SUBIC – There must have been something significant about the year 2011. As it turns out, that was the year that all three panelists for Ad Summit Pilipinas 2016’s discussion on building brands through content began to post videos online. For YouTube influencers Jako de Leon, Mikey Bustos, and Say Tioco-Artillero, they were ahead of the curve in harnessing the power of the video sharing website.
The man behind Paperbug TV and the popular humor and travel adventures of Bogart the Explorer, De Leon shared that he took “Bogart” online with an audience with short attention spans in mind. Fil-Canadian Bustos actually began as a musician and singer. When he got a webcam in 2010 and committed himself to posting a video every single day for 2011, he slowly caught traction.
For her part, Artillero shared that she started video blogging (or blogging) in the same year and uses the platform as a kind of online diary, or online teleserye.
Though they took divergent paths and produce different kinds of content for different audiences, all three were united in singing the praises of YouTube. De Leon compared other platforms as a magazine stand where, in a few days, the content is already gone and forgotten. On the other hand, “YouTube is a library,” he said, where old videos one has uploaded will remain forever.
Bustos particularly appreciates the analytics that YouTube allows content creators to access because, “you can study that and improve your content for the next video and future videos.” Artillero stressed the ease that one can use YouTube, saying, “it’s easy to navigate, at ang bilis talaga.”
Speaking on topics that included being tapped by brands and companies to create online content, each of the influencers also noted specific videos that made them aware that they had reached an audience that was, up until that point, merely in cyberspace. Artillero said that is was her Tagalog make-up tutorials that first got people’s attention. Though Bustos first achieved online traction with his “Filipino accent tutorial,” his recent epic Star Wars fan video also hit high numbers. Meanwhile, De Leon recalled that when the “Gangnam Style” craze was just beginning, he and Bogart were able to capitalize on it and reached big audience numbers.
Even as each of them shared their own individual dealings with companies, brands, and agencies that have wanted to work with them, they noted that the creation of their content should always be consistent with the people behind them because, as Artillero noted, the audience will notice if you are being fake. The interaction with their fanbases is another advantage that YouTube has over traditional media like films and television, though not all interactions are necessarily positive.
They were also more than happy to give their own pieces of advice for anyone who would like to follow their path down the YouTube alley. “Keep creating content,” said Bustos. “All your work is retroactive, so if you do well, they’ll go back and watch your older videos. Don’t do it for the money or the fame, do it because you love it. Numbers are nice, but what’s important is the quality of your followers. It’s the quality of the people you have engaged.”
“Upload as much as you can,” said De Leon. “When 2,000 people like your videos, then these are like-minded people.” He added the need to get enjoyment out of creating content as he pointed out that, “If you stop being jovial and happy, then there’s no point in doing it. It’s about having fun. If you like your video, then who cares?”
Finally, Artillero, who posts video on her make-up channel daily, said that people have to, “stay real and be consistent. Pag fake ka on cam, alam na fake ka. Being consistent is a big thing. It drives them back.
