In the past few months, American Apparel has run several campaigns on YouTube to promote some of the company's lesser-known lines, from swimwear to kids clothing. Our personal favorite is a campaign they recently ran targeted to pet content on YouTube -- including the famous (or maybe infamous) "Skateboarding Dog" video.

In this interview, Ryan Holiday, Marketing and Web Strategist at American Apparel, talked to us about the company's overall marketing goals, the importance of being playful, and, of course, dogs on skateboards.

1. Why did you want to target American Apparel ads to videos of dogs on skateboards?

It started when we were looking for dance websites and it turned out that there weren't that many -- at least ones that fit our audience. But there are a lot of great dance videos. Awesome ones, actually. So we started designing ads for the American Apparel DANCE line and targeted them to our favorite ballet, aerobics and dance videos. At the same time, we realized that a lot of people don't know that you can buy American Apparel for your pet because it's a hard thing to advertise for, so we started looking for pet videos. "Skateboarding Dog" is obviously an iconic YouTube video, but there are so many other really cute pet ones out there. The same goes for videos like "Charlie Bit My Finger," which felt like a great place to introduce the American Apparel Kids line. Fun parents are the reason it got popular and that's what our line is about. Our Sesame Street shirts will hopefully go next to Sesame Street videos and so on.


2. How do you measure the success of this campaign?

AdWords lets you track view-through orders, so that's one metric. Considering that the alternatives are tactics like site retargeting or large network buys, or in this case children's or pet-owners' magazines, just being able to do advertising that is playful and appreciated by the people seeing it sort of makes it successful regardless.

3. What did you learn and how has it informed other campaigns you've run on YouTube?

You should be on the sites your employees and fans are on. The second we started picking YouTube videos, employees from all over the world began sending in links of videos they thought we should be on. Striking a nerve like that lets you know that you might have something special.

4. How does your YouTube campaign fit within your larger marketing strategy?

It fits into its own little pocket. You have marketing that is about a message or the brand, and you have marketing that pushes new products or events. This is something that's a combination of that. People on YouTube are looking to discover things and hopefully our ads help them do that.

5. What's your favorite YouTube video?

We're partial to the Larry Flynt deposition from the Falwell lawsuit.

Posted by Lane Shackleton, Product Specialist

Many thanks to graphic designer Patrick Mullane for our new logo.

It took some time, but people have learned how to build audiences, create brands and make money on YouTube. Michael Buckley and Fred were among the first to reach six figures and invent brands through their YouTube series. NigaHiga makes a living producing videos from his home and Don't Forget To Be Awesome Records was founded by two guys who understood the value of the musicians releasing music on YouTube. Now Next New Networks has figured out how to develop businesses like these over and over again.

For the past three years, Next New Networks has worked hard to make some of the most dynamic channels on YouTube, including BarelyPolitical, Channel Frederator and Threadbanger. Now they've launched the Next New Creators program, which is designed to uncover and promote the next big Web series. They will partner with up-and-coming independent creators to distribute, promote, package and monetize their shows that currently appear on YouTube.

Next New Networks has already proven that they know a thing or two about web series. They've been working with independent producers since early 2009, helping turn many online shows into hits like "Auto-Tune The News" and "Beyond The Trailer." This new program will act much like a venture capital firm, investing resources into potential businesses to create a new wave of high-quality series and brands on YouTube.

Interested creators can sign up here.

Congrats to Next New Networks on their launch!

Posted by Kevin Yen, Director of Strategic Partnerships, and Melissa Crounse, Strategic Partner Manager

More than 20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, made by everyone from major media companies right down to your next door neighbor. Two years ago, we created the YouTube Partner Program to recognize and reward those resourceful individuals who managed (or had the potential) to parlay an interest in video into a meaningful career.

Today, many partners are earning real dollars from their videos. Some users have quit their jobs to concentrate on YouTube full-time, including several who make six figures a year from the site. The program has sprouted in more than 10 countries and our user partners now generate more monetized views per week than some sites generate in a month.

We want to pause for a minute to thank each and every one of our partners who have dedicated their time and talent to creating amazing content for the entire world to enjoy. It's been humbling to watch the evolution from first upload to major achievements like:

• Fred's videos have been viewed more than 400 million times (more than the population of the United States), and he will star in a feature film
• Ryan Higa is the most subscribed channel on YouTube, with more than 1.6 million subscribers
• Lauren Luke (panacea81) launched a makeup line
• Brownbagfilms' animated video has been shortlisted for the 2010 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film
• DerrickComedy team used YouTube revenue to self-finance a feature film
• Others have earned such awards as a Tech Award in Education, Digista Award in Japan, and the distinction of being one of TIME's 50 best inventions of 2009

Our YPP partners have a unique understanding of how to engage their audiences and connect with people through video, and that is at the heart of their success. They are an inspiration to the YouTube community at large and they define what we mean by community itself.

This is still just the beginning of the YouTube Partner Program and we look forward to many more success stories -- and many more partners -- in 2010 and beyond.

Posted by Shenaz Zack, Product Manager

This post is the third of a series highlighting the inspiration and execution behind some of the more innovative and successful custom advertising programs on YouTube. Check out Part One and Part Two of the series. -Ed.

A common theme we've seen in the campaigns we've highlighted is the interaction and conversation between users and advertisers. Whether producing episodic content, integrating social media such as Twitter, giving users a chance to earn fame and prizes, or simply a conversation with their favorite YouTube celebrity, they have strongly engaged the user community. We've been talking about the importance of engagement ever since the first major ad campaigns on YouTube, and there's a reason for it. Engagement leads to better brand recognition and general ad performance.

Lesson #3: Allow Users to Take Your Campaign and Run With It

Carl’s Jr. (CKE Restaurants) is well-known for its sense of humor and edgy television advertising -- who can forget the TV spot they ran in 2005, featuring a scantily clad Paris Hilton soaping up a Bentley and digging into a Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger? For the launch of their new Portobello Mushroom Burger, CKE tapped into a new kind of celebrity to showcase their product: popular YouTube users.

The nine homegrown YouTube celebrities enlisted by CKE each created humorous, light-hearted takes on how they would dig into Carl's Jr.'s new Portobello Mushroom Burger. These YouTube stars also encouraged their aggregate fan base of nearly 4 million loyal followers to upload videos showing how they would enjoy the new burger. This campaign echoed far and wide amongst Carl’s target audience, resulting in nearly 10 million views for all of the videos.

iJustine, or Justine Ezarik

Not only did the campaign create a dialogue and sense of community around a new product, but sales of Portobello Mushroom Burger doubled from the period before the launch of the campaign on YouTube. The campaign also won an OMMA award this year in the “Best in Show” category.

Carl’s Jr. is not the only example of a brand extending its campaign to users and encouraging them to make videos themselves. HP also extended their “Hands” commercials to the YouTube community for their recent "You on You" campaign.

HP You on You Project

The campaign contained a simple and engaging call-to-action video that asked YouTube users in 21 different countries to create a video that expressed who they are -- but without revealing their faces. Previously, HP “Hands” commercials were filmed with stars such as Jerry Seinfeld or Pharrell, but this contest allowed a worldwide audience to participate in HP’s iconic campaign. HP also featured a webcam application and a remixer tool (allowing users to create their own videos using pre-made content from HP) on the HP brand channel, to make the creative and sharing process easier for contestants. It clearly worked, because the results were phenomenal: the "You on You" channel received thousands of entries and more than 2.5 million views from people in 175 countries.

Many of the campaigns in this blog series have empowered users to participate in a dialogue with brands, and sometimes even own elements of YouTube campaigns themselves. Together they've earned three OMMA Awards and a Gold Lion at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. As the largest online video destination in the world, YouTube is full of ways like these for advertisers to engage users and break new ground in the digital world.

Posted by Jane Yu, Sales Development

The eagerly awaited James Cameron movie, AVATAR, comes to our screens next week and YouTube has some very good reasons to count down the seconds.

Twentieth Century Fox has given three YouTube power users red carpet access to tonight's world premiere in London's West End. DaveyBoyz, Paperlilies and WhatAboutAdam will be putting their video-making skills to good effect as they soak up the excitement around the AVATAR event. Following their red carpet experience they will be off to Fox's editing suite to turn their exclusive footage from the night into a final cut fit for the film's official channel on YouTube.

AVATAR will also run ads on the YouTube homepage in a record 15 countries one day later, reaching millions of YouTube users around the world. The AVATAR ad will link to footage from the premiere, help users identify their nearest cinema using Google Maps, and drive traffic to AVATAR content from Twitter and Facebook.

Twentieth Century Fox hopes that providing the YouTube community with exclusive access to the film's world premiere and engaging related content on the homepage will give millions of people worldwide the opportunity to be a part of the AVATAR phenomenon first hand.



Posted by James Cashmore, Head of Entertainment, YouTube U.K.

Promoted Videos continue to expand around the world, launching today in the Czech Republic, Ireland, Israel, Poland, Russia, and Sweden. Promoted Videos are now available in 16 countries, helping advertisers worldwide easily and effectively increase views of their videos on YouTube.

We've already seen some great campaigns since we launched in several countries in October:

• Australia: Mitsubishi Motors showcased the technology -- like bluetooth and iPod support -- integrated into the new Mitsubishi Outlander.
• Germany: Maskworld.com prepared for Halloween by promoting a video of 2008's Zombie Walk in Berlin.
• Japan: Pop star Ayuse Kozue promoted the release of her new album.
• U.K.: Foot Locker drove viewers to watch one of the more creative commercials we've seen about, well, shoes.

As advertisers around the world start investing in online video, we want to make sure that they have the ability -- no matter where they are -- to reach YouTube's audience with their content in a highly targeted way. We hope to roll out Promoted Videos to additional countries early next year.

Posted by Jay Akkad, Product Manager