Sponsors turn to social networking websites

Sponsors are realising the potential of social networking and eagerly financing clips and segments on various websites including YouTube. The website that has more than one billion viewers a day is becoming a platform for individuals to fulfill their dreams and get paid for it.

Matt Harding is one such techno geek who has danced his way into an international audience, and he has done it many times over. The 31-year-old has been watched by more than six million viewers as he does his four-and-a-half minute jig on the YouTube.
The Excited Toddler, as he is fondly called on the YouTube, shot his video in all the exotic corners of the world – 42 to be specific from Argentina to Zambia.

Making these videos is what Harding has been doing for a living for a few years now, thanks to corporate sponsorship from a gum company and thanks to an era in which an online video clip made as a goof can grab more attention than a prime-time TV show commercial. This is Harding's third video and the second sponsored by Stride gum.

YouTube may have failed to lure big advertising but its appeal of a billion viewers a day has surely got the attention of the corporate world. Product placements are the new mantra for the site as new owners Google re-asses their revenue source from YouTube.

Product placements, sponsored links and financing of web projects is picking up fast and is crossing over into the traditional media also.

In fact, product placement and corporate sponsorships have been seeping into new, user-generated turf lately. Last year, Dr Pepper sponsored production of a music video by YouTube star Tay Zonday, who is Web famous for his song Chocolate Rain. This year, Sprint Nextel is offering a few bucks to people who incorporate a new Samsung phone into a home video and post the results to YouTube. The first 1,000 videos to incorporate the Instinct phone get $20 apiece, and one grand prize-winning entry will win $10,000.

The appeal of contributing video for the pleasure of others is so strong that a regional media house Arab Media Group launched their Shoof TV, with a special programme that called for contribution from the viewers for cash rewards. Expectedly, the channel was inundated with contributions from viewers.

On the subject of internet fame, Matt's walk into the walk of fame is often stated as apt example of neo Web culture that's offering financial returns.

Internet culture has spent most of its existence in its own in-jokey world, but that's changing quickly. And as deep-pocketed corporate entities turn to user-generated channels looking for attention, there's no telling how things will play out.

It's easy to understand why sites like YouTube are attractive to advertisers and corporate sponsors. Getting a 30-second commercial on the air in front of a prime-time audience costs hundreds of thousands of dollars; uploading a video to YouTube costs nothing. Big-name entities from Revlon to Coldplay have recently sponsored contests on the video site.

Dubai's Road and Transport Authority is the first in the region to tie-up with the YouTube for communicaing with their customers and the society at large. The objective is to commuicate with the commuters, without having to impose corporate communication messages in the form of advertisements, explained an RTA official.

It's tough to determine whether popular phenomena like Harding's dancing videos result in actual sales, but constant feedback from viewers is a clear indication that the spponsoring gum company Stride has left some lasting impressions in the minds of the viewers.

Among the thousands of comments posted on the sites discussing Harding's video, a few say they're now going to buy Stride gum because of the company's support for the project.

Surprisingly, the none of the Harding's video, show any kind of branding from the sponsor and Harding doesn't wear a Stride T-shirt in the video; he doesn't even appear to chew gum. Stride is thanked in a two- to three-second spot at the end of the video.

In fact it's difficult to realise, at least while watching any of the videos that this entire run of wild jiving, which compresses 14 months of travel into a few quick minutes, is anything but a self-funded project.

Harding's travels got started in 2003 when he decided he didn't love his job at a video game company quite enough to stay around. So he quit and used his savings to do some travelling. As a passing joke, one of Harding's friends suggested, in Vietnam, that he do that goofy dance of his and videotape it. It became a running gag. When he got home, he posted the results to his personal Web site. Within weeks, the video had gone viral.

Later, Stride contacted Harding to see if he wanted to travel the world again and make another video – this time on its tab. Though he felt trepidations about corporate sponsorship, Harding said he was impressed that the company didn't want him to hawk their product.

"Nobody really wanted to mess with what he does and what he is," said Emily Liu, senior brand manager for Stride, who said that the company did not consider trying to make Harding's latest video more of an overt commercial. "We think Matt embodies the spirit and the personality of our brand."

Stride, which markets itself as "the ridiculously long lasting gum," didn't want to talk about the particulars of its sponsorship. Harding says he's doing well enough for himself, though he still drives the same car he drove before Stride came along.

Stride officials say they're open to another project with Harding. He says he's busy staying on top of his email at the moment and hasn't figured out what's next.