YouTube has something like 100 hours of new content everyday. But how much of it is good? During a discussion one of the panelists argued that nothing on YouTube is good that isn’t a response to something that IS good. For example slobolution in response to Dove’s evolution.

How true is this? Previously I have argued that advertisers discover GOOD original content - Toyota and WOWC, Apple and iPod Touch ad - in those cases the content was original and not in response to anything else. But certainly there are some funny as hell parodies on YouTube.

I personally don’t buy into the idea that there is no original content that is good on YouTube, I think there has proven to be AND YouTube is the prefect environment for this type of content.

An interesting point that was brought up was using YouTube as the ultimate focus group. YouTube allows people to comment on videos and even post their own videos in response to others. What an incredible tool for researchers to test and study concepts. YouTube as a medium for research allows for data that IS honest. People respond without the stigma of being in a room with a big ‘mirror’ talking about something. They are sitting in front of their computer in their underwear being honest.

The problem however is people responding just for the sake of argument. People post ridiculous responses simply for attention and those responses represent neither a group’s view nor that individual’s. I think though that there is something interesting to look at with using YouTube systematically to study ad concepts and ideas.

UGC has been on every bodies minds, but if we think about it doesn’t the Real good stuff come from the prosumer? Those with the skills of a professional in their space, but still a consumer? Damon Wayans contents this and holds this as a core value behind his new company WayoutTV.com.

I do however think he takes it too far when he argues that everything on YouTube is bad because it is unfiltered. I think Nick Hadley proves this with the iPod Touch ad. When I asked Damon about this he argues that I was right BUT Nick was not compensated properly. Another point where YouTube fails - it does not own any content.

Should YouTube own its own content? Is everything on YouTube bad? I don’t think so, what are your thoughts?

I will start with the biggest moment of the day and that was a presentation by Kevin Slavin, Managing Director and co-founder of area/code. He gave a presentation on digital gaming, but a different kind of digital gaming. His agency created SharkRunners.com, an interactive game for The Discovery Channel’s Shark Week.

Whats different about this game is its harmonization of the real world with the digital world. Instead of bringing gaming to the computer it brings the computer to the game. What this means is that the game, rather the experience, is grounded in real life experiences and occurrences.

SharkRunners.com is played in real-time and is based on gathering information about sharks to then be rewarded with fictitious money that translates to funding for more shark research. The goal is to have your ship intersect a shark’s path so a dive team can be deployed to research it. The catch is… the shark you are intersecting is a real shark in the open seas that has a gps location device embedded in it. That is the first bit of reality. The second it that being as it is played in real-time it takes hours for your ship to travel. Players do not sit in front of their computers, so if and when their ship intersects a shark’s path, they are text messaged and given three hours to respond and send a dive crew to research it (that part is fictional).

What this game represents is the beautiful mix of digital environment and reality - a concept which I feel my thoughts and ideas frequently if not always revolve around. I contest that nobody else has achieved this harmonization on this scale and challenge us all to set that as a goal with our digital brand thinking and advertising.

We should always bring our attention to grounding a digital campaign in real life - that makes it more holistic and all-encompassing. Because, when consumers are not engaging with the digital world they are inevitable in the real-world and making a ‘cross reality’ experience really is a more viable experience.