Monetizing YouTube

So Google blew past it's numbers last week but it seems it still may have a ways to go in monetizing YouTube.

Not so, for Simon Cowell. Yes, that Simon Cowell of American Idol fame.

For those of you who may not know, Cowell is also one of the judges on the UK series Britain's Got Talent.

Enter Paul Potts. Paul who? Paul Potts. Think Pavarotti. Think phone salesman steps up to microphone, blows audience away with Turandot's Nessum Dorma, winds up with an instant career faster than you can pour boiling water into a coffee cup and over 40 Million YouTube views. No, seriously, 40 Million YouTube views.

Those 40 million YouTube views catapulted his debut CD into Number 1 in the UK, with a #2 debut in Canada.

Not bad.

And all very interesting.

But the really interesting part is that YouTube has become an intrinsic part of the marketing campaign, not only for it's viral component as is its nature, but also as a selling proposition.

To wit, the television commercial launching the album promotes Paul Potts as the phenom who won "Britain's Got Talent", slightly more intriguing however, for those of us who don't get British TV, it also promotes Paul Potts as the man with over 30 million YouTube views.

Paul Potts is, of course, managed by Simon Cowell, who signed him on hearing him sing.

All in a day's marketing work.

Have a good one.

~The (SEP) Guy