The Creative Artists Agency (CAA) has secured yet another new client. The Hollywood talent agency has signed Yousef Erakat, known for his FouseyTUBE YouTube channel, for representation in all areas.

On his FouseyTUBE channel, Erakat engineers pranks, comedy sketches, and vlogs, all of which showcase his fun-loving personality. His charm has attracted a group of fans whom he calls his “bruh bruhs,” and his success is starting to bring in some significant returns. He has worked with a number of brands, including a recent collaboration with Quest Nutrition, and he picked the fan-voted Show of the Year award at September’s Streamy Awards. On his channel, he recently released a video celebrating his rise above seven million subscribers.

As it does with its other digital clients, CAA will work with Erakat to find him opportunities across multiple distribution platforms. Areas of interest include “digital distribution and partnerships, film, television, endorsements, personal appearances, publishing, and beyond,” according to a press release from the CAA.

Erakat will remain partnered with Collective Digital Studio, whose network he joined in February 2015. Other YouTube stars partnered with the CAA include Jenna Marbles, Bart Baker, and Timothy DeLaGhetto.

Filed under: Agencies, Articles, Channels, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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Refinery29’s newest original project puts the focus front and center on women making an impact around the world. The digital media brand aimed at a millennial, female-based audience released its newest documentary series A Woman’s Place: The Frontlines of Feminism on October 6, 2015.

Executive produced by former NBCUniversal EVP and current Refinery29 advisor Lauren Zalaznick, A Woman’s Place highlights global leaders and activists working on female-centric initiatives in locations like Brazil, Turkey, Ecuador, Egypt, Sweden, and the U.S. The first episode of A Woman’s Place tells the story of a transgender woman Maki from the Philippines, who is fighting for the trans community’s rights in her country. Zalaznick worked on the documentary series with Kassidy Brown and Allison Rapson, co-founders of the women-skewing media firm We Are the XX.

“I was inspired by Allison and Kassidy’s unwavering mission to champion women around the world, and I’m proud to help amplify the creators’ voice and those of the women profiled in A Woman’s Place,” Zalaznick said, as reported by Variety.

As promised at its Newfronts presentation earlier this year, Refinery29 has been pumping out more digital video content for its female viewership. The digital media company’s most recent project was a multi-media, interactive series called (Un)Cover, which features powerful female icons through articles, videos, photos, and more. Refinery29 has also launched a “talent collective” called Here and Now to connect digital creators with branded content initiatives.

You can watch the first episode of A Woman’s Place: The Frontlines of Feminism on Refinery29’s website. New episodes will be released each week.

Filed under: Articles, News, Refinery29 by Bree Brouwer
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Tubular Labs, which has worked with more than 3,000 online video content creators, calls itself “the most widely used video intelligence software platform.” Now, in search of new business, Tubular has traveled overseas. It has announced the hire of Denis Crushell, a former YouTube exec who will serve as the company’s first ever VP of Europe.

Crushell, who previously served as YouTube’s head of sponsorships in Europe, will lead Tubular’s European charge, which will be headquartered in London. Tubular will offer its proprietary video analytics platform to new clients in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, while also better serving existing clients based in Europe (such as FremantleMedia, Dailymotion, and Endemol).

Tubular, which opened to the public in 2013, works with its clients to analyze videos and optimize them across multiple digital platforms. “Online video is exploding globally, but very few brands and media owners capitalise on it effectively,” said Crushell in a press release. “When I saw Tubular Labs’ software and vision, I had to join the team. Tubular removes the guesswork from programming decisions and influencer partnerships. It’s at the very forefront of video intelligence technology.”

This is the second territorial expansion Tubular has announced in as many weeks. In late September, it launched an East Coast division and opened up a new headquarters in New York.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News, Tubular Labs by Sam Gutelle
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Viral videos aren’t just for viewers anymore. Internet-conscious brands love them, too, and those are the companies Rightster is looking to serve. The multi-channel network, which also runs its own branded content department, has launched Video Spring, a searchable database that offers licensable videos for brands, media publishers, and creators.

Rightster has filled Video Spring with a large number of user-generated videos it has sourced from YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, and Facebook. Users can browse through all of these cats, goats, and cute babies by entering search terms on the Video Spring homepage and sifting through the results that pop up. All of the offerings in the Video Spring library have been fully cleared, and they can be licensed at the click of a button.

The licensing of viral, user-generated videos currently makes up a significant portion of Righster’s operation. The MCN owns Viral Spiral, a marketing company that owns the licensing rights to famous viral videos like ‘Charlie Bit My Finger’ and the sneezing panda. In a press release, Rightster CEO Patrick Walker explained how Video Spring fits into his company’s approach to viral content:

“The world is creating and sharing more content than ever before. We want to challenge the traditional stock-footage model and help brands leverage content that is already popular and inherently shareable in a digital era where consumers are also creators, and where content consumption online has skyrocketed. Engagement and authenticity are more important than ever for brands and utilising user-generated content provides marketers with a powerful means to tell relatable and culturally relevant stories.”

Video Spring isn’t the only service offering up licensed clips. Jukin Media, for example, runs a similar operation. There’s no doubt, however, that Rightster has put together an extensive database of clips. Take a search to see what you can find; I turned up plenty of cat videos.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News, Studios by Sam Gutelle
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PewDiePie and his gaming friends aren’t the only YouTube content creators lending their likenesses to a new video game. MobileX Labs has released Celebrity Street Fight, which pits top social media stars against one another in one-on-one combat.

Celebrity Street Fight wears its influences on its sleeve for all to see. Its visual style is reminiscent of the old MTV show Celebrity Deathmatch, while its gameplay carries the look and feel of old-school 2D fighting games. The app itself is free, but it features microtransactions that can unlock additional moves and powerups.

The main difference between the new game and Celebrity Deathmatch is Street Fight’s choice of celebrity. More than a dozen YouTube and Vine stars appear in the game, including Ali-A, DeStorm, KSI, and TheDiamondMinecraft. Upon the game’s release, its stars hyped it up by showing it off on their respective channels. Here’s Dan from TheDiamondMinecart giving it a spin:

If Celebrity Street Fight seems like it’s up your alley, you can pick it up from the App Store or Google Play.

Filed under: Articles, Celebrity Street Fight, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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Paul Scheer will lend his voice talents to an upcoming animated series created for exclusive release on Vine. The actor has signed on to the web series White Ninja, set to debut on December 5, 2015.

The White Ninja Vine series is based on a web comic by the same title, which released strips on Cracked.com until August 2013 when the comic went on an undefined hiatus. Scheer, known for his work on shows such as FX’s The League and Hulu’s Hotwives of Las Vegas, will voice White Ninja’s titular character, who is described in a release as “intellectually restricted and, apparently, pain impervious.” White Ninja’s voice cast also includes Kathleen Barr (Ed, Edd n’ Eddy), Shannon Chan-Kent (Littlest Pet Shop, My Little Pony), Brian Drummond (Inspector Gadget, DragonBallZ), and David A. Kaye (Make Way for Noddy, X-Men Evolution).

Six Vine stars have also joined the White Ninja project as directors. Brandon Bowen, Jon Paul Piques (aka Piques), Gabe Erwin, Esa Fung (Esa Fungtastic), Gregor Reynolds (GregorR), and Stewart Reynolds (Brittlestar) will each have the opportunity to direct a chunk of episodes for White Ninja. Vancouver-based production companies North of Now and Whiskaye Films will produce the Vine-based series, with North’s Tyler Funk helming as creator and showrunner and award-winning artist Erick Grigorovski taking on the lead animator role.

“We are very excited to have Paul joining an already incredible team of creatives,” said Whiskaye’s Jameson Parker, who is serving as an executive producer alongside Kaye. “The White Ninja name has attracted an amazing selection of writers and directors for the show including some of the biggest influencers in sketch comedy, stand-up, and the YouTube and Vine world. Paul is a huge comedic talent and the perfect choice to bring White Ninja to life.”

This White Ninja series may be one of the first professional serial projects to turn solely to Vine as a distribution platform. Creators have used other social media sites in the past, specifically Instagram, to test the release of web series. But White Ninja looks like it’s breaking some new ground with its focus and release on Vine. You can catch the first five episodes of White Ninja starting December 5 on vine.co/WhiteNinja. Three new episodes (each running roughly six or so seconds, of course) will be released every week until the series concludes.

Filed under: Articles, News, Vine, Web Series by Bree Brouwer
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On September 28th, South African comedian Trevor Noah took over Jon Stewart’s post as host of The Daily Show. A few days later, he received some much-needed exposure thanks to a handful of hidden videos. Uproxx discovered several unlisted YouTube videos featuring Noah that can only be found by typing specific search strings into Google.

The videos were uploaded to the Comedy Central YouTube channel, but you won’t find them there. Instead, you need to go to Google and search for “Trevor Noah gay,” “Trevor Noah race,” or a number of other specific strings. The first result for each of these searches will lead to a YouTube video in which Noah discusses the topic you searched for. If you use an ad blocker, you’ll need to disable it to find the proper Google results.

We don’t know exactly how many of these videos have been made, though Slate has documented at least 15 that have been found by curious journalists. There is even a bit of interplay between the videos; in “Trevor Noah wiki,” Noah makes reference to “Trevor Noah Crocs,” a search string that turns up a video of its own.

Noah’s short monologues in the videos are funny, but the most clever part of the campaign is the way it riffs on Google’s auto-complete feature, which has inspired an Internet sub-genre of its own. Several of the videos refer to common (if unusual) searches from curious Google users, such as “Trevor Noah Illuminati” and “Trevor Noah shirtless.” “There’s an old saying back home in South Africa,” quips Noah in one of the videos, “you’re nobody until someone Googles you to see if you’re gay.”

When Noah first took over as Jon Stewart’s successor, we noted how important digital media would be in shaping a unique voice for him. This clever little campaign might have been hard to find, but it’s a sign that Noah and his team are off to a great start. Feel free to spend the next few minutes tying in a bunch of Google searches to see if you can add any new finds to Slate’s list.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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FameBit will no longer be restricted to just YouTube creators. The online marketplace where companies connect with video creators for branded initiatives has expanded its platform to include Vine, Instagram, and Twitter influencers.

Creators with more than 1,000 followers on Vine, Instagram, or Twitter can join FameBit and start submitting proposal ideas to brands who have posted branded content needs on the FameBit marketplace. Including Vine, Instagram, and Twitter creators to FameBit alongside YouTubers only makes sense for the platform, which acquired short-form video marketing agency Refame in May 2015.

“After developing the largest scalable self-service marketplace for YouTube collaborations, we had the proper infrastructure in place to expand on that process across platforms that are very different,” said David Kierzkowski, co-founder and CEO of FameBit, in a release. “Within just a few days of our soft launch, we’ve already seen hundreds of multi-platform campaigns deployed by brands, and influencers across these networks sent thousands of proposals for branded content creation, adding an additional 50 million reach to our network.”

“As influence marketing continues to evolve, our goal with the multi-platform marketplace is to offer brands the most comprehensive marketing strategy that scales through self-service,” said Agnes Kozera, co-founder and COO of FameBit. “This means giving brands the tools to tap into influencers’ other social platforms within one campaign, providing more storytelling options and even greater audience reach.”

FameBit has recently expanded into other business initiatives, as well. The digital marketplace launched its own web series and corresponding app FilterFreeTV in July. The series features a panel of five YouTube stars talking candidly about topics like drugs and sex.

FameBit currently claims over 17,000 YouTube creators on its platform who reach over 700 million collective subscribers. As of this writing, FameBit creators have produced over 20,000 branded videos, which have pulled in one billion minutes of total watch time.

Filed under: Articles, FameBit, News by Bree Brouwer
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First there was Comedy Week. Then there was Geek Week. Now, YouTube is bringing us “Awesome Stuff Week.” That vague title encompasses a series of videos in which prominent content creators will share a few of their favorite things with their viewers.

Awesome Stuff Week is a bit of a misnomer, since the event will actually play out across a series of themed weeks, each one dedicated to a different topic. Up first is fashion, with technology and holiday gifts on deck. Each of these themed weeks is subdivided even further to create specific focuses for each day. The Monday of Fashion Week, for example, is “Must-Have Monday,” and bargain buys will be the stars of “Hundred-Dollar Wednesday.”

You may be wondering why YouTube has decided to bring back the “[Insert Genre Here] Week” conceit more than two years after first trying it out. The answer has to do with the sites new “shoppable” videos, which it announced in a blog post released six days before the start of Awesome Stuff Week. Naturally, a video series based around the likes, loves, and gotta-haves of individual YouTubers is the perfect way to promote shoppable videos.

“We’re also making it easy for you to buy the products you want in the exact moment you want them,” reads a YouTube blog post introducing Awesome Stuff Week. “Scroll through the comments on any product video and you’re sure to find “where can I get those shoes or that skirt or that self-balancing scooter?” Why shouldn’t every product video be shoppable? Products featured during Awesome Stuff Week will be.”

To keep tabs on Awesome Stuff Week, check out the videos involved in it, and shop the products it recommends, stay tuned to its official YouTube channel.

Filed under: Articles, Awesome Stuff Week, Featured, News, YouTube by Sam Gutelle
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Yahoo added a new family-friendly comedy series to its slate with the support of American automaker Chevrolet. The two companies partnered to create the series Going There with Ana Gasteyer, hosted by the titular actress and former Saturday Night Live member.

Produced by Ellen DeGeneres’ A Very Good Production and Warner Bros.’ Blue Ribbon Content studio, Going There with Ana Gasteyer debuted its first episode on September 30, 2015 on Yahoo. All nine episodes of the Yahoo series take place in Chevy’s Traverse mid-size SUV model. In each episode, Gasteyer invites various celebrity friends (like former SNL pal Maya Rudolph and The Office’s Jenna Fischer) to run errands with her and discuss the comedic and crazy lives they lead as parents and individuals in the entertainment industry. Gasteyer produces Going There alongside DeGeneres and Jeff Kleeman, while Libby Silverman and Blue Ribbon’s Zoe Friedman created the series.

“I wanted to do this show because the only thing better than driving around with a friend dishing about parenthood is doing it in a clean vehicle with buttons that still work,” Gasteyer said in a release.

“This web series focuses on many of the premier features of the vehicle that were designed with families in mind, while entertaining viewers with some truly universal humor,” added Chevrolet Marketing Director Steve Majoros.

Part of the Going There deal includes advertising space for Chevy on Yahoo, as well as syndication for greater audience reach. And in addition to the Going There with Ana Gasteyer series, Yahoo will produce more related family-oriented content for distribution on the show’s dedicated website. Most of this content will be interview-based like the web series, featuring parents within and outside of the media industry as they discuss topics relevant to family life such as how to respond to your kids when they say they hate you.

You can catch new episodes of Going There with Ana Gasteyer each week on goingthere.yahoo.com. The series will also be available through the Yahoo Parenting digital magazine.

Filed under: Articles, Branded Entertainment, News, Yahoo! by Bree Brouwer
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Netflix’s roster of international series is getting bigger. The streaming video-on-demand service has announced its first Italian-language series, a mob-themed corruption drama called Suburra (which Google Translate defines as “slum”).  

Directed by Stefano Sollima (of Gomorrah fame), Suburra is based on the 2014 scandal surrounding the Roman seaside town of Ostia, an up-and-coming gambling destination. Various criminals, mob gangs,  and corrupt Vatican and political leaders battle over the town and the surrounding territory for their own gains. A statement from Netflix, as reported by Variety, explains these warring factions “all reveal an endemic system of corruption and rampant illegality on an international scale.”

Suburra comes to Netflix by way of Italian production company Cattleya and public broadcasting company Rai. To introduce viewers to the world of the upcoming Suburra series, Cattleya and Rai Cinema produced a feature film by the same title, which is set for release on October 14, 2015, in Italian theaters. Netflix will release the movie on its streaming platform on the same day for U.S. and Latin American subscribers.

“Netflix has revolutionized how we watch television and what we watch,” said Cattleya founder Riccardo Tozzi, as reported by Variety. “To partner with them is an extraordinary opportunity to engage audiences around the world and to contribute to further developing the medium.”

No release date has been announced as of yet for Suburra. However, Netflix will start production on the series in the second half of 2016 with tentative plans to release the series some time in 2017.

Filed under: Articles, Netflix, News by Bree Brouwer
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Over the weekend, the YouTube community was hit with some saddening news. The Bratayley family, known for its vlog videos, announced the death its son Caleb, who was only 13 years old.

The Bratayleys announced Caleb’s passing through an Instagram post, which was in turn confirmed by an ensuing video on their YouTube channel. For the channel’s viewers, who for the most part saw Caleb as a healthy, vibrant boy, the news came out of nowhere. The Instragram post cites “natural causes” as the cause of death. “This has come as a shock to all of us,” reads the post. “Words cannot describe how much we will miss him. His incredibly funny, loving and wonderful spirit made us all fall in love with him as a YouTuber, friend, brother and son.”

A separate video on the Bratayley channel (which has more than 1.6 million subscribers) serves as a tribute to the family’s departed son. It is very hard to watch:

Shortly after the announcement of Caleb’s death, the YouTube community responded with an outpouring of love for the Bratayley family. Many of their fellow creators, including Shaycarl, Nikki Phillippi, and Matthew Lush, shared their condolences on social media. Maker Studios, which is partnered with the Bratayleys on YouTube, sent out a supportive message of its own.

We too would like to offer condolences to the Bratayley family. To lose a young child is an unfathomable tragedy; we can only hope the love offered by the Bratayleys’ community provides some measure of consolation.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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