3 Surprising VidCon Insights

This Week: VidCon got me thinking.  I’m not done, but below are a few of the things I’ve been pondering over the last few days.  Plus, 34 important stories and more.

The Surprising Ways the NFL Changed YouTube:  One of the better sessions at VidCon brought together Kim Larson, YouTube’s Head of Creators and Ian Trombetta, the NFL’s head of Social, Influencer and Content Marketing.  Joined by Adam W and Whalar president Jo Cronk, they explore the transformational results of the year-old NFL Sunday Ticket partnership.  Much of the dialog (here included) has focused on ROI, but the partnership has had surprising and unexpected effects on both businesses.

The NFL clearly needed to escape their “No Fun League” reputation while expanding beyond their aging male audience.  They gave YouTube creators unprecedented access to archival footage, waived monetization claims and welcomed creators into their tentpole events and the weekly games.  A league lacking in whimsy surprisingly helped Mark Rober smuggle the world’s longest drinking helmet into the best seats at the super bowl (24M views and counting), while dragging more than a few of their 32 teams into the creator age.  The results were dramatic: creator videos outperformed league content at every turn, with big success on even the wonkiest of stages - including the NFL’s annual combine. 

But the changes at YouTube were equally dramatic.  Larson shared how YouTube was still recovering from year one, calling out the unforeseen demands of an 18-league season.   Those immutable deadlines not only changed the content and creator teams, but also impacted product and development; you can’t push out NFL’s “Kickoff Weekend” because the app’s not ready.  Shipping is a feature – and those 18 rigorous deadlines hopefully improved the internal development culture.  Perhaps those excruciating year-long waits between feature announcement and general availability – I’m looking at you A/B thumbnail testing – will become a thing of the past.

TikTok Brings It:  They aren’t acting like the sword of Damocles hangs above them (201 days and counting).  At VidCon, casual discussions, off-the-record meetings and a jam-packed “Desintation: Creation” lounge (nicely done @justin lefkowich) showed a company accelerating its ambitions, not quivering in fear.  I’m excited about many of the new things on tap, including new ways for creators to get paid, exciting shopping innovations and much more.  Whatever happens, Double-T will seemingly continue to push the boundaries of its US and global business.

• Related: In your face Amazon!  TikTok will debut a live shopper-ganza saving stunt on July 9th

Is Our Destiny to Become Hollywood? I love the Publish Press’ annual “print zine”, released on the eve of VidCon and distributed at the show (buy your copy now – it’s well worth reading).  As a former magazine and newspaper editor, I adore tangible print products. There’s still magic in the subtle smell of ink and the faint echoes of the mechanical printing press.  But compared to last year’s hopeful “YouTube New Wave” theme, this year’s issue left me distressed.  I agree that “Creators are becoming Hollywood faster than Hollywood is becoming creators”.  And many VidCon sessions reflected that as well, celebrating creators becoming media companies and conquering the living room and theaters too. 

But despite VidCon’s 2010 debut across the street from CAA, Hollywood still hasn’t embraced a media built on inclusivity and community, instead regularly reverting to its legacy of exclusivity and gilded megaphones.  

Luckily our economy is far broader than a horde of entertainment creators hoping to unlock Joni Mitchell’s “star making machinery”. Yes, traditional TV is now YouTube’s primary growth engine – which accelerates the infection - but two other pillars of the creator space continue to thrive far beyond the borders of LaLa Land.  

Look no further than the annual Open Sauce festival held in San Francisco two weeks ago.  Instead of agents stalking teen talent, HR recruiters trolled the halls hoping to hook talented engineers into their AI startups.  Instead of Charli D’Amelio and MrBeast’s minions, geek lords Mark Rober, Ludwig and Michael Reeves ruled the roost.  Educational creators – broadly encompassing makers, teachers, news reporters, product reviewers, and how-to experts -- thrive from Silicon Valley to Sydney, Sao Paulo, Missoula and beyond.  

And the third pillar – inspirational creators – can be found at Ted, VeeCon and around the world.

18 years after YouTube launched, many in the Creator Economy still storm the Hollywood Hills seeking treasure and glory.  But as increasingly sophisticated creators, shifting audience expectations and helpful AI continue to batter the gates, even the inner keep will fall. Meanwhile, I’m confident that so many more creators will continue to thrive and expand without ever “taking a meeting” or “doing lunch”.

• Related: A deep link into @scott Belsky’s (CSO Adobe) always fascinating monthly newsletter, where he argues the Creator Economy is becoming the Meaning Economy – perhaps AI will render human-driven mass-scale entertainment obsolete as the other two legs of the stool ascend?  Belsky also explains what really happened with the Adobe TOU kerfuffle.

• Related: Buzzfeed’s having trouble selling Hot Ones.  Perhaps TV-like YouTube content isn’t the best path to treasure and glory after all?

YouTube Sprinkles Trend Data Around the Internet: YouTube teased its latest culture and trend report last week, finding that two-thirds of GenZ considers themselves creators.  Although oddly not available at YouTube’s “Culture and Trends” blog, you can see a report summary here on LinkedIn.  Also, while sifting through the web to find the full 2024 study, I stumbled across a recent fandom study from YouTube with additional fascinating insight, including how fragmented GenZ fandom truly is – with almost half saying they are part of a fandom that’s not shared by any of their friends.  Also notable – almost 80% consider themselves big or super fans – which translates into regular engagement and spending money on their obsession. Download that full report here.  Hopefully we get a comprehensive 2024 trend report with from YouTube soon.

SPONSOR:  This Year’s Cannes Had Creators at the Heart of It

So, I think what started off really as an exercise in explaining to the industry at Cannes what the Creator Economy was -  and how they could work with creators - is now kind of this dual path where creators are going and wanting to learn more about the rest of the advertising and entertainment industry as they become a more integral part of it,” said Neil Waller, Co-CEO and Co-founder of creator company Whalar Group.  

Learn about the key takeaways from this year’s Cannes Lions festival in Ad Age.

QUIBIS:   

YOUTUBE

• Strong tips for YouTubers from @paddy Galloway, reflecting on 14+ years of being a creator.

• New usability features coming to Premium users.

• If everyone else jumped off the bridge, would you?  Apparently YouTube says yes – and follows Instagram and TikTok by developing YouTuber-based AI chatbots.  Get your popcorn out.

• YouTube wants to sweet-talk record labels into an AI music deal.  What could possibly go wrong.  

• RELATED: The major labels are majorly suing Udio and Suno.  Time for more popcorn.

• So sad that Neal Mohan didn’t make it to VidCon. At least he threaded about it.

• YouTube handles now available in 74 different languages!

META

• Meta wants in on the personalized chatbot race too.  

• Meta testing out auto-generating advertising video variants – and then A/B testing them – for clients.  Devil’s in the details, but I love the potential 

• LTK and Instagram likely headed to a tussle over automated DMs.  Good analysis from  @jasmine Enberg from EMARKETER.

• Instagram testing a Share Count to go along with likes, comments and reposts. 

• The NYT explores how Meta failed kids ($).

• What’s worse with automated AI image tagging?  False positives or false negatives?  We might find out soon.

• Meta explains the Fediverse, then shares how and why Threads will embrace it.

• Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri drops another round of tips for creators – here’s a readable wrap up of all his latest insight.

TIKTOK

• TikTok will hold a live shopper-ganza starting July 9th.

• TikTok updates its 2024 trend report – evaluating its picks from the beginning of the year and highlighting new ones.

• Advertisers making plans to move to other platforms if the ban happens (202 days and counting).

OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY

• Pinterest lets uses turn boards into videos and then download and/or share them on social.  The templates are pretty basic, but it’s a good first step.  More on the launch from @Lia Haberman.

• Snap levels up its user privacy and protection tools – likely in response to increased scrutiny on kids and social.  Good to see, wish it had happened sooner.

• Cute piece on the intersection of celebri-pets and travel content.

• I would love to see LinkedIn adopt this new feature from X – insight about when your audience is most active.

• LinkedIn leans into B2B advertising and creators at Cannes.  Let’s lobby for more creators joining them next year.

• A debrief on the Supreme Court’s ruling that should help keep foreign governments from spreading disinformation on social platforms – and lets government agencies continue to share public health issues too.

• Fun sharing a stage with old friend @Shira Lazar at VidCon.  She’s leaning back into her roots and launching a creator-interview series later in July.

• Tired of bad data in the creator economy – or perhaps you want to game the system?  Linqia is looking for marketers to fill out their survey for an upcoming report.

• MrBeast’s new toy line drops next month.

• The Evil Mouse slaps a copyright claim on Jenny Nicholson’s 4-hour Star Wars Hotel takedown.  Shame Disney.  Shame, Shame.

CREATOR TECH – AI, WEB3, VR, MORE

• Great interview with @Paul Bakaus on how AI is changing creators ($), from Open Sauce’s industry day.

• Toys “R” Us releases a Sora-generated commercial.  It’s not bad, sort of meh.  But it’s got critics riled up regardless.

100% written by me – no human or AI ghostwriters were involved in the production (except for the cover art!).

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