Shift to mobile on YouTube is ‘hostile’ for filmmakers: YouTube star TomSka
The shift from web to mobile consumption on YouTube is turning the platform into a “hostile” place for filmmakers as viewers miss out on the intricate details of the content, according to YouTube star Thomas ‘TomSka’ Ridgewell.
Speaking at Advertising Week Europe alongside filmmaker and comedian Richard Ayoade, Ridgewell, who has almost 3.5 million subscribers on YouTube, voiced concerns that audiences are increasingly turning to their mobile phones to access YouTube content.
“YouTube is not just a TV channel it’s a whole medium,” he said. “There is every genre of entertainment on YouTube and the way it is evolving, it’s becoming a little hostile for filmmakers because people are watching this content on mobile.
“The mobile phone isn’t a place to watch a film. On mobile you can watch very straight forward content, something that you don’t need a full sensory experience to enjoy. Even with the stuff I do [short-form sketches] if people watch it on mobile they miss a lot of stuff; they miss the sound design and the music and that’s quite sad.”
Discussing the ability of the advertising industry to move away from traditional formats, Dave Bedwood creative director at M&C Saatchi said it is “weird and alarming” that advertising hasn’t embraced the advancements around it.
“Good thinking has always been about what is weird and alarming and what's hard to understand is why there is so much rubbish about in advertising considering the conditions for creativity are better than they ever have been.”
Referring to YouTube talent Bedwood added that whereas filmmakers on the platform are creating content that people want to search out, advertising is actually “getting in the way of that”.
“Your competition isn’t other adverts its content and that’s a tall order. So if that’s the challenge why isn’t there more stuff that is as good?” he added.
During the panel session Ridgwell moved on to the future of YouTube and predicted that a “supernova” will take place as audiences become ever increasingly savvy to advertisers on that platform, which is leading creators to become ever more “self-referential or satirical”.
“YouTube is so hyperactive that’s its breeding a generation of super-aware audiences and people are so aware of advertising that seemingly the only way to get attention is to be self referential or satirical,” he said.
“There is going to be a supernova… I feel like traditional things on YouTube are imploding and something new is going to have to explode out of it before everything just becomes essentially satire. So I think new genres are popping up all the time but what they will look like I don’t know.”
Ridgewell features in YouTube's newly released documentary The Creators which charts the rise of the new breed of online celebrities. The Drum hosted the UK premiere of the film earlier this month.