Corning Glass’ “A day made of glass” video has reached over 11 million views on YouTube after just 2 months. Glass may not be the easiest product to create reputation-driving content around (of course, nor were blenders before “will it blend?” came along), but they’ve done a brilliant job to paint a compelling vision of the future that just demands to be shared.

So what are they getting out of it? The 11m viewers can’t all be potential buyers for Corning Glass (although they are all potential buyers of phones/TVs etc that use Corning’s Gorilla Glass). And the products featured in the film obviously aren’t available to buy yet. A few thoughts on the benefits they may see (not an exhaustive list and not done with any knowledge of Corning’s business model!):

• More strategic profile with their major customers (like Apple): the buzz and coverage around the video provides a level of credibility that Corning can’t only talk about good engineering but they also have a vision of how this engineering relates to consumer behaviour/expectations. So it opens up a more strategic position with major customers. Hopefully they have plans to turn that into longer term exec-level relationships.
• I also assume that it would be more difficult for Sony (for example) to decide to switch manufacturers of the glass components in its TVs if Corning have a greater level of consumer awareness. In fact, using Corning Glass may actually be able to be used as more of a selling point (or at least a relatively high profile feature) for consumer devices – which would also be good for Corning’s business if more manufacturers turn to them on the back of greater consumer awareness. Hopefully they have a plan to nurture/capitalise on new demand that comes their way from brands that want to tick this box for consumers.
• From the Corning website, it looks like they are heavily focused on R&D for competitive advantage. This in turn means recruiting and retaining the best talent in the industry – and showing the kind of future-thinking that’s in this video can only help with that.

My big worry is whether they are doing enough to capitalise on the video’s popularity. They’ve got an advert running alongside the video on YouTube (good) but it just goes through to the standard company homepage (bad) – what about a specific page aimed at converting visitors around the kind of benefits I listed above (or whatever the goals they’re really looking for as a business!). If you look around the Corning website, you are able to find a page that promotes following them on Facebook/Twitter/YouTube (it doesn’t really explain what benefits you will get from doing that), but the rest of the site doesn’t really seem designed to encourage inbound contact/face to face meetings at the exhibitions listed etc, or to offer/encourage any lighter-touch ways that they might be able to keep in touch with interested prospects through the buying cycle (lead nurturing/marketing automation).

But I don’t want to take away from a brilliant job conceiving and executing the video, or to suggest that it won’t have a significant impact on Corning’s reputation – just that as with any social media activity there are next steps/opportunities to integrate with wider marketing strategies that need to be maximised. Among the 11m viewers will be potential customers for Corning (or people who work with/advise/know potential customers) – and will they still be in touch with them in 6,12,24 months time?

As the Edinburgh Festival Fringe gets underway, with comedy continuing to grow across popular culture, perhaps more B2B organisations will take the plunge and find new ways to use video to cut through to customers or even to engage their own employees?

Clearly considerations around audience, message, objectives and brand will always play a role in deciding whether comedy might be the right route to take. And while we have had great success introducing it into campaigns over the last few years, it is arguable that comedy could be used more often than it is. If you are thinking about whether video could form part of your web 2.0 marketing strategy, and what story you might have for your audience, our planner (available here) may help to put it in context.

I’ve listed here a few videos that spring to mind as examples of organisations that have taken the first step, but please do suggest your own…

Perhaps the classic high-production-value video is the EDS Superbowl advert from 2000:

Which does have a less well-known twin (with a slightly more involved business message):

Then there are vendors who have a more specific axe to grind, as in the case of Lawson, making a case for ‘Simpler is Better’ when it comes to software…

And while Lawson’s first video from 2007 (above) has 65,000 views on YouTube, the latest installment (below) from April 2009 now has over 300,000. Clearly, lessons to be learnt around the determination to see through a new media campaign.

Outside of IT, there are some very imaginative examples like this one from a supplier making the point that the time has come for their product (I won’t say any more to avoid giving away the secret to a very clever, very rewarding watch):

But what video round-up would be complete without Mr T? Especially Mr T promoting virtualisation: “I pity the fool who doesn’t use Hitachi Data Systems virtualisation”…