You know you're on a roll when you strike up a partnership with one of the world's biggest brands. Today, YouTube and Coca Cola are launching Holiday WishCast, a promotion that lets users send video greetings to their friends and family, and also features messages from the growing number of YouTube stars like Renetto (this makes you wonder whether these personalities are now getting paid as a result of their celebrity status - note that a few are actually gaming their stats). WishCast is being promoted on both YouTube and Coca-Cola.com, and presumably YouTube are making a decent amount of cash from the sponsorship, as they did with the sponsored contest YouTube Underground.
In short, they're combining the email greetings market with online video: select one of your existing videos, upload a new one or choose from the ready-made "celebrity" clips from the likes of Geriatric1927, Boh3m3, TerraNaomi, Renetto, TheWineKone and LisaNova, adding your own personal message. Being a Coke promotion, you can also share famous holiday-themed Coke ads.
Clearly, this is a neat idea that helps to build both brands. And once again, YouTube proves that online video can indeed be monetized.
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