So a major media company –Disney, no less- advertised on YouTube and the world did not end. In fact, it turns out Pirates of The Caribbean II: Dead Man’s Chest broke the all-time opening weekend box office record.

Are these events causally related? Perhaps. But more importantly they are emblematic of what I have been yammering on about for months. The Wild West that is User Generated Content and the proliferation of niche media is not the death knell marketers and commentators think it is –it is an as yet untapped opportunity.

Untapped, that is, unless you are The Mouse. What better fit for a pirate movie than a ‘pirate’ website? The advertisement was the first time a national marketer advertised on YouTube and it was –according to the site itself- the first time the site ran a graphic ad. If you did not catch it, it was a logo/Johnny Depp combo as well as a counter timing down to the launch of the film. And besides, it doesn’t matter if you did not catch it, 80 million other people interested in wild, funny media did –which in my books makes for a very effective online ad spend.

When you consider that the rest of the Pirates campaign followed the more or less traditional marketing route of TV Spots, posters, film previews and PR interviews in film magazines –and that it had the biggest opening weekend in history at a time when blockbusters are supposed to be in decline- you are left with a lingering sense that UGC may be a whole lot more lucrative than you have previously given it credit for.

The fact that the movie does not suck also goes a long way there as well, but that ties in nicely to last month’s article about my Golden Age of Content. Here we have a good story leveraging the marketing power of UGC (admittedly in a limited way) and breaking records in a softening industry. I hope YouTube’s sales team is shouting this success from the hills.

As for Disney, here is what I want them to do for the next Pirates movie: continue advertising but also post a flurry of funny behind the scenes clips or perhaps even amusing deleted scenes in the months leading up to next summer’s release. They shot both films at the same time so the good Mr Verbinski should know before Christmas which bits he wants to keep and which bits he wants to cut. Plus I hear Jerry Bruckheimer likes to take photos and shoot video whenever he’s on set. Video clips by Bruckheimer. Yep… I’ll certainly be sharing them with the rest of my film geek friends. The viral marketing can start with me.

G Preston White is a New Zealand-based freelance writer. He can be contacted via his website and blog. www.prestonwhite.co.nz