LG has joined the list of brands such as Pringles, Nerf, and Pennzoil who have taken notice and have begun working their products into the YouTube channel “Dude Perfect.”
Dude Perfect consists of a group of five men, all in their mid-twenties, who post short videos of them performing an array of jaw-dropping trick shots with different objects, including basketballs, golf balls, and the occasional pool stick. These videos usually garner hundreds of thousands of views within a day of being posted.
LG paid the Dude Perfect team to integrate the company’s new LG G3 smartphone into a five-and-a-half minute video which depicts a “day at the office” at the Dude Perfect headquarters, which is more or less a mashup of a frat house and sporting goods store.
“Dude Perfect accomplishes tasks that seem impossible, and we think this really fits with LG’s brand motto, ‘It’s all possible,'” Chris Yie, leader of marketing communications at LG Electronics MobileComm, said in an email with AdAge.com. “Their content is also so lively and youthful that the younger generation is able to relate to their energy.”According to Mr. Yie, reaching customers through video content on YouTube will help the company build brand recognition and boost its smartphone sales, a market that LG hasn’t been prevalent in.
Many viewers of the Dude Perfect channel assume the shots made in each video are the result of some clever editing tricks, however, the team insists they are all authentic.
“We live in a fake world where people doctor everything, so anything that makes you go ‘wow’ must be fake” said Cory Cotton, one of the members of Dude Perfect. “But we’re just five best friends creating great content that will make people’s jaw drops.”
Dude Perfect, which has recently released a book and mobile game as well, has now made creating these videos a full time job. It’s even working with a production company in hopes to bring Dude Perfect to TV.
In addition to big-name brands, Dude Perfect has joined up with The Whistle, a multi-channel sports network on YouTube that came about in January. The Whistle handles ad sales for Dude Perfect, which in return splits the revenue.
It’s clear that the merging of brands into its videos is a good deal for Dude Perfect and The Whistle. In addition to the brands like LG, each network is also able to collect a check from the pre- and post-roll ads shown before and after the videos.
John West, CEO of The Whistle, claims that the majority of the ad revenue comes from branded videos. “YouTube takes a cut of pre- and post-roll,” he said. “It’s a bigger win to do an integration with a brand because we don’t have to split [that revenue] with YouTube.”
Source: Ad Age
