Online Video Strategy: Val's Art Diary

Artist Andy Warhol was correct in 1968 when he said, "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." Forty-three years later, the widespread use of social media in nearly every aspect of life has democratized the attainment of fame. These days anyone can easily become famous just by creating a video about anything and freely posting it on YouTube. If the video is compelling, funny or shocking enough, it could go viral and be seen by millions of people around the world. For that reason, I believe in the future, everyone will have his or her own brand channel.

Corporations, and now entrepreneurial individuals, have latched on to the power of YouTube to attract a following and sell their products. Valentina Trevino was a struggling artist who sold only five paintings before she started doing Val's Art Diary, her weekly YouTube show in which she works on a new painting while talking about her art and her life. She has gained a large following in the five years that Val's Art Diary has been on YouTube. Val's videos have been viewed more than 22 million times, 53,000 people subscribe to her YouTube channel and she has sold every painting featured in her videos.

Some people may think that Val's success is a fluke, but her success is the result of using a new media marketing strategy. Listed below are some of the many tactics Val uses to create her World Wide Rave:

• Val is authentic. She doesn't present herself to be anyone but herself: cute, quirky, fun, funny, introspective and talented. She is a real person with self-admitted flaws. People like her because they can relate to her.
• Val leverages the long tail of marketing to sell her paintings. Her acrylic paintings appeal to a niche market of consumers. Not everyone who views her videos is necessarily in the market to buy her paintings, but the more videos she makes and the bigger her following becomes, the more paintings she sells. And with her unique style she can turn a potential buyer into an actual customer.
• Val's video blogs contain great content. She excels in documenting her painting process (the idea behind the painting, what inspired it, what it symbolizes). Also she throws in a bit of art history in an interesting way.
• Val engages her audience. Her video blogs are conversations with her followers. She asks for and encourages their comments, good or bad.
• Val makes her online content free and freely shareable. She occasionally gives away a painting to a lucky viewer by printing out her entire email list and throwing a dart at it. The person whose name is hit by the dart wins the painting. This is a mutually beneficial tactic: Val adds to her growing list of potential buyers, and one lucky viewer receives an original painting from the artist herself. It's a win-win situation!
• Val uses several social media platforms (YouTube, BlogTV, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook) in conjunction with her website to get her message out.

Like other social media platforms, YouTube Insight allows anyone with a YouTube account to view detailed statistics about the audience for the videos that they upload to the site. The information can be used to analyze marketing efforts – both on and off YouTube – and determine how best to optimize advertising campaigns.

Other Video Websites

• Metacafe is a video entertainment site that focuses on short-form  and entertainment videos and is audience-driven. It contains a wide array of high-quality video tutorials on many subjects, including DIY, magic, and science experiments. It has a pageview payment system, which allows users to be compensated for their videos.
• TED's whole concept is to spread ideas about diverse topics. The search on the site allows you to search by keywords or by themes.

Online Video is for Everyone 

I believe that, like Val, many other individuals, organizations and businesses can benefit from using YouTube or their own branded channel. Here are some examples:

• People in the entertainment field such as musicians, bands, actors and comedians could use it to showcase their talent and creative process
• Political candidates could use videos as part of their campaigning strategy to explain their political platforms
• Educators could post their video lectures and organize them by topic, semester, etc.
• Anyone could use it to documenting his or her vacations, adventures, expeditions, etc.
• A parent could create a video journal for his or her children or spouse who doesn't live with them (e.g., military personnel)

Organizations, businesses and individuals should not overlook using video as part of their overall marketing strategy. YouTube and other video websites are growing in popularity and are a great source of potential buyers, donors and volunteers. Who knows, with imagination, effort and a little luck even I could become the next World Wide Rave!