The Frenemy Report: A YouTube Story

You just got punk'd!! JK. It's called "Kiddin'" now, as in Kim Kardashian's new Facebook Watch show, called You Kiddin' Me, produced via a partnership between Facebook and Lionsgate.Despite Kylie Jenner's $1.3B swipe at Snap (since when did this turn into a Kardashian column?!), the drama had a happy ending for Snapchat, which has seen app downloads increase by 55% since the redesign. And ICYMI, Spectacles V2 are coming.YouTube brand safety concerns are back and YouTube is holding off on launching a music service. Throwing nuance out the window, YouTube has renamed its Snap-like feature from "Reels" to "Stories." It ain't easy out there for creators, and influencers are stuck between YouTube and a hard place.Check out this handy infographic from Adweek about the maturing Gen Zers (they grow up too soon!) -- the age group's social preferences are lead by YouTube and Snapchat. Fullscreen Launches TBH, A Millennial Research Service For Advertisers [Tubefilter]TBH will comprise 3,000 opt-in respondents at launch, which Fullscreen has catalogued by age, location, interests, and media consumption habits, it says. Insights are gained via polls, discussions, and journal entries — and participants are incentivized to share their thoughts via a point system whereby they can earn gift cards and autographed Fullscreen merchandise. Some of TBH’s first research projects will include deep dives into beauty, retail, and travel, according to the company.Why Snapchat won’t listen to user complaints about its redesign [Digiday]Even as Snapchat users are still venting their frustrations about its redesign, downloads of Snapchat are up. In the week after the redesign, Snapchat saw its downloads increase by 55 percent, 322,000 more installs compared to the week before the redesign, according to data from app analytics firm Sensor Tower. The app also rose to No. 1 in app stores in the days following Jenner’s tweet, per App Annie. It seems the uproar has led more people to see what the fuss was about, giving clout to the old adage “No publicity is bad publicity.Already up 60% this year, a pair of analysts see Netflix rising even higher [CNBC]"Increasingly building out its global production muscle and focusing on content that travels internationally, Netflix has emerged as a content powerhouse that is actively building a global moat," wrote UBS analyst Eric Sheridan on Monday. "We see ample runway ahead for international subscriber growth given: low penetration of existing global broadband households [and] low broadband penetration in international markets."The 2018 Oscars: How Viewers Reacted and Which Brands Won Big[Broadcasting & Cable]The Oscars generated an impressive 1.02 million Emotional Reactions (ERs) on Twitter according to Canvs, with love reigning supreme throughout the conversation, appearing in 29.3% of ERs. Overall the conversation was very positive, with other popular emotions that people expressed including congrats (13.2%), crazy (10.7%), enjoy (9.4%) and beautiful (5.1%).CMO Today: Oscars Ads; More YouTube Brand Safety Concerns; The Rise of Location-Data-Grabbing Apps [WSJ]YouTube’s brand safety issues don’t appear to be going away, in spite of its efforts to hire more content checkers and make more controls available to advertisers. CNN reports a number of brands suspended their ads on Alex Jones’s InfoWars YouTube channels after CNN reporters informed them their ads had appeared there. Advertisers including Nike, Paramount Network and Acer told CNN they had been under the impression that filters they had set surrounding sensitive content should have prevented this from happening. YouTube had reprimanded InfoWars recently for violating its community guidelines by posting a video that claimed Parkland, Fla., shooting survivor and anti-gun activist David Hogg “can’t remember his lines in [a] TV interview.” Lionsgate Partners With Facebook Watch On Kim Kardashian West Prank Series [Deadline]You Kiddin’ Me is a comedic prank series where kids are in charge and celebrities must do everything their own children say. Says Lionsgate, the new series peeks into the family relationships of Hollywood stars as children prank their famous parents and an unsuspecting public. You Kiddin’ Me will be available via mobile, desktop and Facebook’s TV apps. Members of the Facebook community will be chosen to participate in pranking their favorite celebrities.Insights: Stuck Between YouTube And A Hard Place, Being An Influencer Is Tougher Than Ever[Tubefilter]Pew and Paul’s horrifically bad judgment aside, it’s easy to believe part of the problem for both was a perceived pressure to keep amping up the entertainment shock value to keep audiences coming back. “That’s what happens when you have an attention economy,” said Tubular Labs CMO and co-founder Allison Stern.New YouTube Music Subscription Service Won’t Launch in March After All [Variety]YouTube’s decision to not use SXSW, and the appearances of key executives at the event, as the launchpad for YouTube Music could mean that the service simply isn’t ready for a public unveiling. There have also been mixed messages about the way Google is going to position the service, especially as it relates to premium video on YouTube. Google’s video service first launched a $10 paid tier, dubbed YouTube Red, in late 2014.YouTube’s Snapchat-Like Format Is Renamed From Reels To Stories, Adds New Backgrounds [Tubefilter]But YouTube Stories isn’t just lifting existing features off Snapchat; it’s also getting some unique tools of its own. A post on the Google research blog reveals the development process behind YouTube Stories’ new backgrounds, which utilize facial recognition technology to allow users to seamlessly shift the setting of their videos. Such a change, the post notes, will “bring precise, real-time, on-device mobile video segmentation to the YouTube app.”Facebook’s branded content program loses its luster [Digiday]“Anthology is becoming a less attractive lever, and the publishers are also less enchanted with Facebook, so even as more publishers have access [to Anthology], I think there is a little bit of, ‘Are you going to get the best out of those publishers through a program like this versus going to them directly?’” said another agency executive. There’s no evidence that a publisher would hold back on an Anthology campaign because of the more abrasive dynamic between Facebook and publishers, the agency exec said. Facebook hires Pinterest and BuzzFeed execs to bolster its video content [Fast Co]From Pinterest, Facebook grabbed Mike Bidgoli to lead the Facebook Watch product team. Facebook Watch is the company’s video-on-demand service that launched to limited users last August. Both hires show Facebook is aggressively continuing its foray into the crowded video content market. As Matt Henick, Facebook’s new head of global video content strategy and planning, said: “The future of storytelling is social.” Seems Facebook couldn’t agree more.‘Facebook or bust’: Facebook publisher Attn stands its ground after news-feed change [Digiday]Facebook will not allow advertisers to specify which publishers’ videos they do or not want their ads to appear against, the execs said. That lack of control had led to advertiser pushback against Watch as well as Facebook’s broader pre-roll and mid-roll inventory and its ad network business.Facebook pitches brand-safe video ad buys for $750,000, but lack of control irks buyers [Digiday]Instead the ads will only be broadly targeted to viewers 18 years old and older, according to the agency execs. Facebook will only bill advertisers participating in the test for ad impressions delivered to viewers in that demographic group as measured by Nielsen, according to one of the agency execs and another person familiar with the matter. Further frustrating ad buyers, Facebook will not allow advertisers to specify which publishers’ videos they do or not want their ads to appear against, the execs said. That lack of control had led to advertiser pushback against Watch as well as Facebook’s broader pre-roll and mid-roll inventory and its ad network business.Publishers Adapt To The New Realities Of The Facebook News Feed [AdExchanger]Refinery29 also began diversifying its referral traffic two years ago to put stronger emphasis on search, newsletters and other platforms like YouTube, said Amy Emmerich, Refinery29’s chief content officer. That strategy appears to be paying off, with search traffic now up almost 50%, indicating Refinery’s audience is willing to engage with its content away from Facebook. Even so, the platform is still very valuable for driving video engagement, Emmerich said, so as long as pubs create relevant content users want to share with friends and family. Despite Facebook’s algorithm changes, publishers aren’t completely declaring their independence.We're Putting Master Crafters to the Test With Our New Facebook Watch Series, Crafty AF [PopSugar]POPSUGAR and Toy Rocket are proud to announce our new Facebook Watch show: Crafty AF! In every episode, we'll take two pro-DIYers in their respective fields and challenge them with an ambitious task — under impossible circumstances.