VOTE FOR FRED GOES SWIMMING !!!!

http://www.pcavote.com/

YouTube’s Recession-Proof Cottage Industry

Times are tough, so if you have some extra time on your hands, you might want to direct your attention—and your secret talents—online. Hundreds of YouTube users make thousands of dollars every single month through the Google-owned site, without ever leaving their homes.

You don’t have to have a studio deal—ordinary Joes allow Google’s YouTube to post ads with their popular home videos and they share in the take.

It’s a win-win. Google creates an incentive for users to draw more viewers to their ad-hosting pages, and expands its advertising footprint. YouTube may stream hundreds of millions of YouTube videos daily, but revenue hasn’t grown to match traffic, as only three percent of YouTube videos host ads.

The partner program makes deals with media companies, including CBS, the Associated Press, and the NBA, setting up channels for the content creators and promoting them on the home page. A year ago YouTube opened up that partner program to thousands of of its most popular users, reaching out to those that regularly attract millions of page views and hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Now some guy making videos in his pajamas can have a channel promoted by YouTube, sharing in the revenue generated by the ads posted with the videos.

And some YouTube partners are seriously cashing in — making six figures through this program. Michael Buckley quit his day job to focus on his online show “What the Buck”, which boasts it’s the most popular entertainment show on YouTube. Not only is Buckley bringing in $100,000 a year with this gig, but it scored him a development deal with HBO. Others build on their advertising take with sponsorship and product placement deals. Cory Williams, all of 27 years old, brings in up to $20,000 a MONTH. If you’re not familiar with his name, you may know him by his tag “SMP Films.” It sounds like an entertainment company, because, well, with that kind of revenue stream, that’s what it is.

My favorite of these YouTube entrepreneurs is a 15-year old named Lucas Cruikshank, famous for his loud, over-the-top impersonation of a six year old, “Fred.” He has 703,682 subscribers, which YouTube tells me is more than any other content partner on YouTube, more even than CBS. I spoke to his publicist — yes, he has a publicist — about his burgeoning empire. Fred also draws tens of thousands of dollars a month in ad revenue from YouTube, and sponsorship, but the publicist says that “Fred” is the first YouTube character to be licensed.

Cruikshank is bringing in big bucks for merchandise sales and licensing of his name and image to Hot Topic. The publicist said that lately he’s been bringing in a hundred thousand dollars in revenue a month, on track to generate a million dollars in revenue next year. Apparently he’s been courted by the TV networks and movie producers. But for now, he’s sticking with YouTube. With that kind of cash coming in, I understand why!

http://www.cnbc.com/id/28193722

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By Marisa Laudadio

YouTube’s newest star is Fred Figglehorn, a lonely, speedy-voiced 6-year-old with anger-management issues.

Fred is played by 15-year-old Lucas Cruikshank, a high school freshman from Nebraska whose web-based comedy series recently earned the distinction of being YouTube’s Most Subscribed Channel of all time, with more than 650,000 viewers signed up.

Cruikshank created his Fred character two years ago as a way to parody video bloggers who create self-important videos about their lives.

“I just wanted to make a video for Halloween, so I created Fred and sped up the voice,” Cruikshank tells PEOPLE. He often looks to the youngest of his seven siblings for inspiration. “I have little brothers and sisters and know how funny they can be.”

The character Cruikshank created acts out by posting videos on the Internet often because he’s not getting enough attention from his alcoholic mom (dad is in prison). Like Fred, Cruikshank improvs his material and shoots and edits his videos each week.

“I never planned on it being a series,” he says of his Fred show, which graduated from viral videos to a full-fledged YouTube series last May. Now Cruikshank is lining up sponsors for his upcoming third season, and even appeared on YouTube.com’s live concert event Saturday.

“I’ve always liked Jim Carrey, Ben Stiller and Will Farrell. My favorite movies ever are Zoolander and Blades of Glory,” says Cruikshank. “I’ve always wanted to be an actor or a movie star, but I figured that’s probably not going to work out because I live in Nebraska.”

But thanks to his huge online audience, Cruikshank is overcoming geography. He’s already taped a guest-starring spot in Nickelodeon’s iCarly that will air next spring, has a Fred T-shirt line in the works, and flies to L.A. for network meetings about future projects.

Want to get to know Fred? Check out one of Cruikshank’s favorite episodes: Fred Stalks Judy and Fred Tries to Ride a Bike.

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20242072,00.html

I’m gonna bring the house down, yo!!!

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‘Fred’ Cranks Up the YouTube Views and Ad

Dollars

Teenage actor Lucas Cruikshank plays a hyperactive child in a popular video series that is generating a six-figure income and some Big Media interest

By Chris Albrecht

There were a lot of heavy hitters at the recent NewTeeVee Live conference: the CEO of Netflix, the CEO of Hulu, even the creator of the CSI franchise. But all the buzz on the show floor belonged to one precocious 15-year-old kid. He’s from Nebraska and his name is Lucas Cruikshank—but he’s better-known to millions of fans as the high-pitched character “Fred,” and he is mastering YouTube to maximize playcounts (and dollar signs) in ways big media companies can now only dream of.

If you have kids, you probably know Fred, most likely because you banned your child from watching him. Not that Fred is offensive. Quite the contrary: He’s a bundle of G-rated joy for the tween set. But Fred is annoying. He prances about doing inane things while screaming, and the film is sped up to give the character a hyperactive squeal. Adults don’t get it, kids can’t get enough of it.

Of the 35 Fred videos posted to YouTube, only one has less than a million plays, and that particular video was just posted last week. If history is any indication, by the time this story runs, his latest entry into the Fred canon will have passed the million mark. Typically, a Fred video will get 3 million to 6 million plays, and the Fred channel is the most subscribed-to channel of all time on YouTube, with nearly 650,000 subscribers.

PROFITING FROM YOUTUBE

While lots of people are racking up big playcounts on YouTube, Fred is actually parlaying his popularity into dollars. In addition to ad-sharing revenue through YouTube, Cruikshank gets outside sponsorships. Wireless device company Zipit paid for placement in three viral Fred videos, and bigger companies are hopping on the Fred bandwagon as well. Walden Media and 20th Century Fox did a deal with Cruikshank to promote the movie City of Ember. According to Cruikshank’s business manager, Fred videos have generated six figures’ worth of income from ad revenue and sponsorship deals this year. Cruikshank has now signed a deal with GR Branding, a licensing agency, to create Fred merchandise as an additional revenue stream (NewTeeVee: Interview with Lucas Cruikshank).

There is a method to the Fred madness, and a surprisingly intentional one for a freshman in high school. New videos are purposely released as kids get out of school on Thursday so they can be watched when they get home. These Fred fans then talk about and start quoting Fred catchphrases the next day at school on Friday, building buzz for Saturday, which is when Fred videos get the most amount of traffic. (Tween marketers, take note!)

Cruikshank’s audience is predominately female, with girls making up 67% of his audience, according to YouTube’s Insight numbers. The biggest age demographic for his videos are 13- to 17-year-olds, but as Cruikshank pointed out, you have to at least say you’re 13 in order to get a YouTube account, so that number could skew younger. Surprisingly, there is a higher percentage of 35- to 44-year-olds in his audience than 18- to 24-year-olds; Cruikshank’s manager says those stats get a bump from parents tuning in to see what their kids are watching.

Despite his new media success, the young Web star is quite blatant about why he created Fred—Cruikshank wants to be a Hollywood actor, and this is his calling card. He’s had meetings with the big networks and studios, and even appeared on the Nickelodeon show iCarly. But so far, massive Web success hasn’t crossed over into traditional media attention. Perhaps media moguls just need to see less of the high-pitched “Fred” and more of the savvy Cruikshank.

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2008/tc20081118_508970.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_technology

‘Fred’ creator, the Tiger Woods of user-generated video?

Posted by Greg Sandoval

SAN FRANCISCO–Lucas Cruikshank is to user-generated video what Tiger Woods was to golf or what Bobby Fischer was to chess when they were teenagers.

The 15-year old creator of the YouTube series Fred has become Internet video’s hottest prodigy since last month, when the Fred channel amassed the most subscribers (585,506) on YouTube. He now has more than 645,000. Since launching six months ago, Fred clips have been watched more than 125 million times.

The series is a goofy satire of some YouTube video bloggers that Cruikshank considers self important. Fred is a fictitious teen with anger management problems, a strange voice, and a father serving time in jail. Cruikshank, a high school freshman in Nebraska, has parlayed his Web success into cash.

He agreed to slip products, including the Zipit text-messaging gadget, into his videos as part of product-placement deals. An aspiring actor, the teen has appeared in commercials for the device and will appear in an upcoming Nickelodeon show. “I’ve had meetings with movie studios,” he told me. “Some people even want to turn Fred into a TV show or movie.”

Walking through the NewTeeVee Live conference venue here Thursday, Cruikshank was approached by numerous executives who asked to exchange cards with him. He is barely old enough for acne but Cruikshank appears the user-gen generation’s version of a Hollywood player.

Talk to Cruikshank and one gets the impression his success is no accident. He’s sharp and witty and isn’t intimidated by adults in suits. During an interview with NewTeeVee’s Chris Albrecht in front of hundreds of conference attendees, Cruikshank got some laughs after he was asked by a man about what kind of CPM, or advertising revenue, his clips were generating.

“I bet you would like to know that,” Cruikshank said. He waited a beat before adding: “But I’m not going to tell you.”

Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. He is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10097420-93.html?part=rss&subj=News-DigitalMedia

“Fred” is the star of the NewTeeVee Live conference

The star of the NewTeeVee Live conference in San Francisco: Fred.

Lucas Cruikshank, the hyper, screeching 15-year-old Internet sensation from Omaha who created the “Fred” series on YouTube, won over the adult audience at a conference that contained dry themes and language that would have bored most kids his age.

Since he created his video channel on YouTube, Cruikshank has become one of the biggest hits in YouTube history. His videos all get more than 1 million views. He has a die-hard base of teens and tweens who can’t wait for Thursdays when he releases the latest episode. He’s gearing up for season three, which will contain some real grown-up stuff: product placement and celebrity cameos.

Drawing envy from the cheap seats: Cruikshank is making money. He won’t say how much. And don’t ask him what his CPM is (that’s advertising speak, cost-per-thousand impressions). But he has been successful enough to buy himself a Mac laptop and a BlackBerry.

The real upside of being an online video star while a freshman in high school? “Seniors talk to me,” he said. And he recently closed a licensing deal so he hopes to soon go to the mall with his friends and see “Fred stuff.”

His ambitions don’t end there. Cruikshank wants to be a movie star. He called “Fred” his “Hollywood calling card.” He dreams of making comedies in the vein of Jim Carrey and Will Ferrell.

So far he has taken “meetings,” but he’s not sure Hollywood gets him yet. “Most movie people are like 40-year-old men,” Cruikshank said.

– Jessica Guynn

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/11/fred-is-the-sta.html