home.

However, I wouldn’t raise the victory flag just yet. Digg’s fans are a special breed – they spend hours upon hours on the web, are very tech savvy, and obviously as the aforementioned criticisms state, stick to cult subject matters. To them, Yahoo represents an evil corporate machine (you need to register a yahoo email address to participate on Yahoo Buzz) – what Digg has going for it is anti-culture and mob rule, even in major site development decisions.

In recent town hall meetings conducted via web cam, Digg founder Kevin Rose listened quietly to hundreds of complaints about “super-user” scandals, poor commenting features and gaming (making an article popular via artificial, black hat means). However, the monthly public ranting sessions seem to work – Digg made its algorithm smarter by rewarding “experts,” blocking the ISPs of Public Relations companies, and updating its comment system two weeks ago.

More importantly, the statistics presented by comScore are a little misleading given the fact that the most popular Yahoo Buzz stories are featured on the search engine’s homepage. Each click on Yahoo is a click for Yahoo Buzz, greatly increasing the stats – this is a very intelligent business move, but doesn’t necessarily mean anyone is actually using and interacting with Yahoo Buzz.

Oh, and did I mention that right now Yahoo Buzz only allows people to post stories from partner and affiliate sites? This drastically reduces content options from bloggers and third-party sites. Once this ban is lifted, I imagine Yahoo Buzz will find itself with the same problem as Digg – dominant techies, or in the case of Yahoo, payola reps, gaining a monopoly on popular content.

In the end, there is no doubt a buzz blood bath will occur. Perhaps, Yahoo will ultimately gain the upper hand due to its mainstream dominance and a little bit of a budget increase from our friends at Microsoft. As a marketer, I recommend common sense – if your content is more techy go with Digg. If you’re more mainstream go with Yahoo Buzz. Or if you’re a real rebel, use both – it’ll take you all of fifteen minutes.

by Andy Leinicke, Media Director, PPC

According to Alexa, YouTube is generating more page views than facebook, myspace, and even Google itself. It holds an enormous inventory for advertisers that has remained largely untapped – until now.

Google recently invited me to one of its Advertiser Forums in Mountain View. There, I got to see all of Google’s new video advertising products firsthand, including exciting YouTube opportunities.

Getting Started
There are two questions you need to ask to get started with a Google video program. The first is which network to run in. Google has two: the Google Contextual Network, and YouTube (it’s important to note that YouTube now includes streaming premium partners).

The second question to consider is which format your ad will take. Google now has lots of exciting format options. I’ve listed formats and video networks below:

*InVideo ads are currently only available to advertisers with managed accounts.

Click to Play (CTP) ads have been around for a while. It’s possible to load these via AdWords and target across the Content Network in the same way as text or image ads.

YouTube Video Ads, on the other hand, run exclusively on YouTube and need to be arranged manually. They can be broadcasted for a mass audience on YouTube’s home page or targeted by category or by search terms. Here is an example of a video ad for Rolling Rock that plays on the YouTube homepage:

The ad directs to a cool, engaging microsite customized for this campaign:

Companion ads are 300X250 pixel units that appear next to your custom home page placement or beside videos on a YouTube Watch Page (the pages where you actually view videos are called Watch Pages). Here is Google’s mock up for a Companion Ad:

An InVideo ad is a dynamic flash overlay that appears on the bottom of a video while it’s playing. Google claims that this ad unit is much more welcome than other approaches such as pre-rolls or post-rolls. Users can expand or click on these ads and, unlike other YouTube tactics, the InVideo ad has direct response promise. In fact, Google claims that beta advertising programs have shown amazing click through and conversion rates using InVideo. Here is an example of a BMW Google InVideo ad at work:

The InVideo ad is completely controlled by the user. If the ad is good enough (Red Bricks Media can test for this), users will click through to an expansion and eventually a destination url:

YouTube’s social functionality gives users a brand new way to experience video. Another opportunity to advance your marketing efforts on YouTube is by utilizing their channel feature. Anyone can create a YouTube Channel for free. Channels are like an iTunes playlist and a MySpace page all in one. Here’s a Channel that some old friends of mine at Teton Gravity Research recently made:

TGR makes some of the best surfing and skiing movies out there. This YouTube Channel lets them build an online community that generates ticket and DVD sales.

But it’s possible to think even bigger with Channels. YouTube can create a custom Brand Channel with site-like functionality and special promotion features. Brand Channels have highly customizable interfaces, including a special logo area at the top. An example of this is the “Living Legends” Brand Channel:

This Brand Channel allows users to upload videos of themselves asking questions to legendary rock stars like Mick Jagger which Mr. Jagger responds with his own video post. Marketers can use similar technology to promote contests.

It’s easy to see that Google has introduced a vast array of ways to interact with audiences using video. Contact a Red Bricks Media rep to learn how Red Bricks Media can design a proposal that’s right for you.