The YouTube Challenge

Sharing Videos With the World

Mark Faber

Blue Buffalo's YouTube Channel

YouTube is a platform for sharing interesting and entertaining content in video format. Like Twitter and Facebook, Youtube is a great way for companies share content and get users engaged and developing brand loyalty through humorous or heartfelt videos. Blue Buffalo and IAMs both have YouTube channels for sharing this content with subscribers and the internet in whole. IAMs has 9,093 subscribers with 15.7 million views on their 97 videos, however they have not posted a new video in 7 months! Blue Buffalo has 696 subscribers and 1.4 million views on their 60 videos and posts new videos twice a week on average.

IAM's Top Video 

Blue Buffalo and IAMs past 10 videos have been focused heavily on promotional, often just their commercials reformatted to include more details or be slightly longer. However IAMs had previously (1 year + ago) been posting tips and informative videos if only they had continued that trend, rather than just reposting commercials! Blue Buffalo has very rarely (only twice) deviated from sharing their TV commercials on YouTube, this is very disappointing as Blue Buffalo was so good and active in their different social channels.

IAMs top video out of the past 10 posted is a lengthened TV commercial titled “A Boy and his Dog Duck”, it has 2.4 million views and 285 comments. It tugs on the heartstrings and showcases a boy and his dog growing up together and how IAMs has the different diets needed at all stages of the dog’s life. It really is quite adorable will probably make you smile for a half hour. Blue Buffalo’s top video, “Blue vs Purina Dog Chow” is a minute long commercial comparing the ingredients in puppy food with a pet owner. It has 1,173 views and the comments are disabled which is a poor choice for social media.

The one bright spot for Blue Buffalo’s YouTube channel over IAMs is the use of keywords, links to website and other social sites in the description of each video whereas IAMs has not taken full advantage of these SEO benefits.