Meet YouTube's Most In-Demand Brand Stars

SAN FRANCISCO (AdAge.com) -- Once upon a time, YouTube was considered the Wild West -- its so-called "stars" more likely to produce cringe-worthy performances than to displace the pitch-men and -women of traditional media. But now big-time brands like Lancome, McDonald's, Ford and Kellogg's are trusting YouTube celebs with their money and reputations. "The reason we turned to them is because they have a valid voice in their community, and people trust what they say and what they think," said Scott Monty, head of social media for Ford Motors. They've got trust and, it turns out, engagement. "What these YouTubers have proven is that they have engaged viewers -- they comment, they talk on the YouTuber's Facebook page, on Twitter. The brands want millions of views, but they also want engaged viewers," said Caroline Giegerich, director of innovation at Initiative, which was one of the first agencies to run a successful YouTube stars campaign with Carl Jr's. "If they're engaged with the stars, clearly they are engaged with the brand ... it means someone is not just seeing an ad and forgetting about it." In the beginning, neither the brands nor the YouTubers themselves had much of an idea how much they were worth. But the price of hiring a YouTube celebrity to pitch a product is now comparable to hiring a B- or C-level Hollywood celeb. Ryan Higa publicly lists his starting rate as $75,000 per appearance, a fraction of what someone like Paris Hilton charged for her Carl's Jr. commercial. Some, like Joe Penna, a.k.a. MysteryGuitarMan, feel as comfortable pitching themselves to brands as they do their audiences. "I get millions of hits, and I know my demographic -- I know what kind of video will be in line with my channel," Mr. Penna, a 23-year-old former pre-med student, said. "The best thing the brands can do is come to me with a blank slate and ask me, 'What can you do with this product for us?'" Ad Age teamed up with TubeMogul to find the stars racking up the views. CHARLES TRIPPY CONTENT: Daily life vlogs with his fiance. VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 159,489,749 BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 2,122,380 BRANDS: Gillette, Google, Xacti Passion DUDEPERFECT CONTENT: Impossible basketball shots VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 27,712,318 BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 3,241,856 (top campaign for GMC snagged 1,917,028 views) BRANDS:GMC, NBA (Sacramento Kings) FRED WHAT HE MAKES: Videos in which he pretends to be a child in a dysfunctional family with an alcoholic mother CONTENT: Screechy voice, occasional meltdowns VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 585,136,315 BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 101,698,863 (includes promos for films and his own merchandise) BRANDS:20th-Century Fox, Hot Topic, Nickelodeon, Taptivate IJUSTINE CONTENT: Techie girl vlog VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 171,403,990 BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 7,408,587 (top campaign was GE, with 1,913,481 views) BRANDS:AT&T, Fox, GE, Intel, Mattel, Nikon, Mozy, MTV, Carl's Jr. and Dick Clark Productions MICHAELBUCKLEY CONTENT: Celebrity memes/gossip VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 261,715,708 BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 4,370,345 (top campaign was for Fox's Teen Choice, with 865,885 views) BRANDS:ABC Family, BabelGum, 20th Century Fox, Discovery Networks, Fox television, Nickelodeon, OpenFilms, PriceDoc, Pepsi MICHELLE PHAN CONTENT: Cosmetics tutorials VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 221,989,434 BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 22,095,935 (of which Lancome Paris represents 12,234,338) BRANDS:Colgate, Lancome Paris, PriceDoc, Sandisk, Verizon MYSTERYGUITARMAN CONTENT: Music videos and clever mash-ups of himself in his apartment in front of the camera VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 138,614,194 BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 5,125,862 (top campaign is for Microsoft, with 8 million-plus views) BRANDS:Garnier, Pop Tarts, Microsoft, McDonald's, Coca-Cola NIGAHIGA CONTENT: Comedy, short films, parody videos, "rants," how-to comedy videos ("How to Be a Gangster"), advertising spoofs VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 546,333,874 BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 13,405,781 BRANDS:Google, Carl's Jr. RHETT & LINK CONTENT: Humor that's actually funny; not as viral but high-quality videos like "Facebook Song," and "T-Shirt War"; actual commercials VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 66,294,209 BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 25,093,462 (top brand campaign was Microbilt, with 9,986,225 views) BRANDS: Alka-Selzer, AJJCornhole (not a joke), Baby Ruth, Coca-Cola, Dentyne, GM, McDonald's, Spy Associates, Taco Bell, Microbilt SHAYCARL CONTENT: Family vlogs VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 250,954,220 BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 5,725,254 BRANDS: AT&T, A1, Google, Kia, Kodak, Sanyo, Footlocker SMOSH CONTENT: Sophomoric teen humor; video games VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 465,534,527 BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 12,310,844 (top brand campaign was GE, with 4,717,047 views) BRANDS: Carl's Jr., GE, Google (Nexus One), Kia, Nintendo, Puma VENETIAN PRINCESS CONTENT: Parodies of popular music videos VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 258,098,945 BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 1,697,996 (top campaign, for Pop Tarts, notched 1,562,269 views) BRANDS: Pop Tarts, Samsung WHEEZYWAITER VIEWS (ALL-TIME): 13,350,225 BRAND VIDEO VIEWS: 290,145 BRANDS: Ford

Meet YouTube's Most In-Demand Brand Stars

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