Three of YouTube’s biggest personalities were at the [a]list summit in Los Angeles, where they talked about how they’ve attracted an audience in the millions mostly by hosting shows where they show and tell video games. For “YouTubers” Olga Kay, Toby Turner a.k.a. Tobuscus, and Adam Montoya, better known as SeaNanners, what started out largely as sharing their passion for a pastime has turned into a fulltime job. For game companies, it’s become a new way to promote products.
Recently, the three collaborated with several other YouTube personalities on Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE Arcade NEXT promotion. It was a one-of-a-kind program. Weekly shows hosted by each YouTube star were streamed live through TwitchTV then posted on each of their channels. The shows were produced in a template drawn more from MTV or Nickelodeon than anything on YouTube. The first game the program debuted, “Trials Evolution,” went on to set the day-one sales record for Xbox LIVE. Yesterday the program wrapped up with SeaNanners debuting Microsoft’s big get, “Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition.”
[a]list daily took the opportunity to talk to them about they’ve found themselves at the center of a novel new way to build audiences for games.
How do you work with game makers and publishers on creating content for your channels, do you seek them out or are those opportunities now regularly incoming?
Tobuscus: They usually come to me. I’ve never really approached a game company, yet. I have done stuff on my own to promote games because I play games regardless.
SeaNanners: For me, typically when people approach us — me— it’s through a management company. There’s some sort of liaison between the publisher and myself. I tend to like that better because then the conversation works better in that it’s not constant emails, constant phone calls. I find it to be a better case scenario because it’s very concise. It’s, “We need you to do X, Y and Z. Can you do this, are you available “ It’s nice to have somebody be your go-between. I’d much rather have somebody manage that conversation. In general, it’s very difficult to maintain that conversation when you’re juggling all these different things.
Olga Kay: Companies usually come to me directly and I send them to my manager.
Tobuscus: Sometimes I’m like that, but sometimes if they’re pretty easygoing, if they like your comedy and they want you, they’ll be like, “Do your thing.” That’s probably the easiest for me. But if they need structure then I totally understand.
SeaNanners: If somebody already knows what you do, it’s so much easier. Most people see YouTube as cat video central. They don’t actually see it as a viable way to advertise something. But it is because there are for gaming, specifically, plenty of people who watch our gaming channels who would like to see something we’re interested in.
From left to right, “YouTubers” Tobuscus, Olga Kay and SeaNanners
It sounds like all three of you have representation of some sort, you just sometimes choose not to use it.
Tobuscus: There are several companies that will approach all of us, and you develop a relationship with them over time. And if you really like someone . . .
SeaNanners: Cough — Ayzenberg — cough.
Tobuscus: (Laughs.) Yeah, I like working with my friends.
What sort of content most resonates with your audience?
Tobuscus: Funny content.
SeaNanners: Yeah.
Tobuscus: That’s all that matters. If you’re talking, if you can be free, if it’s you in your element, that’s what it’s all about.
SeaNanners: It sounds so very childlike but I assure you it’s not. That sort of engaging your audience is best case scenario. People want to laugh. Although it may seem from an outside perspective like you’re just talking into a microphone, and how is that viable, how is that good for our brand
Tobuscus: It’s like you’re playing a game with a friend. It’s like they want to watch their friend play a game. You’re hanging out. It’s comfortable.
Is that your mindset when you’re doing these videos?
Tobuscus: For gameplay commentary. For sketches, I want to make something that makes me laugh. If I laugh, someone else is laughing somewhere.
SeaNanners: Funny or not, it should be entertaining.
What you make is very different than usual sponsored content. How do you balance that need to have some product messaging in what you create with wanting to be entertaining, or do you just create what you want?
SeaNanners: It helps to know what the objectives are. In general, it’s nice to be given objectives and then ask, how can I creatively push whatever it may be I think the reason it’s successful is because we’re all individual personalities. We aren’t the company. We aren’t the businessmen. We’re just like the people who watch our content. It comes down to trying to balance the objective and trying to balance our voice. There are ways that you can integrate that. There are ways you can maybe play a game you don’t enjoy or talk about a movie you haven’t seen. When it comes down to it, companies should know what they’re purchasing. If you purchase a sports car, don’t go into the mountains. Don’t come to me if you want to push the new Hanna Montana movie, I may not be the best person to do so.
Olga Kay: But I could be because my audience is perfect.
SeaNanners: It’s not about views, it’s not about audience size, it’s about something that makes sense. It doesn’t make sense to come to me with a brand that’s that different than my own. From a brand perspective, it helps to know what you’re buying. It helps to know who you’re working with to advertise your product. For instance if you simply want something that’s fun and engaging, Toby’s the guy to talk to. If it comes down to Toby wanting to give you PR bullet points, it probably doesn’t make much sense. Though he could probably make that funny, to be honest.
Tobuscus: Recently I had a sponsorship for a telecomm company in Canada. They said we love the script but you need to say this, this and this. Pretty much give the spiel that they’d give you over the phone. I was like, how am I going to do this People will obviously know it’s sponsored. So I added another character that was an employee on the phone with me. It worked perfectly. The episode is just as funny as it would’ve been otherwise.
SeaNanners: You can’t buy my voice. It’s not about me telling my audience what they should do, how they should think and what they should like. If I play a game and I’m having fun, they may be like, hey maybe I should buy that game. It’s about being organic, being transparent.
Based on your experience, how did this massive audience for game content develop on YouTube?
Tobuscus: I feel like everybody wants that big brother experience — I used to play games with my big brother and we would do this stuff back and forth. We’d be talking, telling stories, cracking jokes. It was fun. Games are fun with other people. If they don’t have somebody they have a relationship with for something like that, I feel like they would see this and say this is awesome. Besides that everybody loves video games but not everybody’s great. They want to maybe have SeaNanners be playing and kill 70 people and never die once.
SeaNanners: I wish I would’ve had YouTube when I was younger. I wanted that platform and it wasn’t there. People initially go to YouTube to get assistance with whatever it is they like. Now it’s like they come for the food and they stay for the atmosphere, which is the personalities.
What do you do to grow your audience?
Tobuscus: In the beginning, this is years ago, I was scrambling. I was trying to grow this audience of nothing. I’d go and post comments on people’s videos. Then I’m like, this isn’t what I want to do. Now I don’t do anything, I just make stuff that I like.
Olga Kay: And he’s really funny. For me, I did so many different things. I used to go to YouTube gatherings where I would meet everybody and tell them, this is what I do and if you like it check it out
Tobuscus: Collabs.
Olga Kay: Yeah, collaborating with people on YouTube that already have an audience or you’re both building an audience. They like him and they watch me from his video, and they come to my channel and like what I’m doing, and they decide to stay.
Tobuscus: To grow the initial audience is pretty tough. If you’re with somebody else who’s pretty big, and you’re both likeable and have a similar sense of humor, the audience will migrate over.
Olga Kay: Also for the gaming community it’s important to play new games. People search for new games all the time and they find you as someone who’s playing it, and they’ll stick around. If you have the right personality.
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