It’s Not A Short Attention Span… It’s Shitty Ads

I wrote about this topic a bit on, but have expanded the topic much further here.




Dear Marketers: Please Don’t Do Influencer Marketing —We’re Begging You

This piece was original appeared on the Epic Signal blog and was inspired by an article a friend of mine wrote about book marketing and is more or less paying homage to his style (hence the similarities).

There’s a reductive narrative circulating in the advertising world lately: if you need to meet your marketing goals, then you should do influencer marketing.

Want to reach millennials? Influencer marketing speaks to teens! Want to be more efficient with your advertising budget? Influencer marketing is cheap! Want to be ahead of the curve? Influencer marketing is the future!


I Don’t Understand Why Cannes Is Bigger Than VidCon For Advertisers




Vidcon 2018: A Veteran’s Recap

Vidcon is a great fucking conference.

It’s got diversity, great/big announcements, excitement and knowledgeable panels and speakers. This year definitely felt like the tipping point for the conference – getting so massive and (what felt very) mainstream. Having been to every single Vidcon so far (including the international ones) here’s my quick recap/takeaways:


The World Cup, E-Sports, and The Battle For Eyeballs

The World Cup has begun and major brands such Budweiser, McDonald’s, and Coca-Cola have launched ad campaigns to take advantage of the global event.

While the matches are sure to generate billions of viewers the question remains – in this fractured media landscape will the World Cup, and sports as a whole, manage to remain the media and advertising powerhouse it has historically been?

Initial numbers throughout Europe seem to show that viewership will be down from the last World Cup.


How do influencers make money and how much are they making?

One of the most common questions I’m asked is, and something I discussed with a reporter for a recent article on Highsnobiety, is – how much do influencers make? How much does a Youtuber make? How much does an instagrammer make, etc?

How much money an influencer makes is not a simple question to answer. There are some influencers who make tens of millions of dollars each year, and while they capture the headlines, they are in the minority.

In this post I hope to shed some light on how influencer generate revenue, and what avenues they use to make money.


The Confessional #15: Longtime YouTube Creator

My latest interviewee for The Confessional is a manager of several top YouTube talent (several of which generate over 100 million views a year). In this extensive interview, we discussed the business of YouTube, the goals of his talent (both on and off YouTube), and the how much money top creators are really making.

Some of the major points we covered were:

  • Subscription video on demand (SVOD) and YouTube competitors
  • YouTubers “making it” on television
  • YouTuber revenue streams
  • How much money his top creators are making in a year
  • How creators can better work with brands, and vice versa


The Confessional #14: YouTube Exec

My latest interviewee for The Confessional is a former YouTube executive. This was a great interview that provides a lot of insight into the inner workings and attitudes of YouTube.

 We covered a number of topics including:

  • How Youtube’s relationship with creators has evolved
  • The massive growth of the YouTube partner program
  • YouTube’s relationship with MCN’s


Why YouTube’s Hero, Hub, Help Content Strategy works

Most brands are terrible at developing a community on YouTube.





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