Power of Networking: Study on Mutual Cameos ^†

Abstract

YouTube is Google’s most successful video streaming platform. As a medium, it creates a low-cost and highly flexible personal channel. YouTubers are part of a popular emerging industry. Each YouTuber’s channel shows its characteristics. YouTubers occasionally collaborate with other YouTubers to shoot. Such a commercial cooperation is called a “Cameo (Feat)”. In this study, we explored the cameo effect of guest appearances using the promoter score (likes plus dislikes) and net promoter score (likes minus dislikes). We gathered data in the form of videos from the top 100 YouTubers. The results show that the number of views increased by 63.4%, the number of likes increased by 62.2%, the number of dislikes increased by 67.8%, and the number of comments increased by 36.0%. Overall, the promoter score increased by 62.4%, and the net promoter score increased by 61.9%.

1. Introduction

Founded in 2005, YouTube is a video-sharing website from the United States that allows users to upload, watch, share, and comment on videos. Its founding concept was originally to facilitate the sharing of video clips among friends, and it later evolved into a place for users to publish and share their works. Since 2011, YouTube has approached the channel of mainstream media and has become an emerging industry. YouTubers are like celebrities and have their own fans and followers. When the number of fans and followers increases, these YouTubers become public figures, and fans also change their consumption, behaviors, and habits because of idol worship [1].

In this study, the Internet thermometer of YouTuber rankings is used. The YouTuber category is divided into the top 100 YouTubers were selected based on the magnitude of internet traffic they generate and their significant positive impact. We selected the top 100 YouTubers based on the volume of Internet traffic as the research object. With their visibility, the influence of the volume of Internet traffic is determined.

A brand alliance is a marketing strategy in which two or more established brands are jointly presented to consumers [2]. Cameos have become prevalent phenomena within the current landscape of YouTubers. The commercial term is a “joint name”, which brings different influences, such as a mutual influence between brands or the influence of popularity. Commercial co-branding cooperation is also explored in this study from the perspective of the YouTuber, applying it to the interaction effect of inter-YouTuber collaboration, this study proposes the following two research questions for investigation:

(1)

Whether the guest’s appearance affects the YouTuber’s various indicators and promotion.

(2)

What is the impact of the cameo appearance on the promoter score?

2. Literature Review

2.1. Development Status and Trend of YouTube

YouTube is the world’s first online video and audio platform, and it allows users to upload, watch, share, and comment on videos [3]. The YouTube platform was created to facilitate the sharing of video clips among friends, and it later evolved into a place for users to publish and share their works. On the YouTube platform, uploading videos has become a profession. From a single instance of sharing life with friends, a variety of video have developed to be shared with the world, transcending country-to-country restrictions, narrowing the distance between people from all over the world, and bringing different business opportunities. So far, YouTube is still the most used online video and audio platform in the world, with an average of 720,000 h of video uploads per day and 250 million views per day. This only counts the number of views on a TV screen, excluding mobile phones, computers, and other electronic products. Judging from the above data, global users rely on the YouTube platform to a high degree. In 2018, YouTube crashed for an hour, and some people reported the case. YouTube has become inseparable from people.

2.2. Types of YouTubers

According to the KOL Radar [1], YouTuber types are classified into 29 categories: life, unpacking, dressing, beauty, 3C, games, sports, parent–child, pets, feelings, constellations, travel, food, imitation, funny, magic, dance, music, photography, film, calligraphy, illustration, cosplay, medical care, finance and economics, law, education, language teaching, and image management. Compared with traditional TV stations, Taiwanese YouTubers are popular among audiences, and more groups have shifted their traditional cable-TV-viewing habits to YouTube in the Internet age. Every YouTuber has a set of business models. The most important factor for the operation of a successful channel is the number of audiences. Similar to the STP strategy in marketing analysis, market segmentation is necessary to determine the target group. The most important factor is positioning the channel. We divide YouTube’s operating mode into the following aspects [4]:

• Relevancy to people: It is very important to have a constant and fixed frequency of uploading videos. This is also a tacit understanding of subscribers. With this tacit understanding, fans habitually reply to videos. Such an interaction is an excellent way to maintain fans.
• Set of Keywords: Keywords make it easier for consumers to search for videos.
• Therefore, it is imperative to comprehend the discourse employed by the primary target demographic, time-critical subjects, or undisclosed phenomena, and incorporate high-ranking search outcomes. The volume of hashtags in videos increases the probability of the video being searched.
• Partners: When the popularity of a YouTuber increases, their guest invitations increase. At this time, encountering “pig teammates” must be avoided. To make an appealing video, fans must feel the “accompanying text” but maintain a high-quality channel image. In videos, rules must be set so that the audience can pay the bill.

2.3. Video Contents

• Length of the video: When a video is longer than six or seven minutes, or if the video duration exceeds ten minutes while containing abundant content, it becomes exceedingly challenging to sustain the audience’s attention, resulting in eventual video skipping. Video planning: Although the YouTuber’s “intent” cannot be seen or touched by the audience, it cannot be neglected. From script design and shooting props and scenes to the final editing process, YouTubers need to prepare carefully. There must be a bitter process behind success. Only by doing an excellent job on a video can it truly impress the hearts of the audience and become a draw to attract potential fans.
• Improve interaction: Youtubers’ revenues come from data such as the numbers of views and clicks. In short, it is a variable income. At this time, resources must be integrated. When a YouTuber becomes a commodity, the most important step for them is to increase the exposure rate of their product. In terms of online platforms, Facebook fans, Instagram, or Snapchat are used. Through these platforms, different customer groups can be reached to receive different responses. At the same time, it is important to improve the quality of the channel to increase the number of followers.
• Image thumbnails: Each video has a small thumbnail. This thumbnail is one of the audience’s first impressions of the video. It is necessary to spend more time on the thumbnail, color matching, layout, and so on.

2.4. How to Improve Videos

Establishing a good word-of-mouth effect leads to positive communication. We conduct an analysis, taking into account the following three viewpoints:

• Partners must be carefully chosen to reach different YouTubers categories and cooperate, triggering different degrees of discussion and creating new topics.
• Channel thumbnails must be eye-catching so that the audience clicks on them, and the title must be topical and explosive to increase exposure.
• The video must not be too long. The beginning is the most important, and a concise and powerful film can help the audience stay focused.

To build a reputation and foster positive engagement, it is essential to generate topics that encompass novel and intriguing subjects or reference contemporary events. As long as the content is sufficiently appealing, it will resonate with the audience, resulting in high traffic volume and aiding the individual in attaining influential status as a YouTuber [5].

2.5. Cameo Effect

A brand alliance is a commercial marketing method through which two or more brands conduct cross-industry cooperation, combine the advantages of both parties, and jointly launch products, thereby attracting consumer groups from different fields. Through this cooperation model, customers of different brands and consumer groups in different fields can reach another unfamiliar brand. The use of the synergistic effect of co-branding creates greater benefits. This is similar to YouTube’s cameo videos. They cooperating with each other, thus reaching greater audiences, bringing a novel sense of freshness, increasing the audience’s attention and attracting fans [2].

3. Research Results and Analysis

The top 100 YouTubers collected are classified, and their cameo effects are discussed. The classification method is as follows: the top 100 YouTubers are divided into two groups. The groups distinguish those with cameos and those without cameos. The non-cameo objects serve as the reference value for comparing the effects between the two. The number of likes and the number of no-likes in each combination are added and subtracted to further judge the promotion efficiency. By utilizing the non-cameo object data as a baseline, a comparative analysis is conducted to assess the effects of the cameo object data.

With cameos, the number of views increased by 63.4%, and the number of likes increased by 62.2% (

Table 1. Guest appearances for top 100 YouTubers.

Feat or Not	Views	Likes	Dislikes	Comments
No feat (Base)	226,321	3971	177	550
Feat	369,720 (+63.4%)	6439 (+62.2%)	297 (+67.8%)	748 (+36%)

). The number of downvotes increased by 67.8%, and the number of comments increased by 36%. Mutual guest appearances improved all YouTuber indicators with positive effects. At the same time, the number of downvotes also increased, and the increase was greater than the number of likes. Therefore, the theme of the video affected the response in addition to with cameos.

YouTubers with cameo objects had a positive impact on various indicators. The number of views increased due to the cameos, indicating that the cameos successfully attracted the attention of the audience and expanded the original audience group. Topicality also increased, and the number of comments increased. Not only did the original audience group leave messages but the audience of the guest audience also left messages because of the guest. The effect of guest appearances was important, but the numbers of likes and downvotes fluctuated greatly, changing the benefits of cooperation.

Table 2. Degree of promotion of cameo effect.

Feat or Not	Promoter Score (Likes Plus Dislikes)	Net Promoter Score (Likes Minus Dislikes)
No feat (Base)	226,321	3971
Feat	369,720 (+63.4%)	6439 (+62.2%)

shows the effect without cameos. The promoter score increased by 62.4%, and the net promoter score increased by 61.9%. The comparison results show that both the promoter score and the net promoter score increased significantly. Cameos increased the discussion of the video. A positive correlation exists between the relative attention and audience interest, indicating that higher relative attention levels have a greater impact.

Combining the comparison results of Table 1 and Table 2, it is confirmed that guest appearances had a multiplicative effect on all data, creating a synergistic effect. Thus, YouTubers can use guest appearances to increase their audiences. Cameos affect the increase in audience but have a negative effect. The most critical factor is the choice of the topic.

4. Conclusions

We found that the cameos have a significant effect. YouTubers use each other’s unique styles to create unconventional video content to reach out to each other’s fans and attract more people to subscribe and watch and for increased success. The audience’s attention can be drawn for a positive impact and to improve various indicators, although the number of downvotes also increases due to the influence of the cameo. However, it increases the promoter score. The cameo effect is the benefit brought about by co-branding. By combining one’s brand with an unfamiliar brand, more novel and eye-catching products can be created by stimulating the consumers’ interest in co-branded products. With a brand loyalist, this cooperation model creates a synergy.

This research shows that the data can objectively reflect the general preferences of the masses but cannot subjectively express the personality traits of YouTubers. No matter how the data changes, the “cameo” is an indispensable tool for YouTubers. Cameos are one of the trends in YouTube video creation these days as YouTubers influence each other’s channels and popularity. At the same time, the interaction between YouTubers and the audience is relatively important, and everyone wants the audience to continue watching the next video. In the present context, audiences seek novelty and change, making any form of collaboration and modification beneficial in attracting viewers. Cameos are generally helpful for YouTubers, but cameos must be chosen according to the different goals pursued by individuals rather than applying the same method to everyone. To maximize the benefits, it is necessary to understand positioning and reality and to tailor the content after evaluation.