How Mr Beast made the best YouTube ad we've ever seen

0:00The Colin and Samir Show is supported by Microsoft Copilot. This is something I thought I would never say, but can I share with you my favorite prompt? I mean, like when you say something like that, I have to say yes. Were you going to say no? No, but okay. Just let me hear it. So when I'm researching for a guest or I need to know a lot about a subject matter, I say, make me a podcast about. And when you do that, you're going to get a short blurb about that subject. And then in like two minutes, you're going to get a podcast. So check this out. Welcome to Co-Pilot Podcasts. Picture this, a guy working the front desk at a hotel, making lacrosse videos in his spare time, completely unaware that he's about to become one of the most influential voices in the creator economy.

0:38Today, we're diving into the remarkable story of Colin Rosenblum. Wow. Did you pay it to say that? That's crazy. That's very kind. It's crazy, but it's my favorite way to learn about a subject matter. I'm learning about so much more now that I can turn this research into like a seven minute podcast that I can listen to just when I'm walking. Did you tell it that I worked at the front desk of a hotel? Dude, the prompt is just, make me a podcast about Colin from Colin and Samir. That's it. I may be biased, but I'm on the edge of my seat. I'm hooked. So if you guys haven't checked out Copilot, check it out.

1:10Try it for your research. Try it for getting variations of your titles, your ideas. It's one of my favorite tools on the internet right now for our creativity. And now back to the show. Hey, what's up, everyone? Welcome to this episode of... What's up, Samir? What's up? I think I'm in everyone. I would assume... You're not part of everyone. Okay. No, let me try that again. All right, yeah, carry on. Hey, what's up, everyone? Welcome to this episode of Creator Support. Today on the show, we're going to be breaking down a really interesting two-minute segment from Mr. B's most recent video. We're also going to be talking about the rise of vlogging on YouTube and how to come up with a unique style that is just yours.

1:46The questions that we pulled from this episode come straight from our Discord. If you haven't joined yet, the link is in our description. All right, if you make it to the deep end, let us know. So I spent company money without you knowing, just so you know. I would imagine that happens. I do that sometimes. What? Yeah. Well, this weekend, I realized I wasn't subscribed to Mr. Beast's Twitter Blue. Okay. And someone sent me one of the posts and was like, did you see this? This is crazy. And I was like, wow, not subscribed. And then I subscribed to it. And it is one of the most fascinating places.

2:19He's primarily sharing his analytics for his videos. Okay. Basically right after he posts them. And this weekend he had a really impactful video that came out. Like one of at least my personal favorites that he's put together, which I didn't anticipate liking because it's called ages one through a hundred compete for$500 ,000, something like that. And I was like, okay, this might be similar to some of his other like segment based videos. I watched it as well and I couldn't help get to the end. Yeah. Which does not happen often. Right. Not only for Mr. Beast, but for any creator. So the Twitter post that was sent to me was in reference to this video, which showed the immediate analytics of it, which we'll put on screen.

3:06So in the first four hours and 17 minutes, it did 10 million views, had a 9.9 % click-through rate, and a 14-minute AVD. And, you know, that's well over 50%. I think it's around 70 % because the video is like 24 minutes long. Are you a mathematician? No, I'm not a mathematician. Am I? I'm not. I'm not. Okay. And then he posted when it hit, it became a one out of 10. It's his top performing video. And it showed one through 10. I posted that into our discord and the conversation ensued, which was really compelling. But someone tagged the videos based on a narrative style, Mr. Beast video, which means one clear story that pays off at the end and a segment based video, lots of interesting high dopamine segments.

3:52So for example, one of them that's tagged pink is$1 versus$500 ,000 plane ticket. So that's a ton of segments, right? It's like segment, segment, segment, segment versus like one narrative line. You're deep in like an analytics portal right now. I would say the creator analytics channel is one of my favorites in the Discord. Very good conversation around, you know, the analytics. And on the other side, the thing that stuck out that you and I talked about immediately was the ad read in it, which was for Shop, which is one of Shopify's apps. It's an app where you can buy anything from Shopify stores.

4:31You can buy our merchandise there. You can buy anything that's on Shopify, which is essentially everything. But the way he did the integration, I actually think is worth talking about and worth kind of breaking down and putting some terminology around it for creators. Yeah, absolutely. I think because also advertising is the majority of how creators make money. Yeah. That's the basis. And the way that we do it is being pioneered in real time. Like it is not, there's no like textbook for how to do a brand integration. Yeah, totally. And it is the basis of the business. So I think it's important to think about, you know, breaking down some of these ones that are done really well and were effective.

5:09And we know it was effective because the shop app ended up number eight in the app store above Instagram, TikTok. Yeah. And yeah, and the whole Shopify team was tweeting about it being like, this is the beast effect. So I think it's really important for all of us to think about this. There's many different styles of integrations or advertising that happens. And that is format dependent. Like we just did an interview with, or we did an interview a while ago with Tim Ferriss that's going to come out soon on the main channel. And Tim Ferriss, if you don't know, is a podcaster. He's developed a very deep relationship with his audience.

5:41So the style of integration with Tim is predicated on the trust you have and the relationship you have with Tim. And Tim is going to talk about his experience with the product. And that is compelling. He has moved markets for a lot of these companies the way he talks about them. Now with Jimmy, his videos are very different. It's not like if Jimmy just stopped at the video in the middle and told you about the shop app. it might be too easy for you to skip because it would be just this there's no need to watch there's no need to watch it's a complete departure from the story you've been watching yeah and that's what a lot of creators do it's hard to do what he did and interweave yes a read a brand integration the messaging into the story and the way that he did it was really interesting so let's play it and I also think we should use that terminology of like, this is the interwoven integration.

6:38Is that smooth? Is that a term that we can use? The interwoven integration. Interwoven. Yes. So halfway through the video, all the contestants, you know, are playing Jenga. And if their Jenga tower falls, then they're out. So that's the new challenge that is introduced for how people will get eliminated from this. One person down, 14 more to be eliminated. This is going to be crazy. And while they're pulling pieces, I want to tell you about the shop app. It's the most amazing way to... So as he is talking about the shop app, we're still watching contestants play Jenga. And Jenga is a completely visual experience.

7:18It does not require audio. So the story is progressing throughout the read. That's a really good point. And because it's Jenga, the more time that goes on, the higher the stakes are. the more blocks you pull, the closer it is to toppling over. And all of that is visual. So audio is not required in that part of the story. Ah, interesting. Right? Yeah. So he's like, okay, you don't need audio. This is an area where I can tell you about the shop app. You don't need audio, but you have to keep watching. But you need your eyes on the screen. You have to keep your eyes on the screen. So your ears are available.

7:51Whoa, that's so interesting. He's like, I've got your eyes, but now your ears just freed up. So let's talk about shop. That's the genius to start with. Whoa, dude, that's really good. Yeah, I hadn't thought about like my ears are available right now, but my eyes are progressing the story. Like I'm watching the story progress. That's really good. So he introduces the shop app and then immediately goes into showing someone playing Jenga. The shop app makes shopping extremely fun. From buying festival bars to e-bikes to whatever else you're interested in, it's super easy. I also think there's some genius right there of him talking about the fact that the first thing he mentions with the shop app is his own product that you're familiar with.

8:36So he personalizes the brand immediately and how it relates to his universe, which is the universe you're a part of. Definitely. It doesn't feel so foreign. It's like, oh, I get it. This is part of your universe. You always talk about Feastables, and now you just showed us that we could buy Feastables with this app. And then he goes from personalized to going beyond it and saying, you could also buy other things you like. Yeah. You know? Yeah, you could buy a bike. Which is smart because then he goes, he zooms it out and says, your life, you know, this is also relevant to the rest of your life.

9:07And when you're ready to buy, you can speed through checkout using ShopPay. It's not coming out. The ShopPay uses AI technology to scan hundreds of millions of products and recommend the ones best for you. You know what else is really impressive about this? It's not voiceover. He had to nail this. while they were filming the challenges. Because people are, and I think that's a really important piece. Like it's very much not only interwoven as like storytelling, but like he could have done this all voiceover while people are getting out. Yeah, or in a different setting. Or in a totally different setting to safeguard himself.

9:41But I think that's important to not take the audience out of the moment. Yeah. You know, sometimes we film our integrations in different outfits. And I think we have different opinions on that. I'm always like, I think we should be wearing the same outfit as we are in the rest of the video so that people feel like we're in one timeline. We're in one world. Yeah, I think our format is so different. It is. A podcast is very different. A podcast and a long-form interview is very different. We prioritize audio. Yeah, and the type of person who's listening and how they get their information from us and the level of trust that we have with them is very different from watching a visual experience.

10:18So I do think the mediums are very different. But yeah, I think like being inside of the world is really nice and really compelling here. I think what's fascinating to me is the long breaks between brand messaging for him to engage in the story. Yeah, sometimes I was like, wait, are we still talking about shop or have we returned? Yeah, because he just, he's referencing that he's nervous for some of the contestants they might get out. and he's like standing in the room about to deliver something about Chop but then focuses on the video and then turns and tells us more about Chop. Chop will even track all your packages at one place so you'll know exactly when each of them arrive.

10:58And remember, we're doing this until there are 10 people left. So he just said something about Chop and then he reminded us where we are in the challenge. Like it's, this is an art form. This is like an art form that as a creator, as much as you should write and focus on how creators are writing hooks and building their storylines. We should all be focused on how creators are integrating brands. I also think, you know, as a creator, if brand integrations are the majority of your business, you want to make them one of the best parts of the video, but that's really hard to do. And I would argue that this actually may be more interesting for an audience member to be dealing with two narratives at the same time, because this is unique for them as a viewer that now I'm tracking two narratives at once.

11:52If he just kept going with just the Jenga storyline, it feels very similar to the segment that came before, the segment that came before. So this offers a unique opportunity for the viewer to have an enhanced experience where they actually have to pay more attention than normal. Yes. Which is really interesting that perhaps this part of the video is better. Because of it. Because of it. Yeah, that's fascinating. But that is the work to really think about how to do that. Now, the last piece of this is that at the end of all of this, you have the opportunity to buy limited edition Mr. Beast merch on the shop app.

12:26And pieces of the set. And pieces of the set. Yeah. So that's like hyper relevant to this video, but also an opportunity for you to get your hands on the app. The ask is also really easy. You know, like download this app. that you probably want and need anyway because you buy a bunch of stuff. Aren't they selling the pieces for like nothing? Yeah, I think, I mean, they sold out within minutes. You know, when you have access to like what we talked about in the beginning, like the amount of people that are getting exposed to this in the first four hours is like, you know, 10 million people. That's like, you're going to sell out.

13:01But the concept is like, you're getting the product into the hands of people with a very simple and easy ask. It's a show don't tell approach, right? Yeah. that Shopify wants. Yeah. They don't want you to leave this video thinking, okay, I heard about shop. That's part of it. That's important. Yeah. But the best case scenario is they leave the video and now they have experience using the app. They've downloaded it. Exactly. They like it. They had a good experience. Yeah. It's a very impressive integration in a very impressive Mr. Beast video. And I think something that like us as creators, we talked about this in our brand deal one, but like we should all take pride in innovating in this space and really pushing the boundaries.

13:40And I think this concept of the interwoven integration is really hard, but back to something that we say in our office a lot is like, what makes it hard is what makes it good. It's what separates us from TV. Totally. You know, everything that's come before, it's completely new. Yeah, it's so interesting because on TV, when an ad plays, it's a signal for you to get up and go get like a drink or go to the bathroom, right? Like a commercial break is a signal for you to leave. Yeah, totally. And this is the opposite. It's like a signal for you to pay more attention. Well, it's, uh. In the way he did it.

14:13In the way that he did it. In the way he did it. It can also be a signal to skip. Right. Right. And that's kind of what you're trying to accomplish as a creator is how do I get the audience to enjoy this part of the video? Can it be better? Can it be better? Than without it. Yeah. I will also say that whoever was involved in the editing and the storytelling of this specific piece, uh, this was, this was one of, uh, Jimmy's videos that I watched where I deeply cared about who won at the end. Mm-hmm. Which was unique. And I felt emotion towards the people, the contestants. And they really did a good job of going, the beginning is going to move really, really fast.

14:49It's going to be dopamine release, dopamine release, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Once the middle hits and after the ad integration, it slows down. There's less contestants, which allows you to get into storylines. Like there's a storyline where the age group of the fifties like binds together, you know? And then there's a storyline of when they start getting into the Squid Game games, the marbles of different people. And then the guy's kids come, and he gets to spend his daughter's birthday. And then that's why he's there. And by the end, he's allowing for more deep connection, which is really smart.

15:25It's like a heartbeat line. If you're extremely rapid movements in the beginning and then slowing down the pace by the end, which is like your own experience with the video. If you've made it past the halfway mark, which is the average, right? Or a little bit more than halfway, which is 14 minutes, you're probably in it. And we've noticed that too with our long-form interviews. I mean, ours are, you know, in the hour, two-hour range. But if you make it past like 20, 30 minutes, you're kind of there. Yeah. And so we can slow down the pace a little bit because you're there to hang, which is fascinating.

15:59So this was one that I think is worth studying. Definitely. You know, and like, I really appreciate that he's innovating in all the areas. And ad integrations is an important way to integrate. You can also buy a published merch. True. In the shop app. That is true. Not that this is an integration, but just, you know, in playing around with the shop app, saw some of the reviews of our merch. Very kind. Thank you, everyone. Wow. Thank you, everyone who's reviewed our merch on the shop app. That was really cool. Okay. All right. Now, let's get into some questions from the Discord. Let's do it. This has to do with storytelling as well.

16:39Story versus authentic experience. Which to prioritize in editing. So I'm at the stage of the editing process where I have the entire project trimmed down to the basics. As I'm reviewing the whole project, I've realized that the third act is dragging a bit and that to tell a cohesive, concise story, I would need to get rid of some of the lighthearted moments that were part of my authentic experience in this act. I feel this is something we as creators run into often, especially with unscripted content. So I'm curious what everyone thinks. How do you go about prioritizing story and authentic experience?

17:12Do you have any processes or rules in place around these decisions, or do you make them based on gut feelings and experimentation with each individual story? This is a great question. My opinion is that you can totally alter the authentic experience to create the story you want to produce the feeling that you're trying to produce. Right? And we talked to Zach and Keith about this. And, you know, Keith says, you don't need to show everything when it happened. You need to show it when you need it to happen. Yeah, when it matters. Yeah, when it matters. Yeah. Yeah, I guess the question though, from how I'm interpreting it is like, there's moments in this unscripted experience that are fun and interesting, but don't progress the story.

17:54How do you, you know, We talked about this a lot when we used to work with the S theory too of like, sometimes there's really lighthearted moments, but how much of a detour can you take from a story for a fun moment? That's a bit of an internal gut check and a question you need to ask yourself about your brand. How much of your brand requires or do you want to require lighthearted moments, your personality? Is that important to what you're doing? Yeah. And I think we're being challenged quite a bit on the platform from an assumption perspective that personal storytelling is working on the platform.

18:33There's a rise of it. We talked about Colt Kerwin's video. I watched it this weekend with 10 friends who are unfamiliar with YouTube and they loved it. Wow. Loved it. Because they were asking me about like, what's the vibe on YouTube right now? And I was like, I think we're about to see a rise of like vlogging, but in a very artistic way. The young crop of like Gen Z creators has so much familiarity with storytelling and with like this personalization of content, but also grew up watching vlogs that this new wave is coming of progressing a story and adding in like your personality to it. I think Colt Kerman's video is a great example of that.

19:14We've been watching Life of RZA. And I think that's Colt's girlfriend. I think so. Yeah. So like she has really compelling personal content that's getting hundreds of thousands of views with thumbnails and titles that you don't think should work but do. So all of this to say, you know, I think if you like it, like if you like the character development of making something that made you laugh or something that was special to you, I think you should keep it in. Yeah, I think we're just seeing the reintroduction of relationship-based creators who are starting out relationship-based. Yes. Which is very unique because normally you look at an Emma Chamberlain, right, who reaches this scale and then can put out a video that you and I always talk about called You Totally Caught Me Making Soup.

20:01Right. There's no mass appeal to that title and thumbnail. It's not searchable. And YouTube is a search platform, right? And that's how the majority of us experience growth is like via search. Yes. We have creators who are now starting out being like, you know what? I'm not going for search. I'm actually starting out of the gate with connection. And that's really interesting to see that maybe it's not a million views per video, but even a hundred thousand. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. And it's really impactful. Yeah. And I think that we're moving in this direction. This will be something that comes up on the channel soon, but in this direction of like deeply personal versions of each platform, right?

20:40Meaning like my Instagram is different from your Instagram. My YouTube is different from your YouTube, which then in a sense means that my world is different from your world. And that means for creators that you have the opportunity to create a hyper-specific, hyper-personalized world for your community. It might mean that we all have smaller communities, but I think what that offers the opportunity is to have like a really tight-knit community. I mean, even some of the community that we're developing here, right, in our Discord or here on this channel, like it's very tight-knit. I wouldn't be surprised though if some of these younger creators over the next year or two develop really large communities.

21:20Yeah, that's true. Because I think it is 100 % in the best interest of YouTube, the platform, to have Gen Z creators who are proving that this can be a job. It can be something that's fulfilling and you can do it at a really grand scale that's aspirational. Because that's what TikTok did so well out of the gate, right? It was like highlight some creators and be like, hey, you can be successful here. This is what this looks like. That's true. But I think for many years, it seemed unattainable for new creators to really make it on YouTube in an impactful way. And that's bad for YouTube if that's the reality.

21:55Yeah. If the barrier to entry is high, then the automatic is go to TikTok or Instagram or Snapchat. Yeah. Now, you know, so if the barrier to entry becomes too high, people might not even try. Yeah. That's a good point. And the storytelling that they're doing is good and it's really unique. Yeah. Yeah. And it makes me want to come back to some of that. I told you over the weekend, I watched a old day in the life of Colin and Samir video. And I was like, that was so fun. What a cool framework. Like day in the life content is so fun and so interesting to paint the picture of like what your interactions look like, what your days look like.

22:31And that's on the rise right now. Getting back to the question, our day in the life video is not a fully authentic version of what happened that day. It's pretty close. Pretty close. Yeah. But number one, we knew we were filming it. So that alters some of what's happening. Yeah. And number two, we edit it. So things get cut out. You're not truly there in that moment. And we prioritize the story and the flow of that day. So yeah, it's a good point. There's a lot that was cut out of our Mr. Beast burger doc that there was some like, there was a moment where you and I try the burger. Yeah. That was kind of fun.

23:08And, but it dragged. And that was a decision we made that we felt like at that point in the story, you were following the story. And every time we watched it, us eating the burger took you out of the story too far. Yeah. But there was other moments that we left in that weren't necessary to the story, but were fun dynamics between you and I, um, that we kept in. So I think there's a healthy balance, but also we said this on the editing podcast, so I'm okay saying it now, but the end scene of that video, when Jimmy says, what'd you think? Right. That was not the last shot of the day. Right, right, right.

23:45That happened way earlier. Yeah. But it leaves you with a feeling. And we moved it there because it leaves you with a more interesting question and feeling if you think it happened at the end. Yeah. But we've, we've battled with this concept of like, how much personality do we keep in versus leave out when we're telling a story? Yeah. it's personal and it's also something to experiment with. You know, sometimes you get really self-conscious about leaving too much of yourself in because you're like, the story is why people are here, not me. But I think that's reestablishing what you want it to be.

24:16Do you want people to be there because of you and your personality? If so, then leave more in, right? And, and attract the people who want that. Don't attract the people who don't want that because if you authentically want that and you build an audience that doesn't want that, you're at odds with your audience. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And that's really important. All stuff that comes up in our Tim Ferriss interview. So I'm like very hot off of, you know, watching that in full yesterday. And I can't wait for that to come out on the main channel. All right. Very relevant question from Phil Hates Gluten.

24:47Also, Phil. What's wrong with gluten? Wow. Says, what does your average week look like? I know this will vary tremendously, but I'm always curious how others structure their weeks. I fly by the seat of my pants. most of the time, and it creates this feeling of not getting enough done, even though I probably have. I'm wanting a little bit more structure for my content creation, but I find that difficult because it's not like I feel funny or entertaining at the exact same time each day slash week to conceptualize ideas. Wondering if any other creators have a solid or loose weekly schedule that has helped them and if they'd be willing to share.