VidCon 2016 @Anaheim

Website: http://vidcon.com/

When: June 23-25, 2016

Where: Anaheim, CA (Anaheim Convention Center)

Probably the biggest event/conference for those who love and do online video!

What I think about the conference?

Felt a bit old going there... there were so many kids, young kids!
Will really be good if you know YouTube Stars - there are a lot of them and I know none of them
It's HUGE and queues are very very very long
There are a lot of exhibit halls and it's fun!
Overall - it is FUN!!!

Why it's great?

Great for networking! You see so many fans, you can mingle with creators and talk to them, and you can socialize with other industry folks who is in the same business as youtube (either partners, advertisers, and even competitors.
Great exhibits! Love the booths etc!
See YouTube Stars! If you are a fan, this is where all your online video stars are!

What I learned? Top 3 highlights!

Take care of your creators! Help them, help you become a better platform!

As YT or Google, it is always good to reinvent and innovate but be careful in launching things and make sure that we see how this impacts the ecosystem. If it is detrimental to a part of the ecosystem, you might lose them forever!
In one of the panels, Meghan talked about how she hated Facebook because they just simply changed their algorithm and the way that your videos show up. Basically, you need to start paying to make sure you are at the top of your fans/subscriber feeds. This basically disappointed her so much, among many others, that she entirely stopped using Facebook and even calls it "really gross" as a product.
They made a BOLD statement that Vine is dead and the reason is that creators basically left Vine because there was no way to monetize their content. Vine is trying to go back and do something about it, but it's tad late.
They also talked about YouTube Red. Meghan mentioned that she is careful about this because fans normally like the way that the videos are free but now, that when creators start asking people to pay, it is something that once you do it, you can't go back. You might end up losing a lot of fans who think that you are not genuinely doing your videos anymore.

Question for Google - YouTube Red: How is this impacting our creators long term? From Susan's Keynote, they said there is basically a boost in views for these creators who started jumping into Red since they attracted new subscribers. But long term - are they doing well?

Ads is NOT the only and biggest model of monetization for Top Creators

It was surprising to hear from my colleagues saying that Ads is not really a big part of monetization for the Top Creators.
After attending the business models for online videos - I realize that there are a lot of business models and I think as a platform, we should help our creators 'expedite' these various types of revenue streams.

Know your Competitors and understand them better!

Despite the fact that we might be the biggest now for online videos, I realize that Vidcon's main app is actually snapchat. Everybody there was snapchatting, talking about snapchats. Snapchat doesn't offer any way for vloggers to monetize, but why is it so successful, what is the business model for these vloggers? Use snapchat to entice people to go their YT channel?

Tips:

Download the vidcon app - helps you get latest updates
Try going thru the agenda to plan out what you want! There are 3 tracks per day and a lot of things happening.
Get comfy shoes and comfy clothes. You will be standing and moving around the whole day
Get a HOTEL beside the location as you might want to go and freshen up every now and then, or take a nap and re-charge.
SWAGs! SWAGs! SWAGs! Go and visit the booths as they have lotsa swags!

**** I watched all the episodes of FOURSOME (ALL six episodes) after coming home from Vidcon! Jenn McAllister is a good actress and YT Red movies is as good as Disney Movies. Check out the trailer below! ****

Meet and Greet Area

The meet and greet is done by lottery where you sign up and you are matched with the creator / star you want to see. This is so much better than previous years as they have assigned time for you. However, it took me 45 minutes to get to the door and then another 30-45 minutes to do the meet and greet so might be shorter, but still a bit long.

June 23, 2016 (Thursday)

9am Opening - 3rd Floor Ballroom (Industry Track)

John Green, Co-founder

He talks about measuring success not just on growth but other things like cultural impact which we are not good measure at. He talks about e.g people call him John in the comments instead of just saying "you" because normally it is just a conversation, or our growth is e.g. X% revenue but our "charity" activity lags behind our revenue/view growth. As he says "Creative Projects are not meant to make revenue, revenue exists to fund creative projects.. I would like to believe that we are playing a different game and that is how we are going to win."

Hank Green, Founder

Talks about expanding VidCon and doing one in Australia and Netherlands. We want to focus on the diversity of online video creators and thus, give smaller creators a chance, not just the TOP creators and thus, excited to go internationally. Talk about most interesting / deeper story - True Story - of reality of creation in Youtube and we should tell that story, otherwise, we might end up consolidated homogenized media, which would not happen (as long as law does not prohibit us from uploading videos). I don't want to lose the "amazingness" of online video.

10 AM YouTube & Vidcon: Right here, Right now

YouTube Lounge

What you find in Vidcon is "INFLUENCE"

YouTube Lounge

SWooZie

Dulce Candy

How do you know you were successful in Youtube? When I was living my purpose, collaborating with brands, among many others.

Berta de Pablos, VP Marketing for Mars

Not just sponsor, but be part of VidCon
M&Ms was celebrating 75th anniversary
Started WWII

not as a consumer product, given to the soldiers
Solidiers need chocolate that does not melt in their hands. 8 years after, the soldiers want the product and thus launched as a consumer product. First to go to the space shuttle.

Did a poll on what color to bring back (not done thru internet)

11 M phoned in voted to bring Blue back

YouTube is a partner to get exposed to pop culture.
What is the best way to celebrate? We collaborated with YT.

1) Google Brand Partner - long form content;
2) YTers to create their own content

11 AM BackStage Tour

Went around the halls, KIA Arena, and even the backstage for the "meet & greet of the creators

Kia Arena

Backstage with Lisa Koshy

Backstage with Jennifer Mcallister

4.45 PM YouTube Keynote

Susan Wojcicki

3rd Floor Ballroom

Three Pillars/ Themes Youtube's commitment that we are working on for Creators

1. Community

Try to find solution to support the community
Enable videos while content ID are being disputed
We pay money creators monthly
Improve comments (GIFs), etc to engage better with Fans
Sebastien Missoffe, VP Operations,Global Head of Operations

How to extend the journey the support to creators globally?
Creator community is not just big but also diverse.
We support tools, access to venues in YT spaces, and celebrate milestones. e.g Pewdie Pie got their diamond button delivered on a pony
Three steps to support creators

Easier to find resources (Creator Hub - youtube.com/creators)
Support for Creators (1 business day - will hear from an actual human response - Direct Support)
Offering Cutting-edge Creation - Livestreaming, 360, VR. World's largest library of VR content. With livestreaming, fans can interact with the creator and with each other as it unfolds realtime. Livestream - started 2011. Last 6 months, livestream tripled.

2. Creation

Kurt Wilms, Product Lead for Immersive Experiences

working VR content to YT - partnering with VR production company and pairing them with creators
Demo-ed YT Live

3. Creative Ambition

e.g. Awkward Love Girl -- she landed a HBO series, insecure. Rachel Bloom have now a series 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend'
Do same ambitious thing in YT - YouTube RED.

Featured on red, they get a boost on their watchtime. Boost coming from those who haven't watched those creators before.

Susan Daniels, Global Head of Original Content

Launched Escape the Night - we saw immediately a spike on his channel

What we are fighting for?

Freedom of Expression, Information, Opportunity, Belong!

10.30 Who we're selling to and why - doing deals with YouTube red, GO090, and other SVoD (Subscription Video on Demand) services

3rd Floor Ballroom, Hall A

Panelists

Anna Akana
Jenn McAllister, Creator - Big Frame
John McCarus, Chief Strategy Officer - Federated Media [Hosting]
Tre Melvin - Creator and Founder - Tre Melvin Productions

[Jenn]

Red is a good platform, since people go to YT and they go to YT red to get premium content. It is already the same place they go to watch online video!
Brand Innovations is my highest source of income

Don't work with Brands that don't align with my channel

Viewers are at a point now that they are accepting us working with brands (though there are still backlash)

[Anna]

Where does Merchandising? Low in the bar, just becoming just a fashion line cat apparel.
Started when we go budget to do a film that we can sell.
Stars in a new movie Miss 2059
Seem to have a more flexibility and creativity with SVOD, unlike series where they kinda tell you what they want. YT Red and SVoD are more of a collaboration.
Trying to explain why we work with Brands as it is bigger source of income. Some fans find don't like it - "not more genuine, etc." So we have to explain to them that with the money, I can create more video for them.

[Tre]

Part of the cast "The future of the living dead"
YT release "Proud to Be" video
There is just not much freedom in Television. I can't just work with people that I want.

12.30 How to Understand Watch Time

Room 205, Hall A

Matt Gielen

MatthewGielen@gmail.com

There are many different ways to look at what YouTube means by “Watch Time.” We’ll break down all the various ways to analyze watch time so you get the most out of your videos.

How YouTube Audiences Work

Discovery Stage -> Fan Stage --> Next Upload

Subscribers - not notified because YT broken or many other reasons

You need to build your marketing list, your social media profile to prevent this issue
If you upload the video, and didn't see your normal view, check notification if subscription is broken.
Programming side - need to tell your audience WHEN to come back to see a NEW video

2:00 PM Doctor Who: We're All Stories in the End

Marriott Platinum Ballroom 6

Mike Rugnetta, Sam Bashor, The Hillywood Show, Alisa Stern, Christel Dee & Chris Allen

Since Doctor Who first crept spookily onto TV screens in November 1963, fans have been creating their own art and adventures for the rebel Time Lord known as the Doctor. But what is it about the story of an alien who can travel anywhere in time and space, that inspires such endless creativity? A panel of creators for whom Doctor Who has been a massive influence will attempt to answer that question, in this bigger-on-the-inside panel discussion. How has fan creativity changed in the age of online video, has this amazing groundswell of talent influenced the show itself, and is a future Doctor Who showrunner one of today’s YouTubers?

They talked about how they have grown their fanbase and was tapping Dr. Who Fanbase
They started with crowdfunding where they ask their funds to help them financially and in 2 weeks they had more than enough.

3.30 New Business Models for Online Video

304 CD, Anaheim Convention Center

Brian Alvey, Meghan Camarena, Kenn Henman, Bryon Schafer, Moj Mahdara

From tip jars to subscription services, sponsored videos, fan tours, branded merchandise and more, this session explores new ways to monetize the powerful direct connection between a successful online video property and its passionate and loyal community.

Notes:

Business Models/ revenue Streams

Three major models

AdSense or simiar
Brand Sponsorship
Merchandise + Others

Others

Direct Product Development
Selling your book, licensing, distribution, voice acting etc.
Be a partner and equity

What was surprising?

Michelle Phan opened up the new revenue streams thru collaborations with Brands - creating signature collection.

Is Vine dead?

Internet is weird , might not be popular but some crazy cat video will be back again e.g. Facebook was used by my grandma and now, FB is back with live
Vine is opening up monetization with new strategies

Snapchat?

Where do you think it's gonna fall?
Do you make money out of it?
Taking a different direction, they will leave it to the creator. Creators love snapchat because it disappears.
They are clear that they don't want to be FB or YouTube.
They want content to look like content and ads look like ads.
They want their editorial separate.
Not see them native integration, except thru discovery

Live? Persicope, FB, YT. How much live are you using?

Use to live shows on TV! Amazing way to build your community and sort of a meet & greet and has great growth. We do a lot of Twitch
[Meghan] Problem with FB - they change algorithm and then you have to pay to show up and bring all your fans there.

*** Be careful as you may lose the trust of your fans/creators/users!

Gatekeepers?

[Youtube] They have a weird gatekeeper thing?

[Brian] They own my subscribers and they own the advertisers. They want direct access to their fans and thus, got into some lists. How do you get around that gatekeeper?

Mailing list
Engage audience outside of the platform - products, tickets, etc.

[Moj] Kylie Jenner use other platforms herself and product, doesn't need to go thru YT, FB, etc.
[Meghan] A lot of work to build outside twitter, fb, etc. Emails only used by specific demo. We have kids that you can't track data. Apps, we have issues as well, people have to be on etc.

Patreon

"Patreon is a crowd-funding platform popular with YouTube content creators, musicians, and webcomic artists. It allows artists to obtain funding from their fans or patrons, on a recurring basis, or per work of art."

Clip-pesode

If you pay, either they support to pay you or others find it weird that they start paying
There's opportunity to do it myself

5:00 PM 7 Secret YouTube Algorithm Hacks for Audience Growth

Matt Gielen
In this seminar, Matt Gielen, VP of Audience Development at Frederator Networks, will teach and explain the YouTube algorithm hacks Frederator used to take their channel from 200,000 subs after 8 years on the platform, to over 1,000,000 subs and 20,000,000 monthly views a year later.

Watchtime - not necessarily talking about minutes, but views, view duration, session details, etc.

Hack 1: Have a Single Focus

YT wants channel to fall into CLEAR categories due to two factors: Algo Conditioning and Trust
Algo Conditioning - allows you to rank highly keyword search, related, suggested etc
The more narrow you can focus, the more likely to get organic support from YT algorithm

e.g. if Gaming - just choose one type of or specific game for a period of time. It will be a trusted source for that game. Choose one with a large audience of course

You have sessions - START viewing sessions

When someone goes to YT home - what do fans click to start a video session

Hack 2: Start Viewing Sessions

YT places a very large emphasis on your videos and channel's ability to START a viewing session
1) Driving people to YT platform and 2) clicking your video once you are in the YT platform
Optimize viewing sessions

Upload on optimal days and optimal times - tell your audience when you upload

Do not do scheduled release - might be an urban legend -most part didn't work and doesn't notify or put in the feed. It will show on feed as if it was uploaded Monday though you scheduled it on Thursday. Privately upload and make it PUBLIC when you are OK! Private - clock doesn't start.

Thumbnails

available in AWs to check thumbnail CTR
Definite guide to making YT thumbnails

Titles

In one of the panels, for searchign not title, but important is tags for algorithms. Titles is really for people clicking your video.

Build massive lists off the YT platform
Get embeds from external sources
Comments nad update older videos

Hack 3: Make Longer Videos

Session duration - YT rewards channels that keeps users watch video longer
Busy Beavers - the 70 minute was doing better, unlike the shorter than 30 minute videos
Lifetime (LT) views vs LT min viewed
Alternative Ways to Increase the length of the video

Q&A
Compilations
vlog at the end of your video

Hack 4: Make More (Shorter?) Videos

You want users to watch more of your user videos and come back to the platform
Drawback, if your users are not watching your additional videos, it will be detrimental for you

Hack 5: Weed Your Garden

Negative View velocity - if one of your videos do well, but does not match your channel, can be bad for your channel.

Hack 6: Make Tent Pole Content

Create videos around trending and tent pole evens like a movie & album release. Latch to something TRENDY and relevant
"New' tag - appears at the top the search - lasts about 7 days. Have a "lead time" leading to that tent pole to make time for people to find you.

Hack 7: Experiment Elsewhere

Other programming on a different channel
If new content isn't successful - your previous uploads will lose placement, your new upload will receive less placements, you will muddy YT "trusts"

how to do it?

Create a SECOND Channel
Promote your video at the end of a video in your original video will a click to call action. E.g I created a new video and uploaded in a different channel and feel free to check it out.
Check experiments after a few weeks.
Ask your audience