5 Lessons From My First #VidCon
I attented my very first VidCon this past week, the 7th Annual online video conference founded by Vlogbrothers John and Hank Green. After 72 Hours, 28 Panels, 3 Parties, 1 Yoga Session, and more free booze than you could shake a Stikbot at, I wanted to share some of my quick thoughts on an absolutely fantastic event I’ll be attending for years to come.
Everyone Wants a “House of Cards” Moment
I heard a lot of buzzwords during VidCon (including monetization, engagement, and someone offering up a look at their “spaceship,” which may or may not have just been the worst pickup line of the conference) but a key phrase among online video companies is the hope to have a “House of Cards” moment. With Fullscreen recently launching their SVOD service at 4.99/mo and YouTube Red coming in at 9.99/mo (to name just two such services), their fingers are crossed that they’ll be the first service to debut a series that has the same impact that House of Cards had for Netflix. There’s really no doubt that a Gen-Z/Millenial-skewing platform will emerge, but the question is how many can sustain, at what price point, and when? YouTube is all-in on Red with an announcment of several new series and renewals during CEO Susan Wojcicki’s Keynote Speech, and Fullscreen readily admitted it was a 3–5 year play, but in the search for a “House of Cards” moment, can multiple services survive, or is someone destined to end up Qwikster?
All Are Welcome Here
One the most powerful moments of VidCon came at the end of YouTube’s Keynote, where they announced their new #ProudToBe campaign with an emotional tw0-minute spot in support of the LGBTQ Community. It was a delightfully progressive moment, and I was proud to see a major media company so openly throw their support behind the community.
This spot was part of a much larger VidCon theme that there’s a place for absolutely everyone in the online community regardless of gender, race, or sexual preference. This wasn’t exactly news to me, but to see the energy of everyone coming together for these reasons was an inspiring experience.
Beyond gender and race, one of my favorite moments of VidCon came at the AwesomenessTV outdoor concert with Cimorelli, a six-sister girl group that I accidentally stumbled upon after tracking down a stale pretzel. Before wrapping up their high-energy pop/rock set, they announced to a crowd of screaming teen girls (and this bearded 38-year-old) that their song “Worth the Fight” was a track about suicide prevention. It was a heavy message to drop at 9:30 on a Friday night to a sea of teens hopped up on Mountain Dew, but I admire them very much for talking so openly about one of society’s most taboo subjects.
VR is Here To Stay
One of the biggest draws of VidCon’s main expo hall (besides seeing teen girls scream at Beatles on Ed Sullivan levels at their favorite Vine stars) was Samsung’s Virtual Reality booth.
Samsung was offering up the chance to lose your lunch on a VR surfing experience and a VR rollercoaster. The line (which was broken up into Galaxy owners and non-Galaxy owners — the former was amusingly empty) was longer than I had carved out for my schedule, but it was a blast watching people shake and scream on the virtual thrill rides.
As fond as my memories are of that weekend I rented Nintendo’s Virtual Boy from Blockbuster Video (you’ve never played tennis until you’ve played red 3D tennis), VR really hasn’t taken hold until the past few years, and the numbers are starting to show a steady trend upward in interest an use. Barry Pousman, CEO of Variable Labs delivered a great lesson on “Creating Compelling Narrative for VR” and with 360 cameras dropping in price it’s only a matter of time before “Spherical Media” goes mainstream.
Snapchat is a Monster
Snapchat was unanimously voted “Mostly Likely to Succeed” in VidCon’s 2016 yearbook. It’s already insanely popular, but the expectation at VidCon (and really no one who spoke about the subject even remotely hesitated) is that by this time next year it’ll be a full-blown media monster.
For those who have missed out on becoming big on YouTube, Twitter, Vine, or Instagram, Snapchat is the next frontier for becoming an influencer or changing the game as a creator — as long as you know how to build your brand. It’s interesting to see exactly how it’ll shake out, for as popular as Snapchat is, the content is still in it’s infancy, and 70% of Snaps are personal messages, not ad-driven content.
“The Scarce Currency is Engagement”
One of my favorite quotes of VidCon was the above — “The Scarce Currency is Engagement.” Not only does it sound like the title of an unreleased Philip K. Dick novel, it’s one of the biggest challenges facing creators big and small.
As more and more content emerges and we reach a critcal mass of eyeballs available to consume it, many a conference-goer was desperately seeking the answer to the question “How do I make sure someone doesn’t scroll by my Facebook video in the 200 milliseconds I have to catch their attention?”
It’s a topic that seems to bring on genuine panic, though I was delighted when someone took the topic the other direction and asked the question, “If everyone’s optimizing videos for the same thing, won’t that, at some point, become less than optimal?” #MindBlown
