Google Acquires FameBit to Increase Branded Content Deals
October 12 2016 - 1:20AM
Dow Jones News
Google has acquired FameBit, a technology startup that helps
marketers connect with digital influencers, in an effort to bolster
branded content deals in online video, including on Google's video
platform YouTube.
Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
FameBit is one of a growing number of companies looking to help
bring more automation and data science to the art of connecting
brands with digital talent.
Digital creators can set up profiles using FameBit's software.
Then, via a web-based marketplace, brands can search for potential
matches among thousands of creators, based on various criteria such
as an influencer's audience demographics. These marketers can then
elect to hire these influencers to mention their brands in videos,
or create videos on their behalf, for example.
While Google helps big TV brands connect with its top channels
and talent through its three-year-old Google Preferred program, the
social media influencer ecosystem is vast, and not limited to
YouTube. FameBit can connect brands to talent on Instagram, Vine
and other platforms.
In a blog post, Google's vice president of product management,
Ariel Bardin, wrote that the deal will help broaden and accelerate
the growth of influencer marketing.
"We believe that Google's relationship with brands and YouTube's
partnerships with creators, combined with FameBit's technology and
expertise, will help increase the number of branded content
opportunities available, bringing even more revenue into the online
video community," Mr. Bardin wrote.
Currently, Google doesn't take a revenue cut from branded
content deals on YouTube. But, theoretically, the more advertisers
paying influencers to feature their brands in videos, the more ad
revenue that should flow to YouTube overall.
Of course, there are many other companies besides FameBit vying
for a piece of the social-influencer-brokering pie, something Mr.
Bardin noted in his blog post.
"Creators will always have the choice in how they work with
brands, and there are many great companies who provide this service
today," he wrote. Still, Google's purchase should provide a
powerful endorsement to FameBit, and may not be welcome news to
competitors.
Google says that FameBit will continue to operate independently
for the foreseeable future.
FameBit founders David Kierzkowski and Agnes Kozera were
celebratory in their own blog post about the sale of their
three-year-old company.
"With Google's relationship with brands large and small, and
YouTube's partnership with creators around the globe, we hope to
connect even more brands to creators, engage more audiences, and
make brand marketing more creative and authentic than ever," they
wrote.
Write to Mike Shields at mike.shields@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 12, 2016 01:05 ET (05:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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