Hello, my name is Mark. I'm the CEO of the YOGSCAST.
Today we're going to talk about collaborations
and cross-promotion.
[YouTube | Collaborate and cross-promote]
[What type of collaborations do you do on YOGSCAST?]
We've done a few different types of collaboration.
We've actually done some with kind of
more traditional celebrities.
And quite surprisingly, actually, our YouTube audience
doesn't really care that much about them.
It's strange in that YouTube and celebrity within YouTube
is a very different thing to the mainstream.
We've actually found that by partnering up
with other kind of relevant, I guess, gaming celebrities
and gaming channels on YouTube—
we've done stuff with Ali-A—
they've actually been far more beneficial for us
and for the other channel involved.
I think that's more because it's relevant,
and YouTube is all about catering for niches.
And the gaming niche happens to be a very large one.
But certainly if the collaboration isn't correct,
it doesn't really work as well.
[How do you measure a good collaboration?]
A good collaboration is often you'll see a spike in views,
and then it's about retention thereafter.
Often if you're working with someone else
who's known for a particular type of content,
that's what that audience wants.
So if you're not delivering that same type of content,
you may see no benefit from the collaboration.
But if you do, then you may see an increased view,
subscriber base engagement,
more people commenting on your videos,
and greater awareness about who you are
and more opportunity in the future to be discovered.
[Who would you like to collaborate with?]
When we talk about wishful collaborations,
it always comes to more of the sort of content that we enjoy.
I mentioned Epic Rap Battles of History.
I love what Peter and Lloyd do with that.
It's so fun and silly that I think
those sort of opportunities for us
almost are that kind of wish fulfillment.
When you're in a position where that's available to you,
I think those sorts of things come across
as great opportunities.
Past that, just stuff we enjoy, like Vsauce and stuff like that,
just these really clever YouTube videos
that you don't see on TV.
I think anywhere where we could do something
that's, I think, a little bit different
is probably where we would find a reason to collaborate.
[What are your favorite collaborations?]
With our network we're currently with Maker Studios,
which has a gaming vertical called Polaris.
And within that there's loads of great big YouTubers.
Two of my favorites are Jesse Cox and Crendor.
They do a lot of collaborations together,
and it's just always hilarious.
I think that's partly the joy if you see these
just hilariously funny people interacting.
I think YouTube gives us the illusion almost
that these people are our friends.
We listen to them every day, we know what's going on
in their lives, and I think it's always nice
to have those funny friends in our lives.
So I particularly like that.
Equally, within the YOGSCAST
we have Sips and Hat Films playing together.
It's always guaranteed to be fun.
You know that when you mix certain personalities together
you get that peanut butter and chocolate combination
where it's these 2 great things that are just better together.
[Which videos do you promote to your audience?]
We consume YouTube as much as our audience,
if not potentially more.
So we're always watching fun stuff happening,
and we see videos that go viral and love them,
but equally, we see videos that we feel
should get more attention than they do.
I remember we favorited a while ago
a video of a guy called Lowtax,
who runs Something Awful.
He did this fantastic fake scare
facecam video where he was playing a game
and completely overreacting to things that weren't scary.
His general breakdown as this video progressed
was just hilarious.
And so when we see things that we just think,
"That's really funny," we want to share that with our audience.
And so we're going to like that video or favorite that video
or comment on that video
in the hopes that they get a little bit more recognition,
as they likely deserve.
[Why do you highlight other channels' videos?]
Often when we like a video, you'll see the very common trend
in the comments will be, "YOGSCAST sent me here,"
or some variation on that.
People like to identify as a Yognaut or a YOGSCAST fan,
and I think that having that sort of camaraderie behind it,
people like to say, "Hey, I'm here because of the YOGSCAST."
And we do see that when we like and favorite
and engage with other videos and creators out there.
[What makes a successful collaboration?]
In terms of tips on a successful collaboration,
it's tricky because the temptation can often be
to split videos across multiple episodes
and have them on different channels.
That can sometimes be effective
if you have the first video, say,
on the larger of the 2 channels with the second video
already existing on the other channel
and an annotation at the end
driving people across to that other channel.
That can be useful.
It really depends what you're wanting to get
from the collaboration.
Sometimes just featuring on that larger channel
can be enough—that the mobilized audience
that actually cares about finding new talent
will find their way across to your channel
just by having your channel in the description
or potentially on an end slate at the end of the video.
I hope you found that interesting.
Please feel free to click to find out more
or also to check out my channel.
[YouTube]
[Who should we feature next?]