Hitwise recently released the top 20 search terms on YouTube for December 2008. Let’s take a peek, shall we?

1. lil wayne
2. twilight
3. beyonce
4. single ladies
5. soulja boy
6. cris brown
7. fred
8. taylor swift
9. britney spears
10. love story
11. family guy
12. akon
13. hannah montana
14. jonas brothers
15. akon na na na
16. jesse mccartney how do you sleep
17. womanizer
18. beyonce single ladies
19. heartless
20. hot n cold

I’m noticing a bit of a trend. Looks like music searches dominated the top 20 in December of 2008 with Family Guy and the supposedly funny, high-pitched tween, Fred also making the list.

What does this mean for marketers? You need to start pushing for more product placement inside music videos , become a pop star, or create a dance craze if you want to break into the top 20 on YouTube. Thankfully there are other options.

Hitwise notes that there are other, more promising terms for advertisers further down the list like, “hypnosis”, “pokemon”, and “bodybuilding”. I’m not sure what they mean by promising, but I have a feeling my hypnotic, weight lifting pokemon music video has a shot at going viral !