| By Jim Bruene on June 20, 2007 12:50 PM | Comments (2) |
YouTube is mostly an entertainment site, but it also can be used by businesses in a number of ways. The best example in financial services is Intuit's viral TurboTax Rap which has now attracted more than 1 million YouTube views, if you count the parodies (previous coverage here).
We've noticed a few financial institution postings on YouTube this year. However, San Jose, CA-based Technology Credit Union is the first we've seen to fully embrace the site, creating its own YouTube page <youtube.com/techcublog>.
The credit union posted four television commercials and another homemade video they called a "podcast."* Total views of the five spots is about 500. While that may not drive much new traffic, it's a smart move considering the minimal time and zero cost to post content to YouTube.
And, for first-movers such as Tech CU, the ability to garner press and blog attention is an added bonus.* While Tech CU hasn't done this yet, embedding YouTube videos into your website is a great way to make your website look more modern and get additional mileage out of your television advertising.
So far, Tech CU has only mentioned the YouTube page is a press release about its new television ads (here). But, I'm sure more integration is coming.
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*Tech CU took a little heat at OpenSource CU about the commercial masquerading as a podcast (see discussion here). However, Tech CU ended the criticism by explaining that the podcast was a test.
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Us giving someone heat? Unheard of! ;)
Another good YouTube use would be posting outtakes of commercials - a YouTube search for Coast Capital Savings brings up a hilarious one that never made the air.
I was one of the ones that gave them heat on the OpenSource CU page so I feel I should do it here too.
First of all - The Entourage commercial was clever. I went to that one first because I thought it was going to be a spoof of the show. But it made a good point (being a small business owner myself). Nicely produced, I dug it.
BUT, then I went to the mortgage lending one. Is that supposed to be funny too? That family is so perfect. I didn't know whether to laugh or be horrified. It's like the shiny happy people you see in all credit union ads came to life but they are still one dimensional. I expected to see cardboard cut-outs of them in the trash at the end.
This doesn't project a consistent image for Tech CU, in my opinion. Either stay funny and keep it real, or be plastic. Pick one. Think entertainment value. That's what You Tube is all about. You don't want people laughing at you for all the wrong reasons.