YouTube has Open Call in Cannes, a new service that allows brands to put out casting calls to creators registered with the YouTube Partner program.
Open Call sits within YouTube’s BrandConnect suite of tools. All marketers need do is log into the creator partnerships hub, place an open call to invite creators. Once the call is live, creators respond with video content before marketers review and approve the video submissions.
The feature is open to creators of all sizes, so long as they’re in the YouTube Partner program. The Partner program requires creators to get 1,000 subscribers with 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months or get 1,000 subscribers with 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days.
These creator videos can be served as partnership ads, which should help brands make more of the trust that consumers place in YouTube.
The tool is currently in testing with a select group of advertisers and will be expanded to the “US and beyond next year,” according to Melissa Hsieh Nikolic, YouTube’s director of product management.
YouTube is also testing ways to minimise the chances that creators pour minutes, maybe even hours, into creating a video for an Open Call only for it to be rejected.
“The one that is showing the most promise is brands saying our target audience is women in a certain age range, being able to then go through the list of creators to be more targeted in who you’re doing the outreach for. We think that one saves the advertiser time… but also on the creator side to make sure they are responding to requests that are best tailored for the type of content and audience they have,” added Hsieh Nikolic.
“I’ve been coming to Cannes for 15 years now and this is the first year when the number of creators in Cannes has really surpassed anything we’ve seen in the past. More than 350 creators from the UK, France, US, India, Mexico and everywhere in the world. They are swarming Cannes as we speak, which is extraordinary,” said Pedro Pina, head of YouTube across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
“We recently calculated that [YouTube’s] impact on the European Union alone was €6.4 billion. What the creators do with their businesses, their studios and their teams is already having an impact on full-time equivalent employment creation, but also on the economy.
“And it continues to be a massive destination for fans, 98 per cent are likely to trust creators on YouTube more than any other social platform, and we are the number one video service in most countries where we operate,” Pina said.
Pina was joined for a short panel discussion by Karla Vélez, L’Oréal’s global media director and social platforms lead and creator and former Sports Illustrated model Haley Kalil.
“Our ambassadors give us star power and visibility and our consumers that aspiration,” said Vélez.
“But what creators are able to do is provide relatable content. The moment she uses a palette, she uses a makeup shade, it makes it more understandable for our consumers, more authentic. You hear it from a perspective that you really value, because you are also part of this community.”
For Kalil, the big benefit with Open Call is its ability to close the “entertainment industry gap”.
“A lot of people are scared that they don’t have an agent or don’t have money. I love that this is closing the gap for new creators who might be scared of those things. They can find new ways to interact with brands outside of having a manager or an agent, which is very traditional media,” she said.
“I think the one thing YouTube was missing is this, that open connection to brands so I cannot wait to see the creativity that comes out of it. When you give opportunity for creators, they’re some of the most creative people on the planet… It’s going to be really fun for brands and creators to play around on there.”
Sean Downey, Google’s American and global partners president, predicts that “almost all brands” will be open to using the tool.
“Brands do have a roster [of creators], they have creators that they trust but the number one request they give us is ‘Can you help us find more creators? Help us find the ones that are most relevant and most trending’. There’s always someone new to discover that they don’t know about… I imagine almost every advertiser is going to find value in this,” he said.
