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

Trendingnow

1

'We didn’t see this coming': Wall Street eats its forecasts as stocks sell off globally on fear of AI bubble ahead of SpaceX IPO

2

Gen Zers are arriving at college unable to even read a sentence—professors warn it could lead to a generation of anxious and lonely graduates

3

Trump, who has repeatedly called climate change fake, is now threatening Brazil with tariffs over the deforestation of the Amazon

1

'We didn’t see this coming': Wall Street eats its forecasts as stocks sell off globally on fear of AI bubble ahead of SpaceX IPO

2

Gen Zers are arriving at college unable to even read a sentence—professors warn it could lead to a generation of anxious and lonely graduates

3

Trump, who has repeatedly called climate change fake, is now threatening Brazil with tariffs over the deforestation of the Amazon
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

Brian Schimpf gestures with both hands as he speaks on stage.
Startups & VentureBrainstorm Tech
Anduril CEO Brian Schimpf says economic warfare is the ‘new normal’ for military conflicts—and the U.S. needs to get serious
By Lily Mae LazarusJune 8, 2026
8 hours ago
Pentagon accuses Alibaba, Baidu and BYD, three of China’s biggest companies, of supporting the Chinese military
AsiaAlibaba Group
Pentagon accuses Alibaba, Baidu and BYD, three of China’s biggest companies, of supporting the Chinese military
By Kate O'Keeffe and BloombergJune 8, 2026
9 hours ago
Twitch CEO: Social media has become ‘antisocial’ and can’t match the shared, human connection of livestreaming
Big TechBrainstorm Tech
Twitch CEO: Social media has become ‘antisocial’ and can’t match the shared, human connection of livestreaming
By Sebastian HerreraJune 8, 2026
9 hours ago
Two men sitting on chairs on a stage
Future of WorkBrainstorm Tech
Your career needs a ‘gym membership’ to keep up with continuous AI advancements, says Campus founder Tade Oyerinde
By Amanda GerutJune 8, 2026
9 hours ago
ChatGPT maker OpenAI confidentially files for IPO, a week after Anthropic
Startups & VentureOpenAI
ChatGPT maker OpenAI confidentially files for IPO, a week after Anthropic
By Bloomberg, Shirin Ghaffary and Bailey LipschultzJune 8, 2026
10 hours ago
Anthropic’s Boris Cherny, creator of Claude Code, says there are days he manages tens of thousands of AI agents at once
AIBrainstorm Tech
Anthropic’s Boris Cherny, creator of Claude Code, says there are days he manages tens of thousands of AI agents at once
By Sharon GoldmanJune 8, 2026
11 hours ago

Most Popular

'We didn’t see this coming': Wall Street eats its forecasts as stocks sell off globally on fear of AI bubble ahead of SpaceX IPO
Economy
'We didn’t see this coming': Wall Street eats its forecasts as stocks sell off globally on fear of AI bubble ahead of SpaceX IPO
By Jim EdwardsJune 8, 2026
22 hours ago
Gen Zers are arriving at college unable to even read a sentence—professors warn it could lead to a generation of anxious and lonely graduates
Success
Gen Zers are arriving at college unable to even read a sentence—professors warn it could lead to a generation of anxious and lonely graduates
By Preston ForeJune 7, 2026
2 days ago
Trump, who has repeatedly called climate change fake, is now threatening Brazil with tariffs over the deforestation of the Amazon
Environment
Trump, who has repeatedly called climate change fake, is now threatening Brazil with tariffs over the deforestation of the Amazon
By Sasha RogelbergJune 8, 2026
12 hours ago
Current price of oil as of June 8, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of June 8, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 8, 2026
19 hours ago
'The golden years are not golden': Boomers are hoarding most of America's wealth and power because they're terrified of outliving their money
Economy
'The golden years are not golden': Boomers are hoarding most of America's wealth and power because they're terrified of outliving their money
By Nick LichtenbergJune 7, 2026
2 days ago
Current price of silver as of Monday, June 8, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Monday, June 8, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 8, 2026
19 hours 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.