VIDEO WILLED THE WEBCAM STAR
With 122 million people visiting YouTube every day – not to mention the dominance of YouTube TV as the new cable TV – it’s hard to remember that once upon a time the platform was a startup trying to make video a “thing”. Fortunately, I remember it well.
After a grueling 7-month interview process I was offered a role at YouTube, roughly 15 months after Google acquired the company and two and half years after it first launched as a dating platform. They were looking for people from “traditional” media companies who understood how to position and market video to advertisers – and the world. ESPN’s digital video content was best in class, so I was a wanted man.
We got off to a roaring start with a hilarious digital short series from Seth MacFarland with a custom animation featuring title sponsor Burget King. Demand was off the charts, but the rest of our inventory was subpar – all we had to offer were rejected TV pilots. Advertisers wanted Seth, but instead, they got “In the Kitchen with Courtney Thorne-Smith”. Snooze.
The success with Seth was too difficult (and costly) to repeat, so we needed to pivot. Meanwhile, there was a ton of buzz forming around YouTube’s “webcam stars” (the term “influencer” didn't exist yet). These creators were racking up millions of views and followers with low-fidelity content, and they were more than willing to earn some money working with brands. So some of my brilliant colleagues came up with the earliest version of the creator monetization model, and unlike the initial branded content model, this could scale. However, the market wasn’t quite ready.
Hulu had come onto the scene and offered brands a much more familiar environment since they offered network TV shows online. They used that against us, positioning their content as “premium” to throw shade at the Charlie Bit My Fingers of the new online world. But we had something different: “popular” content, particularly with a younger, highly coveted audience.
The data showed that teens and young adults were flocking to YouTube, ditching traditional TV for their computers and these homegrown video stars. So we re-positioned our pitch and – much like Pepsi did in the 80s with the “Choice of a New Generation” campaign – highlighted that YouTube was where the cool kids were hanging out. There was some initial resistance (old habits and such), but eventually, marketers hopped on the bandwagon and the influencer-hocking-brands revolution began. (My sincerest apologies).
Every brand wanted to get “in” with YouTube, but online video was still a nascent medium. To help lure advertisers we first scale “brand pages”, which were channels owned and operated by companies. But the problem was very few businesses had any video content to post. While some saw where the video puck was headed, most were laggards looking not to create, but rather integrate. So I helped develop a branded content team, and our mission was to connect advertisers with Hollywood’s best production companies to create original shows for YouTube.
Seth Macfarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy