Notorious FRED

Online Video: We’re doing it wrong.

If you’re reading this blog you likely became hip to the FRED phenomenon around when David Sarno profiled the young youtuber back in June. Or maybe it was at NewTeeVee Live, where FRED creator, Lucas Cruikshank, wowed an audience of professionals with his stats… and the fact that he’d only been posting videos for 6 months. I say this, because I’m assuming you’re Internet savvy, likely in new media, perhaps living in Los Angeles… and over 20. For those in the junior high set, FRED is old news, even back in June when we old timers first heard of him, Fred’s domination over the hearts and minds of every tween in the country was already set. Since that time FRED has become the first youtube creator to reach a million subscribers.

Take a deep breath. Let it soak in. 1 million individuals elected to view every new video that Fred puts out. 1 million subscribers. 1 meeeeeelion. The video I posted above? 24,073,606 views as of this posting.

Ok.

This kid knows something we don’t. Or maybe, he knows something we don’t want to admit to ourselves:

Everyone I’ve met in web video, I’ve met in some sort of bar or convention after party. That is to say, we’re all over 21. We’re at drinkups and meetups and industry parties.  We’re not in dorm rooms, or highschool hallways, that’s for sure. You wont see many 15 year olds at Tubefilter this Friday. And all us “serious” web video types can’t hold a candle to the sort of success FRED saw within months of his launch. Millions of dollars, thousands of people, can’t crack what FRED unintentionally and effortlessly has.

But if a 15 year old kid can successfully build an audience, monetize that audience, and launch his own “personal brand” into the stratosphere, without attending a single industry panel or mixer, then maybe we should all calm down and reassess some things. How much time did Lucas put into strategy and marketing? According to his panel at NewTeeVee Live, not all that much. He follows a few fundamental rules (run time, launching on Thursdays) but for the most part, seems intent on focusing on creating great content. One assumes his traffic spreads virally. Certainly, blog posts count for very little of Fred’s massive view count.

We’ve been so anxious to announce that we have it all figured out, that this new beast has been tamed, or that we’ve online video has “arrived”, that we’ve lost sight of some cold hard facts. Yes, FRED is the proverbial lightning in a bottle, but he’s a bigger success than any of us, so maybe we should stop acting like we know what we’re talking about, and listen. If web video is a democratic medium, then the audience has spoken, and they only seem to care about content. Maybe FRED represents an audience most of us are overlooking, but that audience is going to grow up soon, and they’re going to look for more complex narratives. Where? Online of course, where they always look for their favorite shows.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to go huff some helium.