We've seen things like this before, by my guess is, there will be more to come, as advertisers look for some way to stand out. The production value is very good ... this definitely didn't feel like an online streaming video spot.

This is interesting. Aren't there a zillion YouTube rivals? And despite many better interfaces and higher playback quality, none of them are getting anywhere? And it's $25m a drop in the bucket for a business model that relies so much on expensive bandwidth? Curious what their big differentiators are.

This preso was done at Advertising Week this year by Google. Lengthy but it includes a lot of great things using Google's API's - including campaigns using YouTube, Maps, Android, etc.

Saw this tool and thought it would be a convenient way to track the viral videos on the rise. Then realized that they're almost all YouTube. Interesting example of YouTube's dominance in the video category.

Many social media campaigns feel light weight. Interesting ideas, but not broad enough in scope to really make a broad impact. Ford's idea of giving 100 YouTube celebrities a Ford Fiesta, to create content around, is proving to have had that impact. For one, brand awareness rose 38% for the car during the campaign. Another interesting bit .... some of the YouTubers said the vids they created around the car gathered more views than their regular content. Which spurred them to create MORE content than their original agreement required.