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YouTube Revolution

Learning to embrace the Jewish video train on a secular site.

Amy Klein

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Los Angeles

M

aking videos is an essential step
for Jewish organizations inter-
ested in getting their message
out to a younger audience, new media mar-
keting experts say
Unfortunately, many
people are not reading
newspapers anymore
and watching TV
— there's only one way
to get people's atten-
tion," said Jason Frank,
co-founder of Giving
Tree, the marketing,
Matt Dorf
production and consult-
ing company for Jewish nonprofits that he
runs with Molly Livingstone.
Frank said organizations should post
videos to YouTube instead of just distribut-

ing them through an organization's network
or a niche site such as YidTube or JewTube,
which has faced legal action by YouTube.
"No one's really interested in watching
only Jewish videos," he said. "You have to
promote something in the secular world."
"Finding a Passover rap is funnier if
you find it on YouTube than on a Jewish
video site;' Frank said, referring to the
video "Matzah Ball Rap," which he and
Livingstone made as one of a series they
produced "to help promote Judaism and
holidays in a fun way."
Of all the new technologies — e-mail,
Facebook, Twitter, podcasts — videos are
still the best way to communicate a mes-
sage, said Matt Dorf, managing partner of
Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications, who
consults with many organizations and
helps them make videos.
"It spreads far beyond the reach they'd
otherwise have. It gets their brand and
message out there and it reaches the peo-
ple they want to reach in a young and fun

Forgotten Harvest currently
rescues more than 10 million
pounds of food per year. The
individuals and families we
serve are as diverse as the
community's residents — young
and old, from all races and
faiths. The common bond uniting
them with each other and with
us is hunger.

more than 115 million hits. And all of them
are competing for "eyeballs': the term for
numbers of people watching a video.
"The biggest misconception is that if
they make a good video and they put it on
YouTube, it will explode," said Oren Kaplan,
who runs his own production company that
makes experimental videos.
"You have to spend a lot of time pushing
it on a social networking site. You need to
be a big part of the YouTube community,
to have its members care about other
members:' he said, referring to registering
on the site and posting your own videos
and commenting on others' videos. "It's
not an overnight sensation. It takes a lot of
work — unless it's your dog running into
a mirror" (Puppy vs. Mirror got at least
half a million hits on YouTube.)
Rob Kutner of The Daily Show has a
built-in audience from his job, but said he
is also "growing his distribution list" using

YouTube on page A28

JOIN US FOR

Forgotten Harvest was formed
in 1990 to fight two problems:
HUNGER and WASTE.

Our methods are simple, yet
comprehensive. We collect
surplus food from a variety of
sources such as grocery stores,
wholesale food distributors,
caterers, farmers, restaurants,
bakeries and other Health
Department-approved sources.
This donated food is delivered
to emergency food providers
in the metro Detroit area. Food
that would otherwise go to
waste now fills the plates of
hungry people.

way — and it's cost effective;' Dorf said.
But some established Jewish organiza-
tions don't understand the new culture of
YouTube and its economics, said Frank,
who works with many Israeli nonprofits.
Many established groups, he said, are "more
interested in traditional videos" — meaning
a 30-minute video that might cost $20,000
and take three months to make. "They think
it's better if it's more expensive:'
Dorf said American Jewish organiza-
tions want to tap into the market but aren't
always sure how to use the new technology.
"This is the new hip — they all want to
be doing this. They just don't know how,"
he said. Also, "once you make it, how do
you get people to watch it?"
That's the question many artists ask
when posting to YouTube, which in the past
few years has exploded with tens of thou-
sand of videos posted daily. Some are good,
some are bad and some are so bad they are
good — like the most watched video, The
Evolution of Dance, which has registered

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HARVEST

metro Detroit's only mobile food
rescue organization. Driving hunger
from our community since 1990.

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April 9 2009