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Impressions in the trillions, views in the billions and dollars in the millions: why homemade video content is a force to be reckoned with.
Impressions in the trillions, views in the billions and dollars in the millions: why homemade video content is a force to be reckoned with.
“THAT’S ONE OF THE AMAZING THINGS ABOUT OUR CHANNEL; IT’S MORE A COMMUNITY”
To most, ‘video on demand’ refers to streaming services such as Netflix, Stan, ABC iView and the like, and yet the phrase has been the bottom line for YouTube for 12 years. Content at the click of a mouse that amuses, informs and enables procrastination and nine-to-five escapism – the trailer for a new Jennifer Lawrence film one minute, an hour of Dog TV (a channel made purely for dogs, with 37,000 subscribers) the next. Despite the fact that one vlog entry consistently earns more views than a Game Of Thrones episode, YouTube creators retain a certain stigma; be it a teens-only or lowbrow cast. And yet, brands are throwing millions at them as we become more engaged with video than any other form of media on the planet.
Earlier this month, VidCon was held in Australia, a conference dedicated to video creators and their fans that last year in Anaheim attracted upwards of 30,000 attendees, the majority of whom were aged 13 to 17. Founded in 2010 by novelist John Green (of The Fault in Our Stars fame) and his entrepreneur vlogger brother Hank Green, known collectively on YouTube as VlogBrothers (three million subscribers), as a way for the YouTube community to gather IRL, VidCon has grown from a ‘geek meet’ of 1,400 to an enormous global event covering every corner of video #contentcreation. VidCon international executive producer Julia Maes says that it is typical teenage fandom mixed with accessibility that spurs the crazy crowds.
“People overlook or don’t regard teenage girls as having voices worth listening to. But it’s obvious, based on the popularity of online video, that they do.” This, Maes notes, is a small part of VidCon’s business model – showing brands that teens do spend money on tech and make-up and clothes and fashion and food and that these influencers are the golden geese. “Brands are starting to look at VidCon because that’s where those dollars are.”
If you’re over 25, you might think that YouTubers aren’t on your radar, but it’s likely they already are. Besides our daily feeds, Foxtel, ABC, Netflix, Stan and the free-to-air broadcasters are all looking to YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and new contenders Musical.ly, Live.me and YouNow for next year’s stars. No longer is web video a time-waster; it’s a serious aggregator for the entertainment industry.
“We’ve had a hand in new forms of storytelling across online platforms for a very long time now before YouTube was even a thing,” says Mike Cowap, Screen Australia’s investment manager for online content, who oversees Skip Ahead, an online creator grant launched in 2014 in partnership with Google. Take Skip Ahead recipients Superwog (766,000 subscribers) for example, whose TV-length pilot scored more than 500,000 views in 24 hours, a million in three days and had offers within a week.
The most streamed series on ABC iView, The Katering Show (101,000 subscribers), is a web-born foodie spoof whose creators are now working with NBC in the States; Adelaide’s RackaRacka (four million subscribers) has been named in the ‘Top 10 Famechangers’ by Variety; and later this year Foxtel will launch The Slot, a YouTube-sourced comedy show.
“That’s not to say TV is the end game,” says Cowap. “But it’s a hotbed for talent because these creators are bringing an audience they’ve built on YouTube, making them very powerful exports.”
More than anything, the rise of DIY entertainment is smashing the whoyou-know-not-what-you-know Hollywood cliche, particularly when it comes to gender, ethnicity and cultural barriers. “People from diverse backgrounds don’t need to wait for a conservative broadcaster to commission them,” says Cowap. Instead, creatives can finesse their craft and build their audience and force broadcasters, agents and record labels have no choice but to pay attention. In a way, YouTube is democratising showbiz.
This was the case with SketchShe, a Sydney trio who were shopping a female-framed comedy to tumbleweed responses. “We set out to make a TV show and found it so difficult to get our foot in the door,” says Shae-Lee Shackleford, a writer, director, producer and recipient of the Gender Matters grant from Screen Australia. “Someone suggested we go online and it was within a month or so when we went ridiculously viral.” SketchShe’s ‘Bohemian Carsody’ and ‘Mime Through Time’ videos earned them almost 300 million views across various platforms, a global following and open door invitations. “It helped us form our voice and learn what worked,” says Shackleford, noting that YouTube is secondary to Facebook in views, due to the share factor. Now SketchShe is being courted by brands wanting to collaborate. “That’s our bread and butter. We’ve become our own mini advertising agency,” says Shackleford, laughing. “It’s funny because it’s kind of reverse-engineered the industry, people come to us because they want to reach our audience.”
Arguably the most polarising tribe of the platform are the vloggers, who, thanks to an hungry legion of fans, have more weight as celebrities than ‘celebrities’. One of the brightest local stars is Wendy Huang or ‘Wengie’, who at the time of writing had 8.4 million subscribers. “The great thing about YouTube and the new media is we don’t really get a choice as to whether we’re popular or not,” she recently told 60 Minutes. Unlike the Hollywood star formula, Wengie has garnered a passionate fan base from her warm-and-fuzzy first-person delivery and teen-friendly content; it’s as if you were hanging out in her bedroom.
Melbourne couple Jamie and Nikki Perkins (1.5 million subscribers) have a similar approach, opening the door to their family home after they found
fame from uploading Jamie’s opulent marriage proposal to Nikki. They’ve made a living sharing their family’s highs and lows to a wide audience of mums and 20-somethings, but Nikki, an ex-model, also found herself a role model to young women of colour. “Nikki constantly gets emails from girls of her complexion saying: ‘You’ve made me love my complexion!’” says Jamie. “That’s one of the amazing things about our channel; it’s more a community.”
“It’s about being genuinely yourself,” comments Canadian-born, LA-based Gigi Loren Lazzarato, aka Gigi Gorgeous (2.7 million subscribers), an A-list YouTuber, named one of the 25 most influential people on the internet by Time and the first transgender face of Revlon. “I think being authentically myself is why people gravitate towards me. Being unapologetic, owning what you believe in and speaking your truth works for longevity in anybody’s life and career. But also, you need to interact with fans and keep the conversation going.” Gigi has been uploading beauty tutorials and vlogs since 2008, counts Katy Perry as a megafan and earlier this year premiered her documentary
This is Everything at Sundance Film Festival, which documented her transition, cementing her as one of the biggest LGBTIQ champions on YouTube. “YouTube has brought so much positivity to my life,” she says. “It is a huge support system for me, knowing that people have my back, care about what I have to say and that I can help others.”
But what is it about vloggers that is so enthralling to millennials and the iGeneration? For starters, internet stars such as King Bach, Brittany Furlan and Joey Graceffa are nothing like Hollywood stars. “The level of intimacy that exists between the creator and the consumer is unmatched by anything in entertainment,” comments Tyler Oakley (7.9 million subscribers), a prolific American YouTuber, podcaster, writer and youth and LGBTIQ activist, with his own show on Ellen DeGeneres’s EllenTube platform. “Movie stars maybe make one or two movies a year. You go to the theatre, you leave. You don’t think about that movie star for the rest of your year. A TV show, maybe you think about them for two months while the show’s on air, and then it’s in your living room with friends or family. With a YouTube star, it’s one on one. You’re inches away from your screen. With headphones in your ear. The intimacy is so close to begin with.” Hence the impact, trust and influence an Internet star can flex. “It feels like your friend is sharing favourite thing with you.”
For young people, another often-overlooked benefit to creator platforms is the mental health support provided by the online community. If you have a camera, you have a voice and if you have an internet connection, you can find your tribe. “I never thought about it when I started out 10 years ago, I was just trying to be an idiot on the internet,” Oakley says with a laugh. “But I started getting messages from people saying: ‘Instead of hurting myself tonight, I spent my night watching you.’ Or: ‘You’re the first gay person [I know].’ When I see things like that, it blows my mind.” He adds: “In a society that sometimes tries to diminish a lot of disenfranchised voices, living unapologetically is an act of resistance within itself. And when people see someone, be it a gay man or whatever, doing that on YouTube, even if it’s just making silly content or talking about pop culture, it can be very powerful.”
Considering the number of success stories, the viral lols, the films, books, TV series, albums and artistic careers that have been launched off the back of homemade content creation, the cultural impact is impossible to ignore. “It’s happening. It’s growing and this is how people are being entertained now,” says Oakley. “If you don’t get the gravity of the accomplishments of people on YouTube, it’s not because it’s hard to understand, it’s because you’re not trying to understand.”