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

Exclusive

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief: Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief: Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief: Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief: Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief: Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief: Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief: Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief: Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief: Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief: Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

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

Svenja Gudell, Chief Economist, Indeed
SuccessFortune Workplace Innovation
Indeed chief economist says the sectors most exposed to AI are seeing a big growth in job demand
By Emma BurleighMay 19, 2026
8 minutes ago
A Pizza Hut workers prepares an order for delivery.
LawFood and drink
Pizza Hut franchisee claims $100 million losses from ‘cascading operational breakdowns’ in AI adoption gone wrong
By Sasha RogelbergMay 19, 2026
43 minutes ago
Santora gestures towards himself
Future of WorkGen Z
WeWork and Upwork CEOs confirm the Gen Z hiring nightmare is real—but it’s nothing new
By Jacqueline MunisMay 19, 2026
2 hours ago
U.S. President Donald Trump speaking at a podium flanked by signs that say "Winning the AI Race."
NewslettersEye on AI
The times they are a-changin’: Washington suddenly warms to regulating AI
By Jeremy KahnMay 19, 2026
2 hours ago
traffic
Future of WorkJobs
Goldman Sachs: The U.S. labor market is healthier now than when ChatGPT launched. Yes, really
By Nick LichtenbergMay 19, 2026
3 hours ago
Photo of Andrej Karpathy
AIAnthropic
Andrej Karpathy, OpenAI founding member and inventor of ‘vibe coding,’ defects to Anthropic
By Eva RoytburgMay 19, 2026
3 hours ago

Most Popular

While Trump insisted the Iran war would end ‘soon,’ an account in his name was buying millions in oil, defense and gold
Economy
While Trump insisted the Iran war would end ‘soon,’ an account in his name was buying millions in oil, defense and gold
By Eva RoytburgMay 18, 2026
1 day ago
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
Politics
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
By Jake AngeloMay 12, 2026
7 days ago
Current price of oil as of May 18, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of May 18, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerMay 18, 2026
1 day ago
EXCLUSIVE: An hour in the Oval Office with the CEO-in-Chief, President Trump
Politics
EXCLUSIVE: An hour in the Oval Office with the CEO-in-Chief, President Trump
By Alyson ShontellMay 18, 2026
2 days ago
Current price of silver as of Monday, May 18, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Monday, May 18, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerMay 18, 2026
1 day ago
Spirit Airlines apologizes to all the Americans who can't afford any summer vacation flights as it shuts down
Travel & Leisure
Spirit Airlines apologizes to all the Americans who can't afford any summer vacation flights as it shuts down
By Rio Yamat and The Associated PressMay 18, 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.