In October of 2018, Shorr Packaging conducted an analysis of more than 1,500 YouTube user channels to learn more about the growing impact of YouTube influencer marketing. YouTube influencer marketing is a growing market in the United States and across the world where adults and kids are making millions of dollars by recording videos of themselves as they open up boxes and play with toys. It sound too good to be true, but the truth of the matter is many people are doing it!
Q3 hedge fund letters, conference, scoops etc
The report from Shorr Packaging focuses on the activities of social media influencers who use YouTube to promote both “unboxing videos” and “haul videos”. For those that are not familiar with these terms, a Haul video is a video in which a person discusses a number of products that they’ve purchased, typically at once and is more commonly known as a haul. An unboxing video is a bit more common. An unboxing video is a video in which a person opens a package with a product in it, then reviews it and uses the product in the video. This is commonly seen when new phones and new personal technology products come out so that consumers can become familiar with them before they purchase the product itself.
In October of 2018, Shorr Packaging analyzed the 3,000 most recently uploaded haul and unboxing videos on YouTube. Here’s what they found:
The analysis started by looking at the most common types of haul videos and then broke those into categories. Listed below are the 10 most common haul video categories:
- Clothing (59%)
- General Discount (11%)
- Beauty & Makeup (9%)
- Home Décor (6%)
- Groceries (5%)
- Toys (3%)
- Books, Music, Comics (3%)
- Pet Supplies (2%)
- Art, Crafts, School Supplies (2%)
- Jewelry (1%)
Shorr also looked at the top brand mentions within these Haul Videos. Dollar Tree was hands above the top brand mentions at nearly 26%. Fashion Nova came in second at 8% and Primark at 7%.
The analysis also looked at the most common types of unboxing videos and then broke those down into categories as well. Listed below are the 10 most common unboxing video categories:
- Toys (29%)
- Phones & Accessories (16%)
- Computers, Tablets, & Accessories (10%)
- Gaming Consoles & Accessories (7%)
- Cameras & Accessories (5%)
- Men’s Watches (4%)
- Shoes (4%)
- Books & Music (3%)
- Clothing (3%)
- Auto Parts (3%)
A second big part of the analysis looked took at deeper look at the YouTube influencers themselves.
A typical HAULer looks like this:
- Uploading for 2 years
- Has 2 million total views of their YouTube videos
- 21,000 subscribers to their YouTube channel
- 300 + video uploads
- Earning less than $6,000 per year
A typical UNBOXer looks like this
- Uploading for less than a year
- 1,500 total views
- 40 subscribers
- 125+ uploads
- No earnings. 64% of UNBOXers earn zero money from their efforts.
The numbers may look grim, but there is a small percentage of YouTube influencers that are making over $500,000 per year (42 by our count!)
To see the full analysis from Shorr Packaging, check out the infographic below.
