FMCG YouTube and The Cult of Optimisation
The Google-owned platform is always pushing for views, leaving some creators burnt-out and bored
“Do it for yourself, be your own customer. Do it for yourself, ignore everybody.” – Tony Wilson on his approach to the music industry.
“Like Midas, the Rationalist is always in the unfortunate position of not being able to touch anything, without transforming it into an abstraction; he can never get a square meal of experience.” – Michael Oakeshott on political ideologues.
The current generation of popular YouTube creators are starting to have an uneasy and very public conversation about the state of the industry.
It sounds like these rumblings have been going on behind the scenes for at least the past couple of years, but the platform’s violent shift towards short-form video content (to meet TikTok’s challenge), creator dashboard changes and an obsession around one particular data point (click-through rate) has prompted a more open assessment of YouTube.
The other notable trigger has been the launch of Lunchly, effectively a clone of Kraft Heinz’s Lunchables snack box. The product is backed and heavily promoted by Jimmy ‘Mr Beast’ Donaldson, JJ ‘KSI’ Olatunji and Logan Paul, the latter two of which are behind the hugely successful Prime hydration drinks brand. Donaldson, for his part, is the founder of the Feastables chocolate and snack company.
There’s little innovation here. Each box has a unit of Prime inside as well as a Feastables snack. The trio claim Lunchly is “healthier” than the Kraft Heinz incumbent. This hasn’t stopped the avalanche of criticism they have faced for flogging chocolate and snacks to kids with their combined audience of at least 375 million followers.
Selling merchandise and other products (from t-shirts, toys to bath water) to YouTube followers is nothing new, but some creators have clearly found Lunchly to be particularly egregious.
As Daniel ‘DanTDM’ Middleton (29.1 million subs) said in September: “This is selling stuff for the sake of making money, simple. How does this benefit their fans? This is selling crap to kids who don't know better.”
KSI retorted with a video (link), pointing out Middleton’s own past brand deals, including a snack box. Paul also responded to DanTDM’s criticism, urging the Minecraft creator to try Lunchly.
Donaldson has been dealing with his own feud with Ireland’s Seán ‘Jacksepticeye’ McLoughlin, who claimed that Mr Beast had “ruined” YouTube because it “became more about views, money, and popularity than it did about having fun”.
Donaldson said McLoughlin’s comments were “insanely disrespectful” because he makes content “focused on doing good and inspiring kids to help people”.
McLoughlin’s wider point relates to how the YouTube algorithm works and how Mr Beast has very openly (long-form interview here) dedicated his life’s work to gaining more and more followers.
The end result is catchy headlines, supported by eye-catching thumbnails and a big reveal teased at the start of each video, with camera angles and perspectives changing at least every other second for 15 minutes or longer.
Mr Beast’s success has led other creators to adopt an almost identical approach to content creation. It’s derivative, but you could argue most of YouTube is.
If you can’t create a trend, you copy it. Once the trend loses efficacy, you jump on the next one – rinse and repeat. This is how Mr Beast and other YouTubers got big in the first place.
There was FIFA, there was daily vlogging and there were challenges. True innovation was and is still hard to find. Casey Neistat, a failed documentary filmmaker based in New York, eventually broke into the mainstream after sharing his unique take on life in the Big Apple.
A long-form video essay channel by Michael Sorensen called Horses has now reached over a million followers by providing extensive analysis of life, death and everything in between.
And Sam Sulek (pictured) has blown up on fitness YouTube for his lightly edited and long-form videos, a far cry for the past standard of short, highly produced content.
But despite these islands of innovation, creators are faced with more and more optimisation metrics, including the infamous ‘out of ten’ video scoreboard, on their YouTube Studio dashboards. It’s all arrows and percentages, an hour-by-hour performance machine fuelling anxiety and pressure for some.
Thomas ‘TommyInnit’ Simons (15 million subs) posted a candid video (link) on the subject, revealing that he would be making less content and instead concentrate on a fledgling stand-up career. He also disclosed some of the sentiments felt by other YouTubers at a recent summit:
“People used to have no idea what the hell they were doing on here. They were just doing what they thought might be good. And now they know what works [a reference to the Mr Beast approach].
“They know how to become the most popular YouTuber…YouTube now has a consistent theme to it…it’s a formula that works well…These analytics are now everywhere you look: Huge affirming green arrows if you’re getting attention and bright red down arrows if you’re getting less.”
Simons goes on to explain the impact the dashboard had on his mental health:
“During the lockdown I checked my sub count first thing every morning and if it was under 10,000, I felt sad. There was one point where if my video got a mere five million views in the day instead of eight million there would be huge down red arrows…It’s a climb to a mountain top that doesn’t stop.”
He concludes by urging new creators to “do it your own way” and old creators to find the “soul” of their past creative driving force. Unlike some, it isn’t a naïve call to action, Simons knows full well that YouTube is a business, one which generates $31 billion per year in ad revenue for Google (link to Full-year 2023 results).
It is instead a realisation and reflection of the mainstreaming of the platform and its personalities, as seen during the US election. Businesses and jobs are being created off the back of it – put another way, YouTube is being professionalised. In the end this means that some of its biggest stars not only compete with the world’s largest FMCG companies, but begin to sound a lot like them.
But just like the music industry and its mega labels, there’s still room for creativity, innovation and independent insurgents. Well, before they get snapped up by the big boys.
“If you're signed to some shit fuckin' indie, no matter what it does for your credibility, it does nothing to promote your group.” – Alan McGee on selling a 49% stake in Creation Records to Sony.
Does London need another newspaper? Mill Media’s Joshi Herrmann makes the case for his outlet, The Londoner, which launched last month. The publication is already making a splash and follows the unveiling of Jim Waterson’s LondonCentric.
WhatsApp isn’t a thing in DC. That’s just one of Emilio Casalicchio’s reflections for Politico as he reports from the US. “The Americans still seem to use standard SMS for phone messaging, meaning iPhone and Android users can’t be in the same groups, while photo and video messages don’t work on some platforms.” At least contactless payments are now catching on (link).
Call of Duty launch latest. Microsoft is extremely keen to push consumers towards the Xbox Games Pass with the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Here’s what CEO Satya Nadella told analysts on a 30 October call:
“Last week’s launch of Black Ops 6 was the biggest Call of Duty release ever, setting a record for day one players, as well as Game Pass subscriber adds on launch day. And unit sales on PlayStation and Steam were also up over 60% year-over-year. This speaks to our strategy of meeting gamers where they are by enabling them to play more games across the screens they spend their time on.”
Despite the record-busting launch, it’s still currently unclear how many Game Pass subscribers the company added.
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