Pharma and the new YouTube layout

A review of the most pharma-relevant changes to YouTube



At the end of 2011, YouTube redesigned its homepage and rolled out a new layout for channels. According to our rep, channel owners have until March 1 to migrate to the new design. After March, channels will automatically be transitioned. The good news: pharma has been granted an exception and can wait until June 1 to make the change. Kudos to Google for being sensitive to the regulatory constraints on pharma and recognizing that getting a new design reviewed and approved takes time.

There’s some confusion over a YouTube “brand channel” versus a YouTube channel. What’s the difference? Advertising. These customized “brand channels” are developed by a company or brand in conjunction with YouTube and require a significant advertising spend. Pharma examples include the Johnson & Johnson Health channel and SanofiTV.

In contrast, a YouTube channel is free and can be designed within specific parameters. Per YouTube, a “channel page shows a user’s profile information, uploaded videos, favorite videos, subscribers and more.” The confusion stems from the fact that a brand or company can be a “user” and have a YouTube channel.

The redesign makes some subtle changes, such as a shortened character limit to the About This User section, to more obvious ones, such as new design templates. There are four options that users can choose to lay out the content on the Featured page. According to Siren’s Interactive art director, PJ Macklin, “YouTube is effectively streamlining channel pages by putting a focus on content. From a visual perspective, channels have less opportunity to differentiate themselves, but it results in a cleaner user experience.”

Users can now add clickable links to their Facebook, Google+ and Twitter accounts along with a list of other links.This ability to cross-promote is a nice feature.

Channel views are no longer visible publicly. This data will be available to channel owners via the analytics.

YouTube has added a Feed tab to every channel, which is a news stream of all your activity on the site. It will update whenever you:

• Like a video

• Comment on a video

• Subscribe to a channel

• Favorite a video

• Upload a video

• Add a video to a playlist

Users can also choose which information will be shared in a public feed

Most importantly for pharma, you can still disable comments or moderate them prior to posting.

YouTube also has new analytics. A key new feature is the ability to tell how long people continue watching your video and when they are dropping off.

Eileen O'Brien is director of search and innovation at Siren Interactive. She blogs at Sirensong.

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