• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Ohio city workers are covering automated license plate readers with trash bags as officials sound the alarm on 'egregious violations' of privacy

2

10,000 Boomers a day, $39 trillion in debt, and no benefit cuts: Bessent stakes Social Security on the Trump economy

3

AI CEOs from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft set aside their rivalry to warn Congress AI is making it too easy to design and create bioweapons

1

Ohio city workers are covering automated license plate readers with trash bags as officials sound the alarm on 'egregious violations' of privacy

2

10,000 Boomers a day, $39 trillion in debt, and no benefit cuts: Bessent stakes Social Security on the Trump economy

3

AI CEOs from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft set aside their rivalry to warn Congress AI is making it too easy to design and create bioweapons
TechYouTube

How YouTube Is Cashing In On Its Weirdest, Wildest Niche Communities

By
Erin Griffith
Erin Griffith
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Erin Griffith
Erin Griffith
Down Arrow Button Icon
April 18, 2016, 9:00 AM ET
Google Presents YouTube Brandcast - Digital Content NewFront
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 30: CEO of YouTube Susan Wojcicki speaks on stage at Google presents YouTube Brandcast event at The Theater at Madison Square Garden on April 30, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)Taylor Hill—FilmMagic via Getty Images

Since it launched more than a decade ago, YouTube has been home to all manner of esoteric, highly specific video. Toy unboxing videos come to mind, or the can’t-look-away medical horrors of Dr. Pimple Popper.

Increasingly, YouTube (GOOG) has been pushing advertisers to take advantage of these niche categories. With one billion users, YouTube has more scale than any pure-play video platform in the market. But the fast rise of Facebook’s video operations has created competition. Facebook (FB) has a big advantage in the amount and types of data it has on each user, meaning it can create highly specific audiences for advertisers to target.

That’s why YouTube likes to promote its creators and their channels. To target based on the actual content of the videos, YouTube relies on third-party companies like Zefr, a Los Angeles ad-tech startup. Advertisers are eager to target niche communities, according to Dave Rosner, Zefr’s executive vice president of marketing.

There are 1,679 YouTube videos about food coloring and people watch them an estimated 1.2 million times a day. There are more than 53,000 nail art videos with 1.5 million daily views and 315,000 “outfit of the day” videos with 2.5 million daily views. YouTube boasts more than 19,000 BASE jumping videos (where a person parachutes off of something) and they’ve been viewed nearly 600,000 times, according to Zefr.

Subscribe to Data Sheet, Fortune’s tech newsletter.

That’s how CoverGirl (PG) is targeting Star Wars fans with makeup tutorials and Toyota (TM) is targeting outdoor enthusiasts with volcano hopping videos.

Carat, a media agency that works with Fortune 500 companies, identified style videos that contained a quality of “French flair” to advertise for the Macy’s women’s apparel brand Maison Jules. (They also “conquested,” a term for advertising against your competitors, alongside videos about J. Crew and Madewell.)

It worked, according to Justine Bloom, an executive vice president at the company. “The data shows when we get to that level of specificity you see all sorts of lift in brand lift, intention to purchase, and consideration of the brand,” she says.

Carat client Adidas (ADDYY) has used YouTube to target obsessive “sneakerheads” who watch tons of unboxing videos, where people record themselves taking new purchases out of the box for the first time. “They think about [the Adidas brand] differently than a basketball fanatic,” Bloom says. “We segment consumers into attitudinal, mindset-based communities and align our creative with the passion and the context.” That works better than the default target demographic of “boys, age 14 to 20,” she adds.

For more on YouTube, watch:

An obvious place for advertisers to go big on niche markets is autos. Viewers watch 2.6 million “drifting” videos a day, for example. “It’s mind-blowing because the community is so big and it’s mostly uncharted,” Zefr’s Rosner says. “The ability to find that relevancy with this level of granularity is new. [Advertisers] aren’t used to being able to slice and dice those audiences and tap into those communities at scale”

YouTube is touting these micro-communities ahead of the NewFronts, a series of advertising sales events held in New York each spring. At YouTube’s 2015 NewFront presentation, CEO Susan Wojcicki highlighted YouTube’s homegrown stars and “Google Preferred,” its program that identifies the best YouTube creators and sells premium ads alongside their videos.

Even with increased competition from Facebook and Snapchat, YouTube’s biggest selling point echoes that of parent company Google: It has intent. “You go onto YouTube because you’re looking for something, like how to fix a toilet, or a tour of the next Ferrari, or an unboxing of a Louis Vuitton handbag,” Rosner says. “You check into Facebook to lean back and have everything your friends are collecting wash over you.”

About the Author
By Erin Griffith
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

jack
PoliticsElections
A Kennedy, Kellyanne Conway’s ex-husband and a former Palantir data scientist debated AI regulation. Welcome to the Manhattan primary
By Anthony Izaguirre and The Associated PressJune 5, 2026
23 minutes ago
Elon Musk holding a glass of wine.
BankingSpaceX
Jamie Dimon called Elon Musk the ‘Edison of our time’ as JPMorgan hosted SpaceX’s $75 billion IPO roadshow—and even invited Musk’s mom
By Tristan BoveJune 5, 2026
1 hour ago
boss
Future of WorkProductivity
AI productivity gains are real but so is bad management: ‘Leaders are really struggling to articulate what the vision and strategy is’
By Sasha RogelbergJune 5, 2026
1 hour ago
cma
AIGoogle
Google forced to allow news sites to opt out of AI scraping in ‘world first,’ UK watchdog says
By Kelvin Chan and The Associated PressJune 5, 2026
2 hours ago
broker
EconomyU.S. jobs report
3 warnings from analysts on the truth lurking beneath the ‘barnburner’ jobs report — and why America’s AI hiring crisis is far from over
By Nick LichtenbergJune 5, 2026
3 hours ago
Melinda French Gates is done waiting for health care to take menopause seriously
MPWMost Powerful Women
Melinda French Gates is done waiting for health care to take menopause seriously
By Emma HinchliffeJune 5, 2026
3 hours ago

Most Popular

Ohio city workers are covering automated license plate readers with trash bags as officials sound the alarm on 'egregious violations' of privacy
Cybersecurity
Ohio city workers are covering automated license plate readers with trash bags as officials sound the alarm on 'egregious violations' of privacy
By Sasha RogelbergJune 3, 2026
2 days ago
10,000 Boomers a day, $39 trillion in debt, and no benefit cuts: Bessent stakes Social Security on the Trump economy
Economy
10,000 Boomers a day, $39 trillion in debt, and no benefit cuts: Bessent stakes Social Security on the Trump economy
By Nick LichtenbergJune 4, 2026
1 day ago
AI CEOs from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft set aside their rivalry to warn Congress AI is making it too easy to design and create bioweapons
AI
AI CEOs from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft set aside their rivalry to warn Congress AI is making it too easy to design and create bioweapons
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJune 5, 2026
10 hours ago
A single new sentence in SpaceX's amended IPO filing could signal the biggest merger in history
Startups & Venture
A single new sentence in SpaceX's amended IPO filing could signal the biggest merger in history
By Shawn TullyJune 4, 2026
1 day ago
Current price of oil as of June 4, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of June 4, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 4, 2026
1 day ago
CEO says anyone who works from home is grabbing groceries or at the vet 30% of the time—and shows off his busy office at Friday 5 p.m. to prove it
Success
CEO says anyone who works from home is grabbing groceries or at the vet 30% of the time—and shows off his busy office at Friday 5 p.m. to prove it
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJune 4, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.