ION Ranks YouTube’s Biggest Unboxing Stars

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It’s true. There are some YouTubers out there who have made a name for themselves and built huge audiences just by unboxing some cool stuff from brands. Boxes aren’t just things holding objects anymore: the act of unboxing is an experience that viewers are vicariously getting a lot out of.

Snapchat Flourishes With 4 Billion Daily Views

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At first, brands were hesitant to invest in Snapchat’s elaborate advertising plan, citing its high fees and worries over the lack of permanent placement. But it’s become something of a hit, with many reasons to invest in the popular app mainly its growing audience.

However, those brands probably don’t realize just how popular Snapchat’s service is, but Variety has a good idea. The site reports that, via numbers provided by IBTimes, the app now sees an average of four billion daily views putting it right alongside the social media site Facebook.

The number, which was confirmed by Snapchat, is compiled from both Live Stories shared through the various users of the app, including media companies, but without counting either private messages or Snapchat Discover, even with its 15 content partners. This shows that the company’s interstitial ad set-up through Live Stories is quite successful.

Considering that Snapchat’s video format is brief and temporary, since they only stay on the app for a limited amount of time the four billion daily views is an impressive number, especially for its ephemeral format, which is far different from what YouTube and Facebook have to offer.

These numbers add up to big business, too. The company has asked for two cents per view on a 10-second ad, and sometimes even higher, going up to ten cents a view, depending on the ad. As a result, this can easily translate into a high number of CPM’s (or cost per thousand views) of $20-$100, creating a huge cash flow as a result.

It’s drawn in a number of high-profile partners as well, including Stephen Colbert, who debuted his new Late Show on CBS this week, along with Major League Baseball, Fusion and other Discover partners like ESPN, CNN, and Comedy Central.

More information on Snapchat’s successful business model can be found here.

Top 10 YouTube Food Channels

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Cooking shows are getting a new lease on life in the form of YouTube cooking tutorials. Some of them, like Rosanna Pansino, have become household names for their ability to turn making food into a very entertaining activity. Of course brands (and not just food brands!) are eager to get in on the action.

For My.com, YouTube Drives Success

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Polina Haryacha is a Senior Brand Manager at My.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Pharyacha.

My.com, an international video game publisher, announced Skyforge, Armored Warfare and World of Speed, its first AAA PC games in the US in 2014. During our pre-launch, we set out to drive brand awareness and beta subscriptions in niche gaming audiences through various channels. With 73 percent of gamers watching online videos, we decided to leverage the power of YouTube Influencers and started building long-term partnerships in this highly emerging space. In less than six months we achieved more than five million views on YouTube.

How did we do it Strategy. We established long-term relationships with each YouTube Influencer, allowing us to reach our core audience of online tank and MMORPG players. The Influencers published 150 videos on more than 30 video gaming channels, resulting in millions of views in five different languages. The conversion from views to beta signups reached a rate of 10 percent for some of our campaigns. Moreover, Influencer-generated videos appeared at the top of YouTube searches through branded keywords and generic terms. Influencer videos also outperformed our strongest competitors.

In this article, we will share some secrets we learned along the way.

Secure the Right Influencer
There are many factors to consider when choosing the right Influencer that go far beyond the number of subscribers and views. Does the channel cover your competition Does it publish relevant content on a regular basis How engaged is the channel’s audience on YouTube and other social networks How are the channel’s videos ranked in search How well are channel’s videos promoted in related/recommended videos

There is a lot to consider, but thankfully there are many paid and free tools that utilize YouTube APIs to provide key insights into channel performance. One of the free tools I especially like is a Chrome extension called VidIQ. VidIQ monitors the frequency of comments and shares, predicts video`s likelihood of promotion in Related Videos, Search, Recommended Videos, provides access to historical data on video performance and offers more insight into any YouTube video.

 

I previously covered other tools in greater details in my TechCrunch article entitled, “How to find the right YouTube influencer for your brand “

Think Small for Better Conversion
At first, it may appear that a popular channel with millions of subscribers would yield the best results; however, this is not always the case. Small and mid-sized Influencers often work with a highly targeted audience, resulting in higher conversion rates and quality traffic. Besides, smaller channels are highly motivated to get new content. They are willing to establish long-term partnerships and are much more flexible. For example, one of the videos published on a mid-size but hardcore channel resulted into 270,000 views, 52,000 leads, and 23,000 conversions within a couple of days. Another reason for expanding beyond big names is diversification: smaller channels often attract an audience that doesn’t follow the large established stars.

Aim for Partnerships, Not Views
At My.com, we searched for Influencers who could become our long-term partners, leading to more views overtime rather than immediate gratification. There are several things that make a target channel a good long-term partner:

  • The channel has a highly relevant audience — in our case, the channels that cover our closest competitors
  • The channel has a sincere interest and excitement about your product
  • The channel has strong potential for growth — it doesn’t necessarily need to have a huge number of subscribers today, but it should demonstrate an ability to expand. (This is easy to evaluate by looking at historical data and trends.)
  • The majority of the channels we worked with showed significant increase in views and subscribers during the six months since we first made contact. Our content helped Influencers keep their audience engaged, as well as acquire new visitors. Their success is our success. Their surge in users also results in an organic surge in our users.

We learned that repeated experiences through multiple activations with the same Influencers not only allowed us to share news with active users and re-connect with lapsed ones, but also helped us reach new users as they join our partners’ channels.

Send An Email (Yes, It Works)
Each industry has its own expectations, and it’s worthwhile to learn about them. Mike Rose, who presented at GDC 2015, researched where YouTubers look to find information about new games. The top three places they look for information are the press, emails and social media.

“How YouTubers and Twitch Streamers Can Help Sell Your Games”, Mike Rose, GDC 2015

Mike also shared that although email is a popular way for YouTubers to learn about games, they surprisingly do not receive a lot of them. So don’t assume YouTubers’ email boxes are overwhelmed with proposals. Email is a great way for you to reach potential Influencers and get their attention.

Mike also researched what YouTubers look for in the first email from a developer/publisher. His findings are pretty straightforward, and can be used as a checklist for your pitch email.

“How YouTubers and Twitch Streamers Can Help Sell Your Games”, Mike Rose, GDC 2015

Promote Authenticity and Build Trust
I realize there is significant risk in approaching Influencers while a product is still in beta, as the Influencer could potentially highlight weaknesses in the product before it is finalized. We did provide some guidelines, asking Influencers to avoid featuring obvious bugs or uncompleted functionality during our first tests. That being said, we let Influencers voice their true opinions, even if they were not 100% positive. This approach allowed us to build trust with our growing community, and helped YouTubers remain true Influencers: independent opinion leaders for their audiences.

Stay Relevant
According to Google’s research, during the game pre-launch stage, fans mostly watch content released by the brand, such as announcements, gameplay demos, and launch videos. After launch, attention switches to more detailed information about the content and engaging with the game’s community. The most popular types of the post-release content are walkthroughs, how-to’s, game powered entertainment videos like Let’s Plays, parodies, analysis, and tutorials. We relied on these findings but went a step further, expanding content ideas. For example, we launched a “Top 10 Features” video with one of the channels, which kept the top search position for a long time.

Quick Tip: According to Tubular research, presented this year at VidCon, YouTube videos with “Top 10″ or “Top Ten” in their title get 531 percent more views/video.

Share the Love
YouTube channels need new viewers and subscribers just as your business needs new customers. Think of all the possible ways you can help your partners to achieve their goals, and by helping them you will help yourself. We started a weekly digest of user-generated content where we shared the latest videos across our owned social media channels. Uploading the best videos to your own YouTube channel is another win-win approach.

Integrate if Possible
Try to leverage the impact of Influencers across marketing and PR channels. We used multiple methods of integration, such as content re-distribution on owned social channels (community), publishing video on industry media outlets (PR), and inviting Influencers to company events. You can also use Influencers’ channels as a part of your media buys strategy. Or take it a step further and promote the most successful videos on YouTube using paid methods. All these strategies enhance relationships with Influencers and make partnerships mutually beneficial.

Keep Measuring
We gather a lot of data about each channel’s and video’s performance. This allows us to compare the success of particular Influencers, the type of content, timing, messaging, promotion approaches, etc. We track everything from video view to website visits and subscriptions. This helps us to make informed decisions about future campaigns and recruit the best talents for our brand. When researching brand penetration via an online panel, we asked our respondents about the first time they heard about our product. YouTube Influencers were among the top three options after friends and social networks. YouTube Influencers outperformed industry blogs and forums, as well as other traditional marketing/PR channels, demonstrating the power of YouTube Influencers and why they are key when launching a new game.

The Bottom Line
With 97.5 percent of all views for the top 20 game videos coming from fan-made videos, YouTube is now a primary online network for gamers. YouTube has the power to shape a game’s future and significantly impact the bottom line. To leverage this powerful network, focus on video and streaming Influencer strategies and adapt to this exciting new world where companies play a major role in facilitating consumer content creation.

‘Street Fighter V’ Character Reveals Continue With R. Mika

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The newest fighter to join the Street Fighter V roster has officially been announced. The 10th challenger out of the 16 to be revealed, is none other than Rainbow Mika.

It has been a long-awaited return for Rainbow Mika (aka R. Mika) since she was last seen in her debut appearance in Street Fighter Alpha 3. As with each of the nine previously announced new and returning characters (Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Cammy, Vega, M. Bison, Birdie, Charlie Nash, and Necalli), Capcom accompanied the news with an enticing video previewing what audiences can expect from Rainbow Mika.

The video features gameplay footage of the high-flying flamboyant wrestler and includes insight into new moves, upgraded graphics and, of course, the incredible power Rainbow Mika bears with her gargantuan glutes.

Capcom’s marketing tactics with Street Fighter 5 provide audiences with in-depth character-by character profiles. This is big for all of the eager and loyal fans that exist in the Street Fighter universe. Now fans can follow, research, and gain access to info on their favorite Street Fighter characters in each reveal.

The legendary fighting franchise will return in the spring of 2016 along with new and stunning visuals that are sure to depict the next generation of World Warriors in unprecedented detail. Exciting and accessible battle mechanics will also deliver endless fighting fun that both beginners and veterans will enjoy.

According to Capcom, for the first time in Street Fighter history, all post-launch gameplay-related content in Street Fighter V can be earnable via gameplay for free. All balance and system adjustments will also be available for free, so players will always have access to the most current version. Through a strategic partnership between Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and Capcom, the next generation Street Fighter experience will offer cross-platform play that will unite PlayStation 4 and PC fans into a centralized player base for the first time.

Snapchat Brings Gaming And Tech Content With IGN And Mashable

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Millions of users accessing Snapchat on a daily basis. Now, it’s getting even bigger, as the company has announced a trio of new publishers that will be joining it.

Re/code reports that the three new publishers, Mashable, IGN, and food and travel network Tastemade, are joining Snapchat today. In a curious move, however, they aren’t replacing older publishers on the site. Instead, Snapchat is expanding the team as a whole to make room for the new ones in its Discover section, bringing the total to 15. In addition, the app team is also looking to sign on even more publishers throughout the month.

The signing on of new publishers makes sense when it comes to making revenue, as both Snapchat and its publishing partners have been successfully selling ad space alongside the Discover content since it launched earlier in the year. According to Re/code, the more channels Snapchat has available to users, the more content that becomes available to monetize.

Even with reports of small decline following the debut of Discover, many partners insist that there’s still plenty of demand. Tastemade co-founder Steven Kydd stated that the conversations with advertisers in the program have been “very, very positive.”

Furthermore, the publishers already have key partners on board with them. Coca-Cola, for example, is sponsoring Tastemade’s channel with today’s launch, and IGN has teamed up with Universal Pictures for a promotion on its forthcoming horror film The Visit, set to debut in theaters September 11th.

“The advertiser response has been incredible,” said Vivek Shah, CEO of IGN’s parent company, Ziff Davis. “I think that’s as much a credit to advertiser interest in Snapchat as it is to interest in IGN on Snapchat.”

The only question left about the new partners is with formatting. The current format page for Snapchat happily fits twelve partners to a page, and 15 could make it a little fuller than expected. The team is working on it, according to a source close to the project, although the final result hasn’t been unveiled just yet.

Regardless, Snapchat appears to be full speed ahead in the publishing game, and of course, that means more money for its controversial but still well-received business model.

What You Need To Know About Google’s Twitch Competitor, YouTube Gaming

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Video titan YouTube announced today it will be bringing its gaming-focused livestreaming service, YouTube Gaming, live tomorrow with a website and mobile apps. The move shows that YouTube is serious about its focus on its largest vertical. Here’s what you need to know.

YouTube Gaming Opens Competition Against Twitch

While YouTube has been a mainstay for gaming’s Let’s Play content and unboxings, Twitch has been playing host to gaming’s streaming community. In May of last year, Variety reported that YouTube was looking to acquire the streaming service for $1 billion. Since Google lost out to Amazon, YouTube announced back in June that it would be creating YouTube Gaming.

In a statement to Polygon, Twitch says they’ve hit a new milestone with 2 million viewers watching concurrently.

“The opportunity in gaming video is enormous, and others have clearly taken notice,” said Matthew DiPietro, senior vice president of marketing for Twitch. “We are dedicated to being the best social, global, multi-screen video platform for gamers, period.”

As The List of Competitors Grows, YouTube Faces Pressure

According to eMarketer, while YouTube continues to bring positive financial results and impressive stats, YouTube is beginning to face pressure from a growing number of competitors. Growth in YouTube’s video ad revenues is expected to drop by 6.2 percent next year. To YouTube’s benefit, marketers are seeing the platform as an essential part of branded content and campaigns. It’s not likely that YouTube will topple from its top spot anytime soon, but it’s worth noting that the company is looking to remain competitive in the lucrative and growing streaming market.

How YouTube Gaming Will Work

Starting tomorrow, gaming.youtube.com will work in all countries where YouTube is available. Both Android and iOS apps will be available for download. YouTube Gaming will be automatically collecting video gaming-related content for more than 25,000 games. Streaming will be easier as well. Currently in beta, youtube.com/stream will allow a more streamlined process for users to stream on their personal URLs.