How YouTube is changing the small-business model

WHEN Robert Wagstaff came up with the idea for a tongue brush to cure bad breath, he was sure he had a best seller. But a decade later, after dozens of pitches to dentists and retailers and a $50,000 TV infomercial, he had a dud.

That all changed last year, when he posted a funny video about bad breath that advertised the tongue cleaner, called Orabrush, on YouTube.

A year later, people have viewed Orabrush’s YouTube clips 24 million times, watching weekly appearances by a giant tongue named Morgan. Orabrush has sold $1 million worth of the $5 tongue brushes through YouTube, and major drugstores are beginning to stock it on their shelves. And in February, its maker — a tiny company in Provo, Utah — lured a former Procter & Gamble executive to become its chief executive.

Big companies have received much attention for creating promotional YouTube videos that go viral, like Procter & Gamble’s runaway hit featuring the Old Spice man. But small businesses are increasingly using YouTube to advertise and — in cases like Orabrush — to establish their retail presence.

Continues at: Advertising – Orabrush Turns to YouTube to Pitch a Bad Breath Treatment – NYTimes.com.