CANNES DAY 2: Instagram vs. YouTube: The Battle for the Living Room

0:00Samir Chaudry:What's up everyone welcome back to the Colin and Samir show it is Tuesday June 23rd and we are sitting here in Cannes. We are literally outside it is hot I'm sure you can hear the trucks going by we are in the wild. So we're hosting our show the daily brief every day here at Cannes Lions in partnership with LinkedIn and today we're going to be talking about some news that broke yesterday. Instagram launching horizontal video on TVs we're going to talk about if that matters. Do you care does it matter. And in the rest of the episode, we talk about the future of work. What does it mean for young people entering the workforce?

0:34Samir Chaudry:What are your opportunities? If you want to listen to that part of the episode, head over to LinkedIn. The full episode is there. Let's get into Instagram launching horizontal video on TVs.

0:49The word of can this year. Yeah. Technically, it's two words. Agentic layer. Everything can have an agentic layer.

0:58Samir Chaudry:Yeah, I feel like agentic is the word. I didn't hear a layer. No, I heard layers, Samir. What is that? Layer was said yesterday. Like the underbelly? On top of anything, you can layer on something agentic. Oh, layer on. I thought you meant like somebody goes to their agentic layer. Yeah, which does speak to the future of work. Yeah. That no matter what you are doing, you can use an agent, an AI agent to help you with some of your work. Yes, but I think what was interesting is yesterday on the show, both Anthpo and Kendall Tucker from Ramp, When we talk about the future of marketing, it's actually extremely dependent on an individual creative.

1:34Samir Chaudry:Anthpo is an individual creative who has incredible ideas, like very internet native, chronically online, knows how to tap into communities. Kendall talked about how ramp strategy of doing these massive stunts is just about finding an individual who has an idea and giving them trust. Creative cannot be done by committee. Yeah, I love that. And I think that fits with what we were talking about yesterday as well, the reactionary advertising is so important. Your ability to be quick, to be nimble, and it's really hard to be quick and nimble when you have a committee of people trying to make a decision.

2:05Samir Chaudry:Yeah. So let's talk about the news from yesterday. This is not news necessarily from Cannes, but it was news that came out yesterday, and it's just an expansion of something that was already announced, which is Instagram on TV. Yeah. The difference is Instagram is rolling out to more TVs, including Samsung TVs. But one of the biggest things that they announced yesterday was a horizontal video hub. And I find that to be really interesting. There was also a post that was done by Rachel Carton, who writes a great newsletter called Lincoln Bio, where she showed that there's a J.Crew ad that was posted both vertically and horizontally on Instagram, and the horizontal one did better.

2:45Samir Chaudry:But now when we look at like Instagram on TV with a horizontal video hub, what do you think they're trying to do and do you think it's going to work? Well, number one, I think YouTube has already proved that audiences want to watch and will watch UGC or creator content on their sofas. They'll watch long form on their sofas, on their TVs. Right. So they've already proven that behavior that we want to do that. And then from an advertising perspective, there's a lot of opportunity to deliver ads to an audience like that, where there are multiple people in a room. They're sitting there for long periods of time.

3:22You can do pre-rolls, mid-rolls. There's a lot of dollar opportunity there as well. So I think it's pretty clear why they're trying to do it. Audiences are there. Dollars are there.

3:32Samir Chaudry:I would just say this. I mean, of course, we've been YouTube guys through and through for a really long time. But I think Instagram has a cultural appeal that is very different than every other app. I really do think that the vibe of being an Instagram creator or being popular on Instagram is incredibly different than being popular on any other app. Like it has a higher cachet. Do you think that or no? Well, I think you're saying that. I actually agree. I think that's because the barrier to entry for Instagram has been so low for so long. where you could be a celebrity and you can take part in Instagram culture still to this day by just posting a photo or a carousel.

4:15Sure. Like that is still a way to contribute to the conversation in a real way. Whereas, you know, YouTube, the requirement is a little bit heavier, right? People don't think of YouTube and think, oh, I can just post my photos there.

4:27Samir Chaudry:Yeah. And make an impact. So because of that, you have celebrities who've been on Instagram for a long period of time. So let's talk specifically about horizontal video on Instagram. Like we always talk about Subway Takes as an example, because it's probably the show everybody knows that's watching. Like we can reference Subway Takes. Subway Takes posts the vertical asset every day. Yeah. And then the horizontal uncut version goes on YouTube. Yep. Does really well on YouTube. What is the future of, does that even like matter anymore? I mean, does it matter for Subway Takes to post horizontally on Instagram?

5:07Well, I think the future for Instagram is probably incentivizing creators to upload both assets at the same time. So you're a creator or you're a media publisher and you make a short form version of your show. You make a long form version. Maybe it's the extended version. The same way that they incentivize if you use their edits app. They will distribute your content more. That's true. the one incentive structure that is missing from Instagram is making money. Okay. So you're right. Like the making money is missing from the platform, which YouTube owns and is so good at and has been for so many years.

5:44But when we sat down with the head of Instagram, Adam Maseri, and asked him about this, we were like, don't creators need and want monetization from the platform from you? And he was like, Well, maybe not really. Like they're incentivized by distribution and they're incentivized by doing their own brand partnerships. And I think that could be something where, you know, when Instagram continues to show up on our TVs, I think they've built trust with a lot of audiences that we will probably click that icon and watch Instagram on TVs.

6:14Samir Chaudry:You think they have that trust in the living room too? I think they just have that trust culturally. Yeah, okay. And the living room is part of culture. Sure. So yeah, they have to earn that trust on the TV, but they've already built to a pretty big degree. I would imagine that their POV might stay the same where it's like, we don't need to pay you for your content that's on the TV. You're going to get paid in distribution and your opportunity to monetize with brand partnerships. I think major creators and major media publishers may have an issue with that. Because all of a sudden they're looking at the same exact piece of content that is monetized on YouTube to a pretty big degree that they're not getting from Instagram.

6:51Samir Chaudry:Let me read the text I got yesterday. The link is to the Hollywood Reporter article that says it's not TV, it's Instagram. And about their long form episodic horizontal video hub on TV. It says, is this a new buyer for creators or a YouTube competitor or both? Does this matter? What do you think? I think the one advantage that YouTube, or many advantages actually, but the one that comes to mind is just the library of content on YouTube is so vast. And for so many years, it has been packaged and built in a way that we can find it. I don't think Instagram has that library right now because they have not been a place for long-form content.

7:36So when I show up to YouTube, there's an abundance of things that I can watch. And I don't actually care necessarily if it's from today or if it's from three years ago. And layered on top of that, their ability to distribute a 15 or 30 second ad on a television screen is unparalleled.

7:56Samir Chaudry:It's hard to compete with YouTube because they're so advanced and the rev share is too well put together. But I do think culturally it could matter over time because so many creators who are just getting into it or even celebrities because the barrier to entry is so low already have a presence on Instagram. But does Instagram come to us and want to buy our shows? No. No. That does not sound like Instagram or Meta. As I'm walking up and down here in Cannes, I am wondering at what point do we get to, like the reality of if you just look at the mechanics of Cannes, it is who's at my party, right?

8:31Samir Chaudry:Like if I'm Spotify, I want the right people at my party. If I'm LinkedIn, I want the right people at my party. If I'm YouTube, I want the right people at my party. And I just wonder, as YouTube Premium as a business continues to grow, Instagram's launching on TV, Netflix obviously stepped in and said, we want certain people at our party and not at other parties. Are we entering the era of dollars? Now you're just making me think of all the parties that haven't been invited to. Can I give you a can gripe before we get to some of the questions? Sure, I got one as well. I have a can gripe, which is this.

9:04Samir Chaudry:That was mine. This is a big can gripe. I was in the shower this morning, and it's dripping. That's why I took them off. So a little inside baseball for people who aren't at Cannes. You get these wristbands to get into different beaches and parties, and I feel like a little kid at a resort with water slides. You know what I mean? Yeah, totally. Where you get, like, a wristband. And I'm like, I'm a grown adult here. Joe's smirking. He knows what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about, right? Yeah, it's weighing you down, right? Yeah, it's weighing you down. All right, let's read some comments from yesterday's episode.

9:29Samir Chaudry:Okay. So some of you who were watching gave us some questions and comments.

9:37Samir Chaudry:Number one, this is about brands. And in reaction to Kendall talking about Ramp from Instagram, from Camille. I don't know how to say the last name. Brands will prioritize dedicated videos as time spent with brand becomes a bigger KPI. So dedicated videos, meaning if a brand comes to us as creators, they say we don't necessarily want you to just integrate our product into a 60 to 90 second ad read. We want the entire video to be about. Yes. our brand. So as an example, I think creators that did this really well, yes theory, when Amar ran a marathon, he trained using the Runa app. Yep. And the Runa app sponsored the video.

10:20And throughout the entirety of the video, Runa was a main character in this video. And I agree with you. I think, I think audiences have become so accustomed to the 60 to 90 second ad read as a portion that is not integral to the story. It's very hard to make it so integral to the story that you need to pay attention. I think it's way more common and acceptable in the podcast format because it's like the radio, you're used to that. But when it comes to video, I agree. I do think it's gonna become really important.

10:52Samir Chaudry:Yeah, I think what we'll likely see more of is maybe it'll be the dedicated videos, but I think it'll be more the ambassadorships. I think the always on is actually the only way to capture my attention. Meaning, again, Kendall yesterday, Ramp TPBN, like Ramp's logo is on the screen the entire time. I think the other one that I always bring up is Dude Perfect and Body Armor. They are the official drink of Dude Perfect. They're around all the time. I think it's just a new way of sponsoring where I agree this premise of time spent with brand is a bigger metric of success for a brand. And I also think for audiences, like, you're going to shut off right now if I look at you and said this episode is sponsored by.

11:34But also if we're sitting here for 40 minutes and 30 seconds is dedicated to one brand. Right. The likelihood that you're going to forget that 30 seconds is probably pretty high. But even if you look at like product placement, if we were sitting here and the entirety of our conversation, we have a mug that says LinkedIn on it.

11:54Samir Chaudry:Right. In a glance, you're going to go, ah, LinkedIn. Yeah. They're a part of this world. They're a part of this world. Yeah. I mean, actually, literally, we are in their world. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. Right now, but yeah. Okay, so we're soon gonna be joined by two guests and we're gonna talk a lot about the premise of the future of work. I think something really interesting right now with work is like we are seeing this movement as college graduations happened coming into June where there were speakers talking about AI. And a lot of young people, especially in those settings, were booing every time the term AI came up.

12:28Samir Chaudry:So AI is a very touchy subject for young people. And I think the context is the future of work. I think so. I think there's a lot of reasons that people get into. But yeah, it was something that you and I talked about. We didn't expect to see. It kind of caught us a little bit by surprise. I think we understand the sentiment. We've made many videos about AI and the tools that we use. And you see the sentiment in the comments at times. Yeah. But that reaction from that generation was a bit surprising. Sure. I think for us, because maybe we'd already built our careers to a point where all of these AI tools now just enhance what we're doing.

13:05We're not building from scratch. We have a pre-existing brand where these tools, when they're announced, if we're able to integrate them and use them, I don't see them that different to when I first got the Adobe Creative Suite 16 years ago.

13:19Samir Chaudry:Well, I think there's actually a really big difference. When we were younger, our relationship with disruptive tech was like it was rock star cool. right like the the silicon valley kids in their garages launching instagram and youtube like it was cool whenever something new came out and it was important to be an early adopter of it it also became our generation's version of work right like when all these major tech companies actually started hiring and having huge offices with their their culture was the rock star party it was having a slide in your office right like it was yeah totally so we have a positive relationship with it.

13:55Samir Chaudry:And I think the most interesting stat I heard yesterday was from Brian Albert at YouTube. We were sitting with him and he said, 63 % of the U.S. population is 45 and under and grew up or experienced life with a smartphone in their hands. And that population is only getting bigger. Right. And so again, we experienced when that happened and it was important to adopt quickly versus the there's a there's a also a large percentage of people who just were born into it that's the status quo they didn't experience disruptive tech we'd love to know your guys takes you can leave them here on LinkedIn and we'll respond to them tomorrow again we're here every day for the next two days the daily brief will be back here tomorrow morning from the Crescent at Cannes Lions again leave your comments we'll see See you tomorrow.