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If you listened carefully to the amazing bunch of speakers and contemporary creative artists from around the world, you could tell a story yourself. The speakers drove home the fact that content was the bridge to the consumer, not plain old advertising. This emerging story was repeatedly tweeted by a familiar little blue bird, from a thousand devices.
Sunday
It was a Twitter opening with the #Livestorytellers session, as Parick Stewart told the amazing story of how Gogo & Didi's love letter to New York was written in tweets and touristy quirky Instagrams, that drew packed audiences to an audacious new Broadway play.
Next, the Pandey Brothers took the stage on the rise of Indian creativity and more emphatically, the cultivation of an iconic Indian identity in the creative industry.
This was followed by Olympic Gold medallist freestyle skier David Wise and French World Cup winning footballer Marcel Desailly, who told us how sports could be an infinite source of global creative inspiration.
Monday
The day began with 'Fashion, Sex, Celebrity and Character', a session of candid conversations with award-winning actress Sarah Jessica Parker and Joanna Coles, editor of Cosmopolitan magazine. Next came the Disruptors; Spike Jonze and Gaston Legorburu on building worlds with technology and story. They were followed by Mindshare and BuzzFeed with Meme Too on how brands could ride the Zeitgeist with better and live storytelling.
Tuesday
It started with the Google eye opener and a relatively poor Yahoo! session on users, brands and creativity. Next was a Pepsi marketing session with effective brands.
But it was the last session of the day that deserves a lot more mind space. From its very title, it drew a lot of interest-'The revolution will not be televised: How YouTube stars are transforming entertainment and brand marketing'. Mark Waugh, chief content officer of Zenith Optimedia, moderated a session that featured a bunch of YouTube stars showing the way towards brand engagement with the new content-crazy generation. YouTube has become a platform for talent and has unleashed thousands of creators in this new era of brand storytelling. Branded content is winning and steering ahead of mainstream advertising.
It's the time for democratisation of content creation with YouTube: one billion users; six billion hours viewed a month; one million paid creators; and open 24/7 is a big draw. We are also seeing massive investment in online video from MCN, DreamWorks, Warner Bros, Freemantle and Disney. In fact, YouTube is the new Hollywood. Some of these content creators are teaming up and collectively gaining millions of new viewers every day, firing off each other, collaborating and creating daily doses of content on YouTube.
One such collaborative success story is The Maker Story, founded by a bunch of YouTube artists. Today, it is the largest producer of online content and owned by Disney. Maker has 6.5 billion monthly views, with 450 million subscribers, 50,000 creators across the world, and about 50 per cent of this daily engagement is through mobile devices.
Kassem G, a 27-year-old comedian and co-founding talent, Maker Studios, has 3.1 million YouTube subscribers, 455.2 million YouTube views, 322,000 Facebook 'likes' and 348,000 Twitter followers. He started as a stand-up comedian and uploaded videos on YouTube. There were no people at his live shows but thousands watched and came back to watch more everyday.
Next, meet Camila Coelho, the 26-year-old with 2.1 million YouTube subscribers, 151 million YouTube views, 1.6 million Facebook likes and two million Instagram followers. She runs the beauty vertical at Makers and specialises in beauty tips videos, make-up tutorials, etc. She has started creating branded content that's seamless and more organic.
Epic Rap Battles (EPR), a popular online content channel on YouTube was integrated with Ubisoft, a gaming firm. The latest video used a character integrated organically into the video format of EPR content. Epic Rap Battles between the characters of the game have touched 50 million views. In the last frame, the content amplifies social integration in every way, inviting viewers to participate and spread the content.
Other examples were Colette, Disneyland Parks; The 'We're going to Disneyland' series; Rhett & Link; Red House Furniture; reaching out to all the 50,000 creators on the Makers list and working towards streaming live videos that engage all audiences already subscribed to Makers and, of course, generating new audiences.
In India, too, there are a bunch of YouTube stars creating new content and uploading to their millions of subscribers and in various genres - from singing stars to comedy to satire stars.
Finally, YouTube stars yelled out in chorus: "Stop making ads. Start making content."
The author is National Creative Director, JWT India
