Using YouTube for Marketing Your Berries

The U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council is utilizing the Internet in their public relations and marketing efforts, and it appears to be paying off. Six months ago, the council posted a video, “Spotlight on Blueberries,” on the enormously popular Web site, YouTube. Since then, says the council’s executive director, Mark Villata, more than 10,000 visitors have logged on to the site to view the video. If you’re trying to get your message across to young people, you have to put it where they will see it, says Villata. “We’re hearing that’s where they’re getting all their news,” he says. “They’re not looking at newspapers or magazines, so if we want to get the information in front of them, the Web seems like the place to be.”

Driven by all the good news about how blueberries can potentially ward off such maladies as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, consumption has soared in recent years. In the U.S. per capita consumption has more than doubled in the past 20 years to over half a pound. And the good news has found its way around the world, thanks in large part to the Internet, and that’s partly how Villata got the idea to post the video on YouTube. The Korean Blueberry Growers Association alerted their U.S. counterparts to a Korean TV station that had posted stories on blueberries on their Web site. After checking out the site, council staff members found that while the text was in Korean, some of the videos were in English. That’s when they got the idea to post “Spotlight on Blueberries,” a video produced by a New Jersey woman, Nancy O’Mallon. She had an interest in horticulture and in doing the video, and approached the council, which agreed to help sponsor the production.

Villata says he’s surprised at the number of viewers because there’s been no advertising or announcements. “People just came across it surfing the Web, which really reinforces the idea that that’s where people are gravitating,” he says, adding that he had no idea of the video’s impact on sales. “But when you get 10,000 hits, you’re certainly raising awareness.”

Researchers’ Testimonials

The four-minute video, which can be seen at www.youtube.com (search for “Spotlight on Blueberries”), opens with an image of two little kids sitting at an outdoor picnic table, grabbing blueberries off their plates and popping them in their mouths. “There may be something to that old saying,” the voice-over announcer intones, “good things come in small packages.”

The video then features an interview with Rutgers University Professor Amy Howell, who explains why blueberries are so beneficial to people’s health. Howell ticks off an array of health problems that might be avoided through the consumption of blueberries, from how the anti-oxidants the berries contain may ward off heart disease, to how their anti-bacterial activity may prevent urinary tract infections.

While posted to target the young, the video certainly doesn’t ignore older people either. Another researcher, James Joseph of the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, notes that when lab rats consumed blueberries as 2% of their diets, their memories improved. That amount would equate to people eating just ½ to 1 cup of blueberries a day, says Joseph.

What’s Next

But the video is far from a dry series of lectures. The interviews are interspersed with information such as how blueberries should be stored, and how they can be served: in pancakes, desserts, smoothies, or just out-of-hand. There are also numerous field shots, including scenes of harvesters moving through fields, approaching bushes densely laden with fruit. The video has a light, fast-moving soundtrack as well. It also includes a few lines from one hit song about blueberries, with Fats Domino singing “I found my thrill, on Blueberry Hill.” At the end of the video, the announcer concludes: “When to add blueberries? Start young and enjoy them often.”

“Spotlight on Blueberries” isn’t the only video featuring the fruit on YouTube. Additional videos featuring blueberries in international markets have also been placed by the council on YouTube. While blueberries are native to North America — one of the few fruits that are — they are popular around the world. In fact, Villata says the country with the highest per capita consumption is Iceland.

Next up, the council is working on another video. This one, which will focus more on kids, will initially air on PBS. However, after the council’s success with Internet marketing, Villata says they will be sure to highlight their own Web site in the video. The Web site, www.blueberry.org, has had more than 1 million viewers in the past six years, he says, and it’s available in many languages, including Icelandic.