OK Go Switches from Youtube to Facebook

Feb 13, 2016

Some of us have heard of, or even seen the music videos of the American alternative rock band “OK Go”, famous for its viral videos. The band has enjoyed viral marketing success on Youtube because of its quirky music videos that are watchable and shareable.

Recently, OK Go released a new music video, “Upside Down & Inside Out”, featuring the band engaging in their signature choreographed routine aboard a zero-gravity airplane ride (you can watch the music video on their Facebook page).

What is interesting is that this is the first time the band has turned to Facebook, instead of uploading it on Youtube, the usual go-to platform for music videos. If you try to search for the video on Youtube, you will only find a clip that encourages people to check out the music video on Facebook instead. OK Go cited a few reasons why they chose to go Facebook-only, mainly because of the increasing reach and engagement of Facebook when it comes to videos. In addition, Facebook has been working towards “increasing ad revenue for video content creators”, making it an appealing alternative to Youtube. The band has also had a rough partnership with Youtube, largely because of the insignificant ad revenue gained each time its video gets played.

You can read about it here: http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/why-ok-go-went-facebook-only-debut-its-buzzy-zero-gravity-music-video-169599

Although the band is confident about its bold move, will it be able to replicate its viral marketing success on another native video platform, Facebook?

Here are some of its viral music videos:

Clara

One response to “OK Go Switches from Youtube to Facebook”

KyuJin SHIM

February 15, 2016 at 9:09 am

MySpace was once the must-go-to site for video viral before Facebook fever, then it was YouTube, now it is Facebook which is venturing into this field as a next big thing?
While increasing grievances from video creators against YouTube Empire, the band “OK GO” seems to start to roll out a mild action to boycott YouTube. And, yes, you are right: the real point in this battle is whether Facebook can leverage this bold movement and can rise as a valid contender of YouTube as a video-creation platform.
Although most “consumption behavior” for video sharing and watching is happening on the Facebook platform, it is undeniable that YouTube is considered as a major platform for creators to earn traffic as well as ad revenue. However, consumption and creation interact in different ways as traditional “supply” and “demand” curves meet; this means that in this new digital-driven content ecology, “consumption” drives “creation” and vice versa and these two might not always be separate. Hence, no surprise that Facebook, the world’s largest content consumption-sharing platform, is dreaming of being the content creation hub beating up YouTube.
My observation is that YouTube eventually will respond in a more proactive and appeasing way to this anti-sentiment from content creators. The subtle difference already was felt when they changed embedding/playing policy from banning video play at other blogs or Facebook page, then allowing it!
My expectation is that this movement cannot change the whole power-game surrounding video service giants in a single day. But it does seem obvious that this kind of movement will reappear and might be more contagious than we might imagine, thus could impact other content creators’ moves.
We all know Rome wasn’t built in a day. Well, neither was YouTube. But we also should bear in mind that Rome was tarnished, then rapidly fell and – once it happened – it got out of hand.
So now for YouTube, it’s time to ask questions… are they tarnished and exerting overwhelming power over creators? Maybe yes or maybe not, but if many creators would say yes, exodus to Facebook or even somewhere else might be happening in the not-so-distant future.

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