THE SOCIAL MEDIA REVOLUTION 521to the statistics from Instagram, the average number of photos uploaded per second at the end
of 2011 was 60, which is about 5.2 million per day. Instagram is growing faster than Flickr.^155
Some brands are still using Instagram in the same way brands used the Internet in 1999,
as a way of ‘digitising’ their existing marketing materials. Other brands using Instagram in a
better way are fashion brands such as Bergdorfs, Burberry, Gucci and Th readless. Th eir photo
streams are more than just product shots: they off er the viewer interesting content (employees,
old ads, fashion show backstage shots, piles of T-shirts) captured from a specifi c point of view
and an editorial eye. Th ey have learned that it is about being interesting, not about pushing
products.^156 Burberry adopted Instagram very early on and has developed a followers base of
over 356 000 people. Th e fashion company is displaying not only clothing and ads with unique
fi lters, but also snapshots of London supporting its British roots. During its September London
runway shows, Burberry fans got real-time photos of the show on Instagram before they were
available anywhere else. 157, 158
Content communities carry the risk of being used as platforms for the sharing of copyright-
protected materials. While most of them have rules in place to ban and remove such illegal
content, it is diffi cult to avoid popular videos (like episodes of comedy dramas) being
uploaded to YouTube only hours aft er they have been broadcast on TV. On the other hand,
the high popularity of content communities makes them a very attractive contact channel for
many companies, including TV channels.
YouTube and Vimeo are two examples of video content communities. YouTube, started in
2005 and bought by Google in October 2006, is big, very big. It gets 4 billion page views a day,
which adds up to a trillion a year. It has 800 million users who watch 3 billion hours of video
a month (i.e. 340 000 years).^159 Every second one hour of video is uploaded to YouTube.^160
Individuals have uploaded most of the content, although media corporations such as CBS,
the BBC and other companies off er some of their material via the site. YouTube is structured by
channels. Th ese are places where an individual user can group a bunch of videos together onto
one page. Th e most popular channels are those of celebrities such as Justin Bieber (1.5 million
subscribers and 51 million views), Rihanna (2.3 million subscribers and 24 million views) and
Lady Gaga (1.6 million subscribers and 30.6 million views).^161 Even the British Royal Family
had their own Royal Channel reporting in June 2012 on the Queen’s Diamonds Jubilee.Tipp-Ex, European leader in correction products, wanted to promote its whiteout Pocket Mouse in the back-to-school
period. Tipp-Ex released an interactive product demonstration on YouTube allowing viewers to rewrite the story. It created
the first Tippexperience, ‘A hunter shoots a bear’, in August 2010. This video featured a hunter camped out in the woods
who was suddenly facing a bear. At the end of the video the viewer could decide whether the hunter should shoot the bear
or not. Whatever the choice, the hunter took the Tipp-Ex Pocket Mouse displayed on the banner next to the video, whited
out the word ‘shoot’ in the title of the video and invited the viewers to write another word on the blank space; 42 alternative
scenes where shot. The video became a viral hit. In the first 36 hours, it got 1 million views, was shared 100 000 times on
Facebook and received one tweet per second. It was even twittered by Ricky Martin and Alissa Milano. It got a lot of inter-
national attention both on- and offline. After 100 days, it attained 35.5 million views on YouTube with an average brand
exposure of five minutes. Each user typed on average 15 words. It was shared 318 000 times via Facebook and Twitter.
This campaign increased the purchase intention in Europe by 100% and the sales went up by 30%.^162
After the worldwide success of the ‘Hunter shoots a bear’ campaign of 2010, Tipp-Ex returned by giving the viewer the
possibility of rewriting history with ‘Hunter and bear’s 2012 Birthday Party’. By entering a new date instead of 2012, when
a meteorite is ruining the party, the viewer can enjoy the party in another year. There were 46 different scenes available
and 8 scenes that required interactions.^163BUSINESS INSIGHT
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