Burger Joint Carl’s Jr. is enlisting video blogger iJustine and eight other YouTube stars to pimp its Portobello Mushroom Six-Dollar Burger, reports AdWeek. Brands hiring YouTube stars to tap into online audiences is nothing new, but as AdWeek writes, it’s not just the video audience Carl’s Jr. is after:
The YouTube stars were chosen not only for their creative flair, but for the networks of followers they can mobilize. Ezarik, for instance, not only has 94,000 subscribers to the iJustine YouTube channel — the nine YouTube celebs combined total 3.8 million subscribers on the site — but also boasts 590,000 followers on Twitter and 25,000 Facebook fans. These networks, in essence, comprise a new kind of media buy.
While we wonder how effective iJustine is at promoting products other than herself, hiring her is a good example of a company thinking beyond just playcounts and approaching the web as an interconnected whole. Watching commercials is no longer a passive experience like it was with oldteevee — both the people hawking the products and the people watching can be active participants in the pitch process.
But Carl’s Jr. is not the first to seek out this social media spokeswoman. Ezarik has also been featured in promotions for Mozy, Sanyo, AT&T and eBillme, among others.
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