Advertising and YouTube Sponsorships
Advertising many people believe themselves to be immune to, they never actually buy stuff from the TV when they say “call now and get a second absolutely free”, they skip ads, they ignore the billboards on the side of roads because they are responsible drivers. Ads just don't affect them, or so they think, this assumption comes from the misunderstanding that ads are there for you to buy stuff, this is simply wrong. What ads do is they persist, and persist, and persist. You may think you've forgotten a product, forgotten an ad, but when you pass by the store shelves your neural wires have already been trained, you recognize that what you've never seen, or so you think. Ads are inherently manipulative and because of that I've tried to make a wall, nay, a fortress around myself, in the form of ad blockers, sponsor blockers, I turn off the internet when using my phone so ads cant play when I don't want them too, I put effort in to make sure I remember products solely to not buy them because I hate how manipulative and prolific some ads are. But all this effort comes crashing down when it comes to one thing, Hank Greens YouTube channel. Now you may not know who he is, and it's not like I'm deeply disappointed in you if you're not but, to briefly explain who he is and what he does, he runs a YouTube channel on which he posts videos on whatever he's interested in, usually science related. The thing is with Hank Green, he loves starting new things, so nearly all his YouTube videos include him advertising his newest escapades. Be it good.store which is a store in which all profits go to charity, or Eco Geek, which is household cleaning supplies that are Eco friendly while also having all profits go to the coral reef alliance. Or his newest adventure which he has been promoting, Focus Friend, a phone app that tries to get you to focus on things off of your phone by making you feel like a jerk if you don't. I, someone who hates ads, will willingly watch and advertise them for him. So how'd he do that?
As he posts regularly ill choose https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz-XZJ--q1k This videos ad to dissect a bit (it starts at 1:29), it being a more recent video and all (released like 2 days ago), the ad specifically being about a sale going on in his app Focus Friend. To start, the topic is usually introduced via jump cut, likely recorded after the main recording, probably shortly before uploading to ensure time continuity and ensure the advertisement is still relevant as many things he's done are usually time limited. Then in his usual eccentric way he explains the product, in this video specifically in the ads introduction he was a bit more cutesy, a bit more whimsical, likely in line with the app which in presentation is exactly that. He still explains its premise giving the audience the necessary knowledge to know what he's actually selling, after which he goes into the price and the limited time aspect of it. He ends it off by adding an emotional aspect to it, talking of his relation to responsibility, flashing some reviews on screen as well as him and his brother being close. Ending after around 1 minute, it's one of his longer ad spiels, as well as a more prominent campaign as he posted more videos than usual around this time advertising this giving him more chances to announce it. This prominent advertising has happened before, allowed the app back when it was first announced last year to rise the IOS app store charts reaching number 1 for a period of time, reaching a popularity the Verge had a writer describe their experience with it “I’ve struggled with focus and attention for most of my life — I liken it to living with the constant hum of static…. As it turns out, helping furnish a virtual bean’s lo-fi room is exactly what I needed…. We’ve been locking in for half an hour and hourlong chunks of work: Billie knitting while I clack away on a keyboard.” The app has been a prominent character in his videos, so the audience has seen it a lot. The question now is how he's converting that audience into users.
There's a lot of buzz words one can use here, Bandwagoning, celebrity endorsement, plain folks appeal. There is also always the parasocial relationship ones built up with the person you’re watching, there’s a reason sponsorship deals are so common on YouTube. There are so many aspects of a YouTube video that gets intertwined with the advertisement that the medium simply amplifies ads effects. Especially since usually the audience that watches the videos is already known. In Hank Green's case hes certainly cultivated a liberal leaning, internet savvy, Gen-Z/Millennial, probably has ADHD community and thus he is able to engage with his community with that in mind. The advertisement in the video for example has that Instagram/TikTok thing where you have two videos playing, where once you get bored of one thing your eye can swap to the other side, that's what id call prime ADHD Gen-Z bait. There's also an emotional connection present in it, quite simply It's very effective in that it appeals to Hank Green viewers. Though with that being said, its not particularly memorable, though it doesn't need to be. Hank Green doesn't need the cultural breakthrough that other companies need as he already has his niche. I'll repeat, it reached top 1 in the IOS app store when it released, it targets his audience quite well. In fact I downloaded it back then as well.
It certainly lived up to its reviews though I wont say I continued using it over the year it's been out. I am unsure if I have ADHD, my friends diagnosed me as such but they are not professionals, but I don't really need help with focusing. But I know it did’nt not help, so if you need some pressure on you to finish something I can only recommend the emotionally manipulating bean. But now why do his ads work so well on me? Well he's doing good advertising, just as all other advertisers. Though in the end it's less his ads working well on me and more me openly embracing the product because I support the ideas behind it so much. His advertisements worked the same as any other, sometimes I even find them just as annoying as all the others. I simply bought into the ecosystem and thus I pay more attention to the related subjects. All ads are ads at the end of the day, they all have the same goal.
The Verge Link Because I dont know how I would have integrated it nicely into the writing
https://www.theverge.com/tech/763021/focus-friend-hank-green-app-store-ios-android
Also note for my teacher, I couldnt do the Theranos thing because my brain isnt braining enough for that
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