As champions of empowering video creators with more opportunities to make a living doing what they love, Tongal was on hand to take in the scene this past week at the 9th Annual VidCon at the Anaheim Convention Center (June 20-23).
For the uninitiated, VidCon is the world’s largest online video convention that brings together hundreds of industry professionals and notable digital video creators, as well as thousands of the fans who love them, for several days of panels, networking, special performances, meet & greets, and over-the-top booths and brand activations. Originally organized by Hank and John Green of the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel, 2018 marked the first time the convention has taken place since being acquired by Viacom this past February. In a nutshell: If you are an aspiring #vlogger, #influencer, #videocreator and/or an organization that uses video to communicate with your audience, this is the Con for you!
Tongal entered the fray with our ears attuned to any new information that could benefit our community members or clients. Below are the big trends we noticed and our key takeaways.
Trends
Obviously, Viacom enjoyed a larger presence at the event than in previous years. In addition to booths on the expo floor (MTV, Nickelodeon), Viacom brands BET and Comedy Central also sponsored industry parties and panels, effectively raising their profile amongst all attendees. In our own corner of the universe, this bid to tap into the creative potential of the digital space has already translated into new opportunities to work with some of your favorite Viacom properties (with more on the way very soon!).
The digital video landscape has grown exponentially since the inception of VidCon in 2010, when the only major players were essentially YouTube and Vimeo. Today, practically every major social platform is either rooted in video publishing or offers a native player as part of their service, and that fragmentation extended to the panels and Q&As at VidCon. Since everyone was on hand to say their piece, it was hard to dive too deep into any one platform. No wonder brands and marketers struggle to keep up!
After a tumultuous year filled with #adpocalypse, #fakenews and various platform algorithm backlashes, it’s not surprising that the major video players were on the defense during their VidCon keynote speeches. YouTube touted their new channel memberships (sort of a Patreon light), built-in merch store, and YouTube Premieres product as alternative paths to monetization and community involvement. Instagram pre-emptively told a packed room that their relevancy-sorting algorithm was here to stay, and despite how individuals negatively perceive its effect on posts engagement, they've found it actually enables their 1 billion users to see 40% more posts from their friends. LinkedIn was just happy to be in the conversation, hosting a 4-hour Creator Summit and telling the story of the handful of video creators who’ve seen success on their platform. It remains to be seen whether or not video will be adopted in any widespread manner on this platform, so stay tuned.
Jumpsuits were and are IN in a major way. We saw a non-stop parade of female attendees rocking super-cute jumpsuits on the expo floor, at industry panels, and everywhere in between. You heard it here first!
Takeaways
In order to create content that resonates, as creators and publishers it’s important to familiarize yourself with the full breadth of the tools each platform brings to the table. The good news is: you don’t need to attend an industry convention to get started. Play, test, and learn!
Video creators are searching beyond advertising for alternative paths to monetization. Platforms are doing their best to keep up with this demand so as to keep creators from jumping to their competitors.
Recent studies show that as many as 75% of children say they’d like to grow up to pursue careers in online video and nearly half of that number say they’d specifically like to be a YouTuber (is that any surprise given the slide up above?). This seemed to bear true at Vidcon as well, where much of the focus was on growing your audience and monetizing your popularity rather than practical production skills. To those creators, Tongal may not be the obvious or sexy choice. However, our open platform democratizes the creative economy so that more video creators actually have a shot at realizing their dreams. And making your dreams come true IS pretty sexy, if you ask us (jumpsuits optional).
Were you also at VidCon 2018? Let us know what you noticed or learned at this year’s event down in the comments!
