17/02/2017

Is everything on YouTube of value?

On 16 March, the UIC Barcelona Faculty of Communication Sciences hosted the first “Talent Marketing Day: YouTubers” which took place at the Catalan University.

The purpose of the session was to talk about the teenagers who have become stars of the internet, their relationship with brand names and the reasons behind their success.
The day opened with the a welcome from Dr Carol Serra, the head of studies for Advertising and Public Relations, who invited the audience to reflect on the influence wielded by society's YouTubers and the extent to which they are aware of the video content they post. 
 
Next, there was a contribution from Carlos A. Macho, the Content Marketing Manager for Wallapop, to explain how this Spanish start-up managed to become well-known with scant resources thanks to its content management strategy. As he said himself said, “a powerful message can change everything”. 
Following the presentation, Oscar Cumí, the organiser of the Talent Marketing Tour and an expert in marketing through influencers, introduced six YouTubers who formed part of the round table: Focusings, AdriaMusica96, Annagorse, ProAndroid, JordiCor and Julian Marinov . 
 
The moderator for the discussion with the YouTubers was Alex Alegret, a lecturer in Marketing Management on the Advertising and Public Relations degree course. He kicked off the debate with the question “Is everything on YouTube of value?” The protagonists condemned the behaviour of some the latest YouTubers to have appeared on the scene for discriminating against people because of their social status. They also confessed that being a YouTuber involves working at it every day of the week and is something that requires a great deal of commitment: “you do it out of passion and don't view it as a business”,  "you have to get better, create, think, something has to happen to you every week. If not, your followers start forgetting you...". During the round table they also spoke about which videos on their channels had attracted the most views. Curiously, these were neither the best edited videos nor those with involved content. "The perfect video can be boring", according to YouTuber Anna Gorse. 
 
At the end, the event sponsors rewarded those members of the audience who had been most active on Twitter using the hashtag #TMDay. The journalism student Susana Martínez received  a prize from the Asian chain Udon while the RACC presented other participants with a course on theory and ten driving lessons to help towards getting their driving licence.