No matter what it is that you’re specifically curious or interested in, there’s more of that available to you than ever before.
Chas Lacaillade is the CEO of Bottle Rocket Management (BRM), which he founded in 2015 to represent today’s digital media content creators. He has established himself as the go-to manager for family-friendly talent.
On behalf of his clients, Lacaillade has created branded entertainment and content integrations with Fortune 500 companies and specializes in defining new business models both on and off of the YouTube platform.
In this episode of Velocitize Talks, Lacaillade shares how digital content creators have marketed their brands through authentic, relatable content and what the future holds for digital media campaigns.
Get real (4:01)
When things become less productive and more questionable is when the talent isn’t being transparent with their audience and their followers about what their motives are and who they are.
Authenticity is key to customer engagement. For a content creator to accept payment from a brand or endorse a product, it is important to disclose that connection in order to maintain audience trust. As Lacaillade states in the video, “When a person is promoting a product or service and reading from a script, there’s nothing dishonest about that process.”
Content creators view working with brands as an opportunity as long as there’s a level of transparency, genuineness, and authenticity. Some advice Lacaillade gives his clients is that your true fans want to see you succeed and believe that you’re trying to give them an “elevated experience.”
The YouTube classroom (5:31)
There’s so much content out there; if you want to acquire a skill that you don’t have the money to pay tuition for, you can self-educate on that matter.
WP Engine’s study of Gen Z discovered 64% of respondents were more interested in having unlimited internet access than a college degree. There are over 300 hours of content being uploaded to YouTube per minute and 5 billion videos are watched every day. Over 86% of U.S. viewers say they use YouTube to learn new things and there are more learning-related videos on YouTube than books in the Library of Congress.
Find your niche (6:41)
What you are selling or communicating or trying to establish has to be novel, but it also has to be relatable. The subject matter has to be interesting enough to you so you can communicate that message on an ongoing basis for however long it takes.
With over 4.5 million subscribers and listed as #5 on the 2020 Top Tech YouTubers, Austin Evans has found his niche as a technology reviewer. With almost 100 million views, his videos engage viewers with content like finding out if that new gadget is worth it, discovering the coolest of retro and cutting edge tech, or testing the latest smartphone.
Evans uploaded his first YouTube video review in 2009 and has produced hundreds of videos since then. His personality coupled with his love of technology all led him to the continued success as well as the creation of gamer YouTube channel, This Is.
Upping conversions (9:14)
You can A/B test on digital media like none other. And [content creators] are incorporating that feedback, like how they title a video, how they caption a video or an image or post. They become better and sharper at it until they know exactly what to do to provoke what reaction.
As digital natives, many of today’s top content creators and influencers are highly digitally savvy and understand exactly what their audience wants, or at least know how to figure it out quickly. They know that split testing content for a video, social media campaign, mailout or website landing page can produce statistically significant conversions.
In the 2012 election, President Obama’s digital team decided to optimize every part of their digital campaign strategy. They executed over 500 A/B tests over 20 months that increased donation conversions by 49% and sign-up conversions by 161%.
Your attention, please (10:06)
YouTube rewards creators who create longer content because that means people are exposed to more ads and then they’re on the platform for longer. YouTube wants its platform to act as television.
In a research paper published by Google engineers, they break down the signals they use to rank videos for YouTube recommendations. The number one way to rank higher in a YouTube search is the video’s click-through rate (the likelihood of someone clicking on your video after seeing it). The amount of time a viewer watches a video is the second most important factor in the YouTube algorithm.
Most videos now average between 8 to 10 minutes—the sweet spot for viewers’ attention spans. It also allows for a mid-video ad to be dropped into the video, which helps with monetization. In addition to click-through rates and watch time, the number of videos a user watches on your channel will assist the video’s ranking in the long term.
For more information on Bottle Rocket Management, check out their website. To stay up to date with Lacaillade, follow him on LinkedIn.
This video was originally recorded in LA in 2019 and has been updated accordingly.