The Outloud Group

Today is the day that?YouTube?is expanding the maximum length of Shorts from one to three minutes. Why are Shorts getting longer? How does this impact YouTube's relationship with creators? Is investing in long-form content the winning strategy in the platform wars? Our VP of Business Logistics, Eric De Witt breaks it down here:?https://bit.ly/3NtcLS4 Brands, if you're interested in getting a head start on your YouTube Shorts' marketing strategy, please don't hesitate to reach out: https://bit.ly/49yL2Zg

Kicking off the week with a #gratitude post! You'd be surprised how much work goes into any single influencer activation, and you may be even more surprised how many people are involved. In the marketing world, measures of success are often tied to dollar amounts. But, one of those things that's hard to measure is *how easy it is to work with someone*. Well, we can say for certain that some of the easiest people we work with are Chas Lacaillade and Taylor (Paul) Forman over at Bottle Rocket Management. And when we say "easy to work with," we mean "they are often the first people we call." Sure, it helps that they represent some really strong creators -- but, at the end of the day, they do incredibly solid management work, communicate quickly and clearly, and are always forthright and sincere. Putting it... kindly... not all management agencies are created equal (aka are easy to work with), but Bottle Rocket is truly one of the best there is. Working with great people makes the work great! #TheOutloudGroup #influencermarketing #influencer #bottlerocketmanagement #Outloud #contentcreators #infulencercampaign

Measured Consistency is Key in Building Brand Success! When it comes to promoting a repeat service like home cleaning, brands can achieve remarkable success and strong conversion metrics by forging long-term partnerships with the right creators. The partnership between Tajah Ferjuste and Homeaglow, which began in early 2023, is a testament to this approach. After over 10 successful integrations, Tajah continues to drive new users to Homeaglow, proving the power of consistent engagement. When brands identify creators who align with their service and have the creativity to create unique content each month, they can see strong and steady results over months and even years. Here is one of Tajah's integrations! --> https://bit.ly/4cPQLL5 Thanks to the Homeaglow team for consistently trusting us with identifying the right creators, strategy, and execution for their Influencer campaigns — namely our rockstars Jessie Fox, Josiane Niyomukesha, Elena Gentner, and Alecia Burke! If you're managing a brand seeking the perfect creators for long-term influencer partnerships, we have the tools to help you succeed. Let’s start the conversation: https://bit.ly/49yL2Zg #influencermarketing #theoutloudgroup #outloud #influencerstrategy

Transparency is at the foundation of driving change. It takes intentional effort to identify these areas potentially in need of change, along with the corresponding data to shed the light required to spark it. In?The Outloud Group's ninth edition of our Black+ YouTube Creator Representation & Compensation study, we aim to better understand Black+ Creator inclusion in the YouTube Creator Economy and provide the data for others to review. We publish this in the hopes that other organizations can internally reflect on these findings along with their own data when building & scaling equitable influencer marketing campaigns. We're excited to share our latest findings from this edition of the Black+ YouTube Creator Representation & Compensation study:?https://lnkd.in/g_VFQZZ7 Key Takeaways: --?Black+ creators are underrepresented by 28.7% in YouTube brand deals compared to the U.S. Black+ population -- We’ve seen some notable progress, with Black+ creator representation rising from 12.7% in late 2023 to 13.2% in early 2024, bringing it closer to parity with the U.S. population -- Black+ creators were compensated 12.2% higher than the overall creator pool in YouTube brand deals, reinforcing the importance of transparency and fair compensation. At The Outloud Group, we’re dedicated to not just identifying potential disparities but diving into the data and having open conversations about our findings. As an industry leader in influencer marketing, we remain committed to advocating for equitable representation and pay.

Friends, let's shift our focus to Instagram for today's highlight! Our latest summer campaign immerses us in the refreshing world of underwater and action sports. In collaboration with our brand partner, DJI Creative Studios, we invited creators to take their Osmo Action 4 cameras on exciting adventures. The outcome?? Authentic. Cinematic. Jaw-dropping content that speaks for itself. Check it out: https://bit.ly/3ymJyEq A huge shoutout to our Outloud team Alecia Burke, Jenna M. Bundy, & Lauren Doherty for their work on this and to Cody S. at DJI for trusting us to get it done! Brands, we’re passionate about crafting tailored influencer marketing campaigns with (and) for you! Let’s start a conversation: https://bit.ly/49yL2Zg

Running performance campaigns solely based on creator CPM is an ineffective approach!??? Our CEO, M. Bradley Hoos, shared the game-changing revelation with his LinkedIn community this morning and we had to make sure you saw it, too! Check out the post to see what the *true* key indicator of performance is.

YouTube masterfully works the whole funnel from awareness to conversion —?so when the Chomps team challenged us to enhance brand awareness through YouTube creators, we were confident in our ability to deliver exceptional results. In our first set of videos, we strategically incorporated natural product placements at key moments before the typical ad spot, or as we call them integrations. By introducing the Chomps brand seamlessly within the video content, we provided audiences with a warm and welcoming introduction to the brand. By placing the brand in the video before the integration, we gave audiences a smooth welcome to Chomps. Creative freedom and personal experience was integral to building the authenticity needed to drive this brand love and brand awareness. We also encouraged our creators to ask their audiences to engage! Fill's Lawn Care (managed by Backyard Ventures) asked their audience to comment their favorite flavor, which led to tons of specific Chomps comments.?Take a look here! —> https://bit.ly/3SfTUMV Through these few tactics, we're continuing to build and share more Chomps love on YouTube. A loud shout out to rockstars,?M. Mayumi Skorski, Elena Gentner, and Gracie D. from our team for their smart work on Chomps! Interested in learning more about our tailored influencer marketing strategies? Send us a note: https://bit.ly/49yL2Zg #Outloud #TheOutloudGroup #InfluencerMarketing #InfluencerStrategy #Chomps #YouTubePartner

Thankful for our partnership with M. Bradley Hoos, Deanna Bruneau and team. As a leader in the Influencer marketing space for almost two decades, The Outloud Group immediately boosted our community's expertise and capabilities when they joined Nostos Network last year. They are true pioneers who have been setting the standard for growth and innovation for the entire category.

Just returned from VidCon 2024, a cornerstone event in the creator industry. Here are a few key insights: The Maturation of Long-From YouTube is still the most trusted platform in the creator economy and the undisputed king of long-form. Long-form allows for branding and conversion alike, meaning that so often people are talking about different things when they are evaluating long-form success. Creators are still wrapping their heads around the idea that their channel is only successful for brands when consistently delivering conversions on performance campaigns. This only underscores the importance of having data to identify the right creators – something that a lot of people talk about but few actually do. Having real meaningful historical performance data is something we continue to pride ourselves on at Outloud & it's a huge reason we continue to be so successful with our creator recommendations. The Evolution of Short-form A lot of the conversations I had at happy hours, parties, and in the hallways of the Anaheim Convention Center centered around the future of TikTok. TLDR: there’s concern about the future of the platform. For now, it’s full-steam ahead for brands on TikTok & for creators the message is clear: work now to have your audience across multiple platforms. YouTube still has the trust of America and as it continues to make a push for YouTube Shorts to be the premier option in the short-form category there are growing pains. For brands, the lack of a clickable link is a real issue and for creators there’s still lingering fear about Shorts views negatively impacting the demographics of their viewing audience, which would impact their ability to monetize their channel to the utmost. While you can view demographics by long-form or short-form –when you have both long & short-form on the same platform it can create confusion and challenges. It's all part of the maturation of YouTube Shorts. The New and Emerging There’s huge opportunities for AI to streamline processes and empower scalability and speed. But there’s also the need to communicate with creators on a human level where communications are clear and tailored to their situation.? The need for human connection and engagement has never been higher. Moving forward, I forecast AI 1) being used to automate “simple” content creation and 2)? augmenting creator content to make the “complicated” that much better. It was also fun to see LinkedIn get some airtime. While LinkedIn is not the right platform for low CPMs, it is an emerging platform to connect with both B2B and B2C audiences in a way that delivers results. And CTV is also a mega-trend that we all want to be tuned into. It’s not uncommon for 50% of a creator’s YouTube audience to watch creator videos on their TV and creators must be able to connect with their audience on the “big” screen mobile devices alike. #VidCon2024 #InfluencerMarketing #CreatorEconomy #YouTube #TikTok

This *stunning* and cinematic YouTube integration in collaboration with Fiverr truly deserves a spotlight! Enes consistently delivers for the brand as he naturally highlights the interior design and 3D modeling services available on Fiverr. His beautifully produced content effortlessly captivates his audience, which perfectly aligns with Fiverr’s target demographic. Take a look! —>?https://bit.ly/3RJplPs We are immensely grateful to the Fiverr team (Dedrick Boyington-Warmack and Blaine Doherty) for continuously entrusting us with the execution of spot-on campaigns.?The expertise of our Influencer Marketing experts, Sara Dunham Korab and Lauren Doherty, adds a special touch to these collaborations, making them even more impactful. #Outloud #TheOutloudGroup #InfluencerMarketing