YouTube Launches Product Placement Police
YouTube has sent letters to content providers who include product placements in their videos, reminding them that they cannot post commercial material without YouTube’s permission. As Mediaweek reports:
The subtle implication is that YouTube could yank down these users’ videos if it so chose. But the bigger issue is that the Google-owned video giant needs to monetize as much of its content as possible. And as more brands engage in the practice of paying popular video bloggers to integrate their products into videos—rather than purchasing advertising on YouTube—Google needs to find a way to balance its revenue needs with keeping its most prolific talent happy.
YouTube will unveil new rules on commercial content shortly.
“We have a policy, and if we discover they are embedding stuff we will definitely let them know,” said Tom Pickett, YouTube’s director of online sales and operations. “We have tried to take a more hands-on approach to see if we can facilitate deals. But they shouldn’t be fearful of getting booted off the site.”
If YouTube formalizes product placement rules and pulls down videos that transgress, the result will be a lot like what you see on cable and network TV, where compliance departments have long monitored product placements and taken a cut when directors and producers try to slip in brands on their own.
Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
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