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

Trendingnow

1

Current price of oil as of June 17, 2026

2

The affordability crisis is so bad that, for the first time ever, both mom and dad are working full-time in most American families

3

'Work hard, stay loyal, and the system will reward you': the Boomer credo is a Gen X betrayal and a Millennial pipe dream

1

Current price of oil as of June 17, 2026

2

The affordability crisis is so bad that, for the first time ever, both mom and dad are working full-time in most American families

3

'Work hard, stay loyal, and the system will reward you': the Boomer credo is a Gen X betrayal and a Millennial pipe dream
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
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

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
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

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

A $5.6 billion valuation and rapid global expansion—this AI European-scaler even threw in a free Jude Law 
EuropeLetter from London
A $5.6 billion valuation and rapid global expansion—this AI European-scaler even threw in a free Jude Law 
By Kamal AhmedJune 18, 2026
2 hours ago
Whatnot is worth $11.5 billion—and its sellers just hit one billion orders
NewslettersTerm Sheet
Whatnot is worth $11.5 billion—and its sellers just hit one billion orders
By Allie GarfinkleJune 18, 2026
2 hours ago
A wave of CFO retirements is reshaping the Fortune 500—AT&T’s Pascal Desroches is the latest
AICFO Daily
A wave of CFO retirements is reshaping the Fortune 500—AT&T’s Pascal Desroches is the latest
By Sheryl EstradaJune 18, 2026
3 hours ago
France's President Emmanuel Macron (center) with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff (left) and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei (right) at a working lunch meeting at the G7 summit in Evian, France, on June 17, 2026.(Photo: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images)
NewslettersFortune Tech
AI chiefs call for regulation collaboration at the G7 summit
By Andrew NuscaJune 18, 2026
3 hours ago
Anne Hathaway says she was spammed with ChatGPT-written thank you notes after hiring a recent role: ‘Nobody on that list gets that job’
SuccessThe Interview Playbook
Anne Hathaway says she was spammed with ChatGPT-written thank you notes after hiring a recent role: ‘Nobody on that list gets that job’
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJune 18, 2026
5 hours ago
Rbotic arm is gripping a CPU inside of a circuit board factory.
InnovationEurope's Most Innovative Companies
Inside Europe’s most innovative companies
By Sam BirchallJune 18, 2026
8 hours ago

Most Popular

Current price of oil as of June 17, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of June 17, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 17, 2026
23 hours ago
The affordability crisis is so bad that, for the first time ever, both mom and dad are working full-time in most American families
Economy
The affordability crisis is so bad that, for the first time ever, both mom and dad are working full-time in most American families
By Jacqueline MunisJune 17, 2026
16 hours ago
'Work hard, stay loyal, and the system will reward you': the Boomer credo is a Gen X betrayal and a Millennial pipe dream
Success
'Work hard, stay loyal, and the system will reward you': the Boomer credo is a Gen X betrayal and a Millennial pipe dream
By Nick LichtenbergJune 16, 2026
2 days ago
Exclusive: Universal beat Disney as Hollywood's maker of the most expensive movie of all time 
Arts & Entertainment
Exclusive: Universal beat Disney as Hollywood's maker of the most expensive movie of all time 
By Christian SyltJune 17, 2026
1 day ago
Hundreds of Stanford students walked out of their grad ceremony to protest Google CEO’s commencement speech. It wasn’t all about AI
Big Tech
Hundreds of Stanford students walked out of their grad ceremony to protest Google CEO’s commencement speech. It wasn’t all about AI
By Tristan BoveJune 15, 2026
3 days ago
Current price of silver as of Wednesday, June 17, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Wednesday, June 17, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 17, 2026
24 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.