Video Discovery #9 of 2009: Creating a Cottage Industry from Your Video
Posted on December 27th, 2009 in Business Strategy, Marketing Strategy, Video, traffic | 5 Comments »
Sometimes, when you target a video to a very specific interest group, it takes off. Its almost like a private joke. Something that means nothing to 99% of the population creates a stunning response in the other 1%.
And the last time I checked, 1% of 8 billion is still a pretty good sized audience.
So when Simon Tofield created an animated video featuring the hijinks of a cat, feline lovers all over the world responded. To the tune of over 12 million views.
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So over the next 2 years, Simon created 7 more videos that racked up a total of 44 million views!
In fact, his latest video released in mid-December 2009 has been viewed over 800,000 times in one week!
And from those videos – and the following he built through them – he created a burgeoning cottage industry you can discover at SimonsCat.com, including:
- A book
- T-shirts and mugs (although his store has been temporarily taken offline)
- Contests
- An iPhone and iPod Touch App
He has also used the videos to boost his career as an animation director.
Takeaways:
- Its easier to create a response when your videos are targeted to a specific audience and their own unique emotional triggers.
- Videos that strike a nerve are a great way to boost sales of your book
- They can also build a loyal community you can market to forever
- They can boost your profile and prestige, which can translate into higher fees for your existing services
- They can land you tons of free media, that would have cost you big bucks if you had to purchase it.
5 Responses
One key was that most of his videos had no language, so appealed to a world-wide audience.
[Reply]
Rob Reply:
December 29th, 2009 at 10:51 am
That*s a terrific point Jurgen. YouTube is worldwide. So a video like this is truly international — folks of all nationalities love cats, and because no words are spoken, it opens up the response that much more.
[Reply]
I’ve used Simon’s Cat Man Do video in my presentations for a couple of years. It always brings a laugh and it a great way to warm up an audience. The guy totally gets cat behavior. I laughed till I cried when watching the one about the fly. Your points renew my determining to pursue a topic in my niche that I think will have a big emotional impact to the right sub-niche audience!
[Reply]
Rob Reply:
December 29th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Suzanne, you are right on target. When you can isolate that emotional trigger and combine that with the audience that gets “triggered” you have a much better chance of getting the response you want. Simon has created … I believe … a total of 8 videos in two years. 44 million total views shows when you nail the trigger, word spreads like wildfire.
[Reply]
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