YouTube Makes Big Changes To Brand-Sponsored Videos

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There are several video producers who work directly with brands and post links within their uploaded programs to spread the word – but YouTube could be changing the way you see these videos.

The company has amended its ad policies to block “graphical title cards” from sponsors that aim to promote certain brands and products on YouTube channels, according to Digiday. This comes from a revised FAQ document in YouTube’s support section, which indicates that video overlays of sponsor logos and product branding aren’t allowed anymore – unless there’s a deal where the sponsor pays Google directly in terms of advertising on its channel.

When speaking with a YouTube rep, Digiday pointed out that they called this a revision of its existing policy, which actually took place late last year. It was put in place to prevent advertiser conflicts and ensure viewers don’t become overwhelmed with ad presence with videos.

Not everyone is crazy about the move, as Paul Kontonis, executive director of the Global Online Video Association, deemed the change as explicit, preventing YouTube stars and multichannel networks from including necessary sponsor logos and images into their videos. He feels that Google is trying to take too much of a cut from sales.

The company also introduced a new “product card” program, which provides a six-second pre-roll spot on videos. It will remain outside of the main content of a program, but it’s built within the stream, allowing brands to sponsor certain comment. This is sure to become part of standard media packages for ad sales, according to Kontonis, but YouTube hasn’t officially commented on it yet.

As a result of these programs, YouTube could possibly take a bigger cut from certain partners, as its revenue-sharing terms currently show it gets 45 percent, while the rest go to the partner channel.

“We allow text-only title cards where there is paid product placement for the purpose of paid product disclosure only,” reads the new plan on the YouTube page. “Graphical title cards, including the use of sponsor logos and product branding, are prohibited unless there is a full Google media buyout on the partner content by the sponsor.

Kontonis explained, “YouTube needs to do it, because in their minds they are losing money to product integration and sponsorships within video. But this industry is still in the first inning, so to be putting all these constructs into place that take more revenue away from the networks that are helping build the quality of the content, audience and monetization opportunities is shortsighted.”

Creators aren’t likely to be pleased with the new program. “It’s especially poor timing on YouTube’s part with Vessel taking off at the moment, because that (platform) is specifically targeted towards content creators earning more revenue,” said Jan Dawson, chief analyst for Jackdaw Research. “If YouTube is cracking down on ways of monetizing on YouTube itself, that will just drive people into the arms of Vessel and some of those newer video platforms.”

We’ll see how it does over the next few months, but it seems that YouTube could possibly lighten up on the restrictions a little. Or maybe even a lot.

Not All Fans Are Created Equal: Seven Ways To Engage Your Brand’s Top Fans On YouTube

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by Jessica Klein

On YouTube, only some fans can count as your “top fans.” Thanks to YouTube and Google+, these especially devoted followers are not hard to pin down. If your brand has over 5,000 subscribers (and let’s hope it does, now that you’ve had the chance to read up on YouTube tips from the Playbook for Brands), the video platform offers a “Top Fans” tool. By bringing together your brand’s Google+ page and YouTube channel, you can explore the “Insights” and “Fans” features to learn more about your followers and better engage with them.

1. Show Top Fans New Videos First

There’s not better way to reinforce how much your brand’s biggest fans mean to you than to treat them like VIPs to your videos. Using Insights, you can share your latest content with these fans (by uploading privately) before it becomes available to the YouTube viewing masses. Comments on the privately uploaded video will remain behind VIP doors, too.

2. Ask for Their Personal Opinions

Your brand’s top fans’ opinions matter because they know your content well and they know why they love it. Also, though they may feel like and act like friends, they’re not in one important way—they don’t have to tell you whatever you make is grand when it’s…not. Ask them for their thoughts on your brand’s latest video, what they want to see more of, what they don’t like, etc. Their advice will help you make the best videos you can make for the demographic your brand has already established, and soliciting it privately (via Insights) will let the fans share their thoughts more openly.

Read more…

This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.

The Value Of Ads That Disappear

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SnapChat believes that it has a strong social presence that stands out from other sites, and also has an equally strong fee for advertisers, as it’s asking for $750,000 daily for ads that disappear just as quickly as they’re seen. Now, a new article from Adage talks about the effectiveness of said ad.

Author Ephraim Bander talks about how ads can fit in with the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it mantra of how SnapChat works, with users taking in as many images as they can, aware that they can disappear in a moment’s notice. “In a way, it’s an experiential platform that encourages users to pay attention now so they’ll remember something later,” he explains. “And that’s why I did not greet the news last month that SnapChat would charge advertisers a reported $750,000 for one day’s worth of (disappearing) ads with nearly as much skepticism or incredulity as any of my peers in the advertising world.”

However, the author believes that advertisers should look a little deeper beyond the price point. “Advertisers should be incensed by just how many of their ad dollars are spent on campaigns that don’t even get a chance to disappear – because they’re never in-screen and have no chance to be seen at all,” he explains.

“SnapChat’s $750K ads might sound expensive, but they offer us a guarantee that even Google can’t make – that ads will be seen,” he said, referring back to a report posted by Google in December titled The Importance of Being Seen: Viewability Insights for Digital Marketers and Publishers, which talks about the effectiveness of display ads.

Bander then went on to ask a few questions, such as whether publishers can get a guarantee about ads loading on time and in-screen, and what technology they might use to assure ads won’t be ignored. “These are all things that are inherently incorporated into SnapChat ads, by nature of the mobile screens on which the app runs, but these should be considerations regardless of what platform a given campaign will appear on,” he said.

“For ads to be effective, consumers must first engage with them, and then find them memorable. If advertisers started treating every ad like it was going to disappear, the same way the cliché says to live every day to its fullest, perhaps there would be far fewer invisible ads and more instances of possibly vanishing – but effective – messages reaching consumers,” he concluded.

The full report can be found here.

DeStorm Power Tells How He Made Vine A Creator’s Business

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DeStorm Power basically invented the business of video creating on Vine. The techniques for making successfully funny, smart videos with a six-second time constraint are specific and, when you hear them coming from Power, sound obvious. However, the incredibly popular Vine (and don’t forget YouTube) creator figured them out by trial and error, which he explained to Rhett & Link this week on “Ear Biscuits.”

Like YouTube, Vine didn’t start out as a platform where entertainers could monetize their widely enjoyed content. Because its videos only run for six seconds (okay, 6.5 to be exact), users didn’t initially conceive of the app as a place to host anything complex enough to tell stories, including Power. Eventually, he began seeing Vine videos that verged on storytelling and seized the idea. “We brought the skits to Vine,” he explained.

“We” likely means himself and KingBach, a member of his current Viner “crew” (which includes about 10 creators in total, including Melvin Gregg and Klarity). KingBach actually started making skits on Vine “a few days” before Power, and it turned into the two challenging each other for followers. Power said that he started out with about 3,000 “by default, because my YouTube was big.”

Read more…

This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.

BitTorrent Moves Forward With Original Content

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A few months ago, BitTorrent made the move into original content territory, announcing that it would take on the likes of Netflix and Hulu with its own original content. It’s already announced one program, Children of the Machine, that’s on the way, and today it moves forward even more with a new partnership.

TechCrunch has reported that BitTorrent has teamed up with Rapid Eye Studios – the same team that’s producing Children – in an effort to identify, produce and distribute even more original video content for the company’s program, which is called BitTorrent Originals. The company hopes to reach out to an audience within the ages 14-25 market with these shows, although additional titles weren’t announced yet.

As part of the deal, part of BitTorrent’s Bundles team, which handles paid content for the site – will relocate to offices in Los Angeles, working closely with Rapid Eye. “It signals how serious we are about being a media company,” said a spokesperson for the company.

The move should shift BitTorrent away from what it’s usually known for, unlicensed content sharing that’s become a bit of a hassle in running. “This landmark deal with Marco (Weber, CEO of Rapid Eye) is a major milestone for us and an aggressive expansion into the media space for BitTorrent, Inc.” said Eric Klinker, CEO for BitTorrent, in a statement by the company. “In the last two years, we’ve become a trusted and valid channel for creators and publishers to reach a monthly global audience of 170 million fans directly. Expanding into the world of original content is a move that makes us a serious player in the media business, and takes us another step closer toward our goal: creating a sustainable digital future for creators of all kinds.”

There’s no word yet when the Originals program for BitTorrent will launch, but it appears to be set behind a Bundle “pay gate” model. From there, the content could be sold to other social channels. “All of those are possible,” said the spokesperson, when TechCrunch talked about the likes of Amazon and Netflix.

DEW: Expect Maker Studios-Made Disney Videos

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by Sahil Patel

When Maker Studios first engaged in acquisition talks with Disney, its YouTube network was doing 4 billion views per month; that number grew to 5.5 billion when the deal closed and now stands at over 11.5 billion — and yet, almost a year after the acquisition, very little of that viewership can be attributed to content produced by Maker or its network on behalf of Disney.

Expect that to change in 2015, according to Maker Studios president Ynon Kreiz. Speaking during a session at the annual Digital Entertainment World expo in Los Angeles, Kreiz said, going forward, more videos from Maker and its network will make use of characters and assets owned by Disney, including those from Lucasfilm, Marvel, and Pixar. “We expect to activate the great IP from the House of Disney,” said Kreiz.

Read more…

This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.

Why ‘Evolve’s’ Four-vs.-One Multiplayer Will Work

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For the past few months, 2K Games has been heavily hyping its latest multiplayer release, Evolve, which is in stores this week. The game takes a novel approach to the usual multiplayer experience, where four hunters chase after a large monster, who can strike back and eventually “evolve” into something unstoppable. The catch is, players can control all these characters and compete against one another.

It’s a big difference from the usual multiplayer experience that players have come to expect, especially those that have become accustomed to the likes of Call of Duty and Halo. However, it’s an experience that should work for 2K in the long run.

Here are several reasons to consider:

The Hunters Aren’t “Weaklings”, and Are Unique
Some might think that the player controlling the monster in Evolve has the advantage, and, in a way, it is kind of a guilty pleasure. However, that’s not to say the Hunters involved in the game don’t have their role to play. Each one has a specific duty, whether it’s playing as a medic who keeps the other players healthy while unloading gunfire, or a trapper that puts up a temporary electric fence to keep the monster from escaping.

Learning – and mastering – each of these skills provides an overwhelming replay value to the game, and may find players getting accustomed to certain roles with each new match they enter. Considering the generic roles they usually file in other multiplayer experiences (where they just play “soldier” or “grunt”), this is a huge difference.

Playing As the Monster Is a Blast
Okay, so if you get to play as the monster (be it a Goliath, Wraith or Behemoth), you’re going to have a good time. That’s because each monster has a number of capabilities that can easily crush Hunters flat if they’re landed the right way, from throwing rocks to performing a crushing smash into the ground to firing electrical bolts that can hit at a satisfying distance.

Each monster has something unique to provide, and players who finally get a turn with them certainly won’t be disappointed.

 

CREATIVE: Don’t Mess With Marriott’s ‘Two Bellmen’

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Marriott’s Content Studio is off to a rollicking start. Now we finally get to see the trailer for the film that Marriott’s content division has been working on which is set at the JW Marriott LA Live hotel.

The film is called Two Bellmen, and from the looks of the trailer, is fairly action-packed.

 

Honda To Sponsor Yahoo’s Sixth Season Of ‘Community’

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by Sahil Patel

Honda is sponsoring the sixth season of “Community,” which will start its run on Yahoo Screen this spring after spending the first five seasons on NBC.

As the presenting sponsor, Honda’s season-long deal includes several integrations within episodes of the show, as well as pre-roll ads on new episodes and series highlights. One episode, for instance, will feature the redesigned Honda CR-V on the Greendale Community College campus.

Read more…

This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.

 

First Project From What’s Trending And Marriott Development Deal Emerges

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by Jocelyn Johnson

This past weekend, Marriott Content Studio and What’s Trending released their first co-production featuring YouTube talent, including Jeana from PrankVsPrank, Louis Cole (FunForLouis), Tom from TheSyndicateProject, Steve Zaragoza from SourceFed, and Meghan Camarena (Strawburry17), as they live out their bucket list items in cities like New York City, Shanghai, and San Francisco.

The project marks the first to come from the earlier announced development deal between the two companies.

Read and see more here…

This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.