photo source: http://www.saturncorp.com/saturnus/

I am putting together an analysis of YouTube case studies to help establish benchmarks for success. Of course, benchmarking any social media effort is a hot topic these days, but the growth of YouTube makes online videos hotter than most.

As reported in Techcrunch last week, “[t]he real number of streams/day, we’ve now confirmed with a source at Google, is above 1.2 billion/day worldwide…That pretty much means everyone on the Internet, on average, is watching one YouTube video per day.”  According to Comscore, YouTube has 40 percent of the online market share for video.

I started my analysis with Peter Kim, a well-respected social media strategist and a former Forrester Research senior analyst.  He has compiled a massive list of social media marketing case studies on his blog.  Granted many of the examples have been around for a while, and it’s not all inclusive.  But many of the case studies are part of the social media canon, and all are useful in evaluating the effectiveness of your YouTube strategy.

For this discussion, I focused on metrics. (Aesthetics, strategy, video content and branding are for future posts.)  I also excluded sites with videos in a foreign language or were not business related.  I could not track how often each video was embedded somewhere else, which would also be a terrific benchmark.

The Top YouTube Results (as of June 13, 2009)

Most Number of Channel Videos

1. National Geographic: 1156
2. Google: 981
3. Intel: 866
4. Travel Channel: 462
5. Mayo Clinic: 375

Most Channel Views

1. National Geographic:  4,012,977
2. Google: 3,863,874
3. Blendtec: 3,682,113
4. Visions of an Absolut World: 1,237,383
5. Embarq: 461,601

Most Views for an Individual Video

1. Google Explore the sky in Google Earth 4.2 : 19,747,923
2. Blendtec Will It Blend? – iPhone Video: 6,924,612 views
3. National Geographic Anaconda vs. Mammal Video: 5,193,996 views
4. Delta’s New In-flight Safety Video: 1,278,391 views
5. Experian freecreditreport.com Contest Thank You: 1,107,287 views

Most Channel Comments

1. Experian freecreditreport.com:  3,579
2. Intuit Turbo Tax Laugh: 1059
3. Travel Channel: 310
4. Embarq: 150
5. Jeep:  109

Most Comments on an Individual Video

1. National Geographic Global Warming 101 Video: 19,024
2. Blendtec Will It Blend? – iPhone Video: 12,198
3. Google Chrome Japan: 4,477
4. AT&T Techno Twins Commercial: 1,567
5. Delta New In-flight Safety Video: 1,157

Most Number of Channel Subscribers

1. Blendtec: 193,610
2. National Geographic:  159,233
3. Google: 82,728
4. Travel Channel: 6,518
5. Experian freecreditreport.com: 5,030

Benchmarking: Beyond the Numbers

These case studios represent the most watched and commented on Peter Kim’s list.  Many on the list didn’t come close or even include a commenting option.  As a basis of comparison, the wildly popular Dove Evolution video generated 9,003,970 views and 4,153 comments. The Diet Coke and Mentos video generated 9,484,742 million views and 13,825 comments. I didn’t include either because each was not made by a third party.

So what metric is most important to you – most views per video or per channel, most comments per video or per channel, or should it be most number of videos or most channel subscribers?  Or maybe the rate at which the video is viewed or downloaded?  They all are valid, but hopefully this breakdown serves as a beginning of a basis of comparison in setting realistic expectations and benchmarking success.  Your results may differ based on your industry, the content itself or how well you promote your channel and your videos.

One thing is clear; size matters, but content is king.  A little company can generate millions of hits by blending an iPhone into dust,  and a huge established brand like National Geographic can do the same by showing an snake squeeze and ingest its prey. But it does not have to be a nature film or an exotic destination. Contests and even inflight safety videos can command attention as well.

I am continuing to slice and dice the data. For example, what is the relationship between individual videos and the company channel? What content generates the most views and comments?  What makes a video go viral?  Should going viral be your goal or building a consistently watched body of videos.  Ultimately I am looking to build a model that begins to forecast results.

Let me get back to you.