Despite the short video craze, long form video content continues to offer influence marketers significant value

What are the advantages of long form video content on YouTube?

The advantage of YouTube is that it is not built around snackable, short form content that is scrolled through quickly and consumed en masse. When the audience comes to YouTube they know they are going to get a long format video and that’s why they come. We’re targeting a panel of people who are ready to watch long format.  

The other advantage is that influencers on YouTube have an emotional attachment that is seven times higher than on any other network. With long format and vlogs, we’re initiated into the life of the person we’re following, compared to TikToks which don’t give us the time to become immersed, to get to know the person by heart. In influence, that emotional attachment is very important.

Does that mean that engagement and conversion are stronger on YouTube?

If you ask anyone on the street to name an influencer, they will name people on TikTok or Instagram but who are always present on YouTube. [Top French KOLs] Léna Situations, Squeezie, McFly & Carlito are all born from YouTube, they’re not native TikTokers or Instagrammers. YouTube is not necessarily the best network to activate in terms of influencer marketing because it is the most expensive, but it’s very important to activate influencers on the other networks who are present on YouTube because they are always the most powerful. They have the best engagement rates because they have created a stronger emotional attachment. They have more visibility. People are way more engaged in their daily lives. Even if YouTube loses market share to new networks, they are still the leader in long format. There will always be this ascendancy from YouTube.

What is the best way to measure performance of YouTube influence campaigns?

You can put a lot of links in the information bar. YouTube is not necessarily the most ROI-first platform. Instagram stories are faster, less expensive and give you feedback straight away. YouTube allows us to be relevant. It is a search engine. When a content creator publishes a video, about 70-80% performance will happen in the first month, but after that it’s long term. During lockdown, for example, videos that were published two, three, five years ago exploded thanks to YouTube’s functionality as a search engine. It re-aggregates a video that was published a while ago, so ROI is difficult to measure in a time frame from A to B.

YouTube works better for the brand effect, image and on the emotional aspect. We work more on audience consideration than on direct purchase, except for niche sectors like beauty where we might work with an influencer on a launch where people expect to see a product review.

So is it still the case that tutorial, informative content works best on YouTube compared to entertainment like we see on TikTok?

Yes and no. Typically, we said that TikTok was entertainment but for the beauty and skincare segments, for example, tutorials work best and are sought after. On YouTube you can find everything and anything. There are no real rules. Beauty YouTubers are less powerful than before on YouTube but are finding their feet on TikTok. Meanwhile, entertainment concepts or large productions [that leverage influencers] for the release of big movies that involve the cast, for example, are very YouTube-friendly and work very well.

Is briefing and contracting a YouTube influencer for long form video content more complicated?

You have to give a YouTube influencer a free hand to find the concept, and to integrate the service or product of the sponsor in the video in the most natural way. It’s a tripartite work between the brand, the agency (if there is one) and the content creator to find the concept that works for everyone.

It’s always a bit longer to hammer out a deal for YouTube than for Instagram, Snapchat, or TikTok. Often we ask for a script first, to understand the concept, the level of production required and whether the price will cover it. Will the talent hire someone to film and edit, or will they do it themselves? Will we need authorization to film in a public place? There is often quite a bit of back and forth on the script with the brand, and the shoot itself might take one or two days. The process is much longer, and that’s what justifies the price. It’s a very expensive format to produce if you want to have good quality sound and image.

Do you include requirements for snackable content on the other platforms?

When we make a YouTube video we often use Instagram stories to call people’s attention to the video, and to put a maximum of elements in place outside of YouTube to bring people to the video. Organically, influencers also want to advertise the video, they will do stories or TikToks to use like trailers.

It's often said that YouTube is the TV for the youth…

It’s true that it’s the young people’s TV, but it’s not the really young people. It’s TV for the 18 to 30-year-olds but we don’t have enough data on whether the younger generation — the TikTok generation — is watching enough YouTube to know if it will succeed in continuing to seduce the youngest age groups.

Often it’s the concept videos that people like to watch on TV. We can see in the stories posted by the communities, kind of like UGC, they make stories saying ‘look, I’m watching your video’, where you can see they are watching it on TV or on a projector. For certain videos by certain creators, the audience will wait until they are comfortable at home, or on the weekend, to watch videos which are qualitative and sought after.

Can any brand activate influence on YouTube?

I think that everyone can. YouTube is the network that preempts video. Video is the most important content format today. If the brand is very well known and you don’t need to pay for a whole 30 minutes, you can sponsor two or three minutes of a video to present a service or product. Or you can do a full 45-minute round-table video concept. There are different concepts that can be adapted to any brand and needs.

What are the trends to watch out for this year on YouTube?

We have to keep an eye on Shorts. It might take a few months or maybe even a few years for Shorts to settle into influence marketing. There are content creators who organically make Shorts but it will take some time before there are collaborations because it is not yet a reflex for the sector to offer Shorts in influence.

There’s also a lot of feedback and news around podcasts, which is also long format and has strong ties to YouTube. Podcasts started taking off in 2022 and will surely be around in 2023 and may impact the resurgence of YouTube. A lot of podcasters and influencers make podcasts which are exclusive to Spotify but film some episodes and publish them on YouTube where they get a lot of views.

Will creator monetization have an impact?

Definitely. Monetization on TikTok has been a big deal. There are more and more creators trying to be eligible [for platforms’ monetization programs]. More influencers are becoming more selective about their partnerships because they are less dependent on paid partnerships. It means we’ll gain authenticity in partnerships. YouTube’s creator monetization program for Shorts can only be favorable because it will be a source of remuneration for content creators. It’s a virtuous circle.