Deals between big brands and viral online video performers were once an informal alternative to traditional celebrity sponsorships, but they are quickly maturing into a business estimated to reach $10 billion in 2020, The New York Times reports.
Some brands pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single sponsored video by a YouTube or Instagram star.
Brita, the water filter company, paid YouTube video makers Rudy Mancuso and Andrew Bachelor, who is known as King Bach, to make music videos with the basketball star Stephen Curry. Bachelor’s song imagined being roommates with Curry, who would regularly refill the Brita container. Mancuso’s song imagined Curry helping him live a healthier life by drinking water from a Brita instead of a bottle. These are just two examples of how brands get with internet sensations.
As the attention and money paid to stars on sites like YouTube and Instagram balloon, the stakes for both them and the brands to find the right match are rising.
At a convention for video makers called VidCon US, there was a speed dating event designed to match online stars with brands looking to advertise with someone whose audience matched their ideal demographic.
Many popular online personalities built a huge audience by pushing the envelope, providing an edgy contrast to carefully managed mainstream celebrities. Because of this, most advertising deals with YouTube or Instagram stars now include a “morality clause,” unique to this type of marketing. One such agreement stated that a creator would agree to take down any content within 12 hours if the brand determined that the talent had promoted a competing product, posted “racy content” on social media or performed “an act of moral turpitude.”
