Tara: Hi everyone.
Welcome to the second edition of YouTube Insights Hangout On Air.
I'm Tara Walpert Levy, and I lead the ad marketing team here at YouTube.
This episode always follows our release of the YouTube Insights report.
So we have a great group today, to talk about, in particular, fanship.
The difference between a passive viewer and a truly engaged fan.
Why don't we, just to warm up, I'd love to get a sense.
If we're going to spend a lot of this conversation talking about fans, and how you build fans,
would love to get a sense from each of you of is there a brand that you are a particular
fan of as a consumer?
Allison: So, I love GoPro.
I actually love to ski, and I love video, as you know.
So it combines two of my passions.
Bryan: I'm a big fan, and have been for a long time, of Lego.
Kelly: It's called Kid Made Modern.
It's a line of craft supplies created by Todd Oldham.
Jill: Dove, and what they've done from a content perspective.
Ze: For me, it's Nikka whiskey, which is a Japanese brand that I just, from a consumption
end, I would have to call them that.
Tara: So we talk sometimes about the fact that YouTube today reaches more 18 to 34-year-olds
than any cable network.
But is that what matters?
Is it our reach that matters, or is it the level of engagement?
Do you think that the folks on YouTube are viewers, or are they fans?
Does it depend what they're watching?
How do you guys think about it?
Ze: From a professional standpoint I would say that, especially in this capacity, I'm
a fan of any brand that is willing to really engage in a dialogue around what branded content
is, and what it could be.
Jill: As soon as you've chosen to watch the content, it automatically moves you closer
on that continuum to more of a fan.
Allison: It's really amazing to think about all the fans out there, and the fact that
they're just so passionate about brands that they're actually creating content.
It's not just sharing it or viewing it, but actually creating videos dedicated to your
brand.
So many brands out there don't even know that that content exists.
Ze: We are fans of the brands in real life, right?
Every person develops these relationships.
Allison: Some of my favorite data from the inside report was around women liking cake
and men liking bacon.
One thing interesting, in response to Ze's love for whiskey, is actually data in terms
of what cooking topics skew most male.
It's whiskey and corndogs.
[inaudible 00:02:40]
Ze: There we go.
I have been proven, analytically, to be male.
Tara: As you're pointing out, the customers are there all the time.
They want to have that.
If you're going to have a strong relationship, it's going to be there all the time, and thinking
about how we navigate to that kind of behavior is interesting and challenging.
Allison, I don't know if that's something you see in your data.
Allison: There's this transition happening from campaign-based marketing to this evergreen
concept, where you have to create a channel that's always living and always interacting
with fans.
Which can be quite challenging, but I think it's actually just about changing the way
you think about it.
I think there are three secrets to YouTube success, in terms of growing a channel.
The first is content.
So it's very much about the content that you create.
The second is collaboration.
So it's really important to collaborate with native YouTube talent, and people who already
have audiences on YouTube.
I think when you're starting from scratch, it's very hard.
One of the best ways to do it is to partner with existing talent on the platform.
The third is consistency, which we've already discussed a bit.
This concept of evergreen.
Even if it's posting once a month, and that's your consistency, I think it's really important
to establish a schedule.
Bryan: [inaudible 00:03:55] are mutually exclusive, either.
There's certainly a need in marketing to have big spikes where you dominate in your category,
where you really grab people's hearts.
But that's not a sustainable model.
It's about layering, right?
Where maybe in order to get that big spike, you do something that's very broad, very mass,
and push it as much as you can and pull with it.
Then it's layering in stuff, where if you've got a smaller fan base, how do you keep them
feeling like you're nurturing that relationship?
And be okay that maybe that the view count of those assets may not get into the millions,
but the people who are engaging are engaging deeply, and are committed to you acting upon
it.
Tara: So curious to just get some reaction on, what role do you think promotion plays
in the appreciation and development of fans for your content?
Allison: One of the cool things about TrueView is it really is earned media, in a way.
So because people are choosing to watch, and they skip if they don't want to watch it,
and you're literally only paying for people that are viewing that content through.
Bryan: This is the bar you need to cross, now.
You now know if people are walking away from your ad.
You've interrupted them.
You've bothered them.
You've wasted their time.
They're skipping it.
That's not just a, "Oh, shucks."
That's a fail.
A creative fail.
And hopefully this becomes a key metric, not just of, "Hey, did we get people to watch
this thing?"
But, "Is our work touching people?
Is it connecting with people?
Can that be a key data point for us as we think about what makes for effective work?"
Kelly: I think sometimes too, we've had even resistance from clients who haven't done a
TrueView before.
They don't understand the matchmaking capabilities.
You have this great content, but if it's in the right place, you're just . . . they're
putting it together.
You're the opening act for the thing that the person really wants to see.
So to Bryan's point, we have to create great content.
But it has to honor the environment.
Honor the content creator, and honor the reason why the people are there in the first place.
Tara: If you were going to give just one simple piece of advice to a brand that's watching
this and thinking about, "Gosh, I really should be investing more significantly in developing
my fan base."
What piece of advice would you give them?
Ze: When you have success with a piece of content, thinking about iterating on it, I
think, is a really awesome thing.
Right?
A lot of times a brand will have a big hit, and then it'll be another six months, eight
months, year, before another big campaign comes out.
But all that time, I think you can think about iterating against, "Hey, why do you think
that video worked?
What exactly resonated?
Let's try something else.
Let's try another video.
Let's try a series of videos where the content producer and the brand are iterating experimentally
with the use of data towards something."
Bryan: Or, which is experiment.
Because this is early days right now.
Jill: Having a little bit more humble approach than probably what we, typically, as big brands
have had.
Allison: Your fans are on YouTube, and you should be there too.
It's important to be a part of the conversation that they're already having.
Kelly: Recognize them as fans and treat them like fans.
Tara: One of the biggest things I take from this is, as we talk to marketers, to tap into
those same emotional aspects, and remember marketers are people too.
Thank you guys so much for being here.
Really appreciate it.
Ze: Thank you very much.
Jill: Thank you.