YouTube Plays Partner

Among the media companies with the most popular channels on YouTube are Universal Music Group, CBS, Showtime, and the National Basketball Association. Mixed in with those big names are a pair that you’ve probably never heard of: Mondo Media (currently the sixth most-viewed channel) and Smosh (No. 13).Both are examples of a growing number of independent content producers that have built sizable audiences on the Google-owned video behemoth. These mostly born-on-the-Web players say that after a slow start, YouTube has become a far more collaborative distribution partner and is quietly becoming a consistent revenue generator.According to YouTube, Mondo Media, an animation studio, has generated 340 million views to date, roughly 26 million a month, since launching a channel just over a year ago. Compare that to CBS, which has recorded 330 million views since establishing a channel in September 2006. “There are a class of publishers who have built predictable and regular audiences on YouTube that now have some confidence about next month’s traffic,” said John Evershed, CEO of Mondo Media, known for its slightly twisted series of videos called Happy Tree Friends aimed at teens and young adults. Evershed said that though Mondo arrived on YouTube with a small fan base from DVDs and a short-lived series on cable net G4, he’s really seen traffic spike in the past several months since YouTube began to take a more active approach with its partners. “That wasn’t the case when we first started,” he added. “The attitude was, ‘Content comes to us, we don’t have to do anything.’ It’s really shifted.”Besides simply being more attentive, YouTube’s suite of tools has been crucial to Mondo’s success, said Evershed. For example, by using YouTube Insight, Mondo has been able to recognize patterns for new video clips—“rolling waves” of traffic that eventually crash after several days. “It’s a momentum game,” he said. “You have to jump on that wave [before it’s over].” As a result, Mondo has gone from producing around one clip a week to at least three, many of which it now licenses from other animators. With every opportunity, his team pushes viewers to become channels subscribers, ensuring even larger viewership down the road. Plus, Mondo has been able to utilize YouTube’s ContentID tool—designed to sniff out copyrighted content—to monetize clips that fans post on the site. As a result of these efforts, Mondo is pulling in monthly revenue in the five-figure range on YouTube, which Evershed sees quickly growing.Similarly, Smosh—which features a pair of 21-year-old guys who produce sophomoric comedy sketch videos—has noticed a shift at YouTube. “They have evolved,” said Barry Blumberg, general manager of Smosh. “Now we have an actual person [dedicated to our account]. They are better organized, and they call us with ad opportunities.”But Lance Podell, CEO, Next New Networks, a company that distributes a variety of niche Web series on numerous sites, said it’s just as crucial for partners to be their own best advocates with YouTube. “In the end, relationships are bigger than tools,” said Podell.George Strompolos, YouTube’s content partnerships manager, agreed that the company is working more closely with partners compared to when the program started in 2007. “At launch, we were trying to establish as many partners as possible,” he said. “Now, let’s reward the publishers that are engaging on our platform.”He said for smaller independent content producers to succeed on the ever-growing site (YouTube now generates an unprecedented 100 billion views a month), it’s imperative to take advantage of all the audience levers YouTube offers. “Uploading and crossing your fingers, sometimes that’s enough,” he said. “But mostly it’s not.”

Performance Marketing

YouTube Plays Partner

Mike Shields

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Mike Shields