YouTube creator Kris8an: "Consistency is the key"

In the hyper-dynamic world of online content, creators like the Swiss Kris, known as Kris8an, are becoming increasingly important. With well over five million subscribers on YouTube, he has fully exploited the power of the YouTube platform. Andreas Briese, Regional Director at YouTube, who looks after the markets in Central Europe, Northern Europe and Eastern Europe, explains in an interview how YouTube supports creators and which trends are dominating the video platform. Kris himself shares his experiences and insights into the world of content creation. The exclusive conversation took place during a meeting of over 70 YouTube Creators in Zurich and gives an insight into the strategies of successful content creation, the importance of short-form videos, their linking with other content, as well as the role of artificial intelligence in the future of content production.

m&k Werbewoche.ch: Andreas Briese, what is your role at YouTube?

Andreas Briese: As Regional Director at YouTube, I look after the regions of Central Europe, i.e. Germany, Austria and Switzerland, as well as Eastern Europe and Northern Europe, i.e. Sweden, Benelux and so on.

 

And what exactly do you do there?

Andreas Briese: On the one hand, I manage the content partnership program, under which we work with creators like Kris, but also with many media companies, sports organizations and music labels. On the other hand, my job is to make sure that everyone involved with YouTube in general works together as well as possible. That's called YouTube Country Manager, Regional Director.

m&k Werbewoche.ch: Kris, how would you describe a Creator as a Creator yourself?

Kris: That is an exciting question. It's very different because every creator is very individual. For me, for example, it goes in very different directions. I show a lot of my life, but there are also other creators who show completely different views. They are very different, but I would describe a creator as someone who creates content for other people on social media. Size doesn't play a huge role at first, because anyone can be a creator.

 

But you are a big creator, you have over five million subscribers on YouTube. What was your moment when your subscriber count exploded?

Kris: Last year it suddenly started to boom. There was a switch. One video was created, then the next, and there was a flow. Then the number of followers exploded. I think that happens to a lot of people. They start small, post every day and at some point the day comes when a video brings this switch and you suddenly have a huge number of subscribers. You don't even expect that yourself.

What role does frequency play?

Kris: What I personally have learned is that consistency is very important. I posted my first shorts back in 2021, but not consistently. It wasn't until I started posting daily according to a plan that things really started to pick up after a few months.

 

What role did the YouTube form of the shorts play in this?

Kris: A very big role for me personally. I come from the field of short-form videos, 9:16 videos. YouTube has given me the opportunity to expand that to YouTube. That has made a huge difference. A lot of people are consuming this content these days and it's a great way to generate a following. Long-form videos are also coming back, but short-form videos are very popular at the moment.

 

Andreas, how do you support creators like Kris?

Andreas Briese: Kris is in our YouTube Partner Program and therefore has a personal contact on YouTube. We also promote the exchange between creators, for example through creator meetings like the one here in Zurich today. We offer many products that help creators, such as the Shorts camera and various AI tools. We also have monetization products to help creators earn money on YouTube.

 

What trends are you observing with regard to the effectiveness of videos?

Andreas Briese: Shortform video is a huge driver. We have 70 billion short-form views per day worldwide. In fact, YouTube started as a short-form video platform with the very first video "Me at the zoo" with 19 seconds. Today, shorts are a good gateway to the YouTube world. But YouTube is a multi-format platform with short-form, long-form, live and podcasts. Our goal is to offer creators creative freedom and a variety of options.

 

What makes Shorts particularly attractive compared to other platforms such as Reels or TikToks?

Kris: Shorts offer the advantage of monetization, which is unique in Switzerland. Creators can be paid for their clicks, which makes Shorts particularly attractive.

 

What role do interactions with the community play?

Kris: Interactions are a great way to connect with the community and exchange ideas. It builds a strong bond with the community. I did a survey, for example, and around a hundred thousand people voted. That is a huge amount of interaction and shows that such videos are well received when people can interact with the creator.

What observations have you made about brand interactions on YouTube?

Andreas Briese: Interaction is very important. YouTube is not a one-way platform, but always a two-way platform. Discussion and interaction are an essential part of it. A follower on YouTube is often a real fan. If you manage to build up a subscription base, it is really resilient and generates a lot of views and interactions. Brands understand this and either build their own brand channels or work with creators to reach their audience.

 

Keyword collaboration. Kris, in other videos I've seen you use a day cream to keep your skin beautiful. How many of these collaborations are you currently working on?

Kris: My aim is to enter into long-term collaborations with brands. At the moment, there are four to five brands that I have planned the whole of 2024 with. From time to time there are individual collaborations for events, but I'm focusing on sustainable long-term collaborations.

Authenticity is an important keyword. How much of yourself is in the character you portray in your shorts?

Kris: I think the advantage is that I can show a lot of myself because I show my life. Of course, you always try to show your best side, but I can also reveal a lot about myself because people accompany me in many situations. I also make live videos, so people can see what I'm like as a person. There are private things, of course, but people know quite a lot about me now because I've been doing this for four years.

 

Do you have any tips for beginners?

Kris: In any case. Don't be afraid to make mistakes at the beginning. You have to try things out and find your direction and niche. Don't get demotivated, even if your videos don't get many views at the beginning. You have to keep at it and live out your passion without expecting 20 million subscriptions right from the start. It's about pursuing your passion and building it up slowly.

 

Andreas, what advice do you have for brands that want to get started with shorts and want to appear more in the style of the creators?

Andreas Briese: As a brand, you first have to see yourself as a creator. Authenticity is important, so you need to be clear about your brand essence and think about how to convey it on YouTube. It's about using people as brand ambassadors, trying out lots of things and listening to your audience. You should also use analytical tools to understand which videos work and learn the craft of YouTube.

 

You mentioned the subject of multi-formats. How do you create such a link? Can you give an example, please?

Andreas Briese: A good example is Formula 1, which uses short-form videos to draw attention to events, live streams for preliminary reports and VOD content for more in-depth insights. In some cases, they also use podcasts for audio commentaries. If you use all formats together and think about the best time to reach the audience, the formats cross-fertilize each other.

 

Another topic I would like to touch on is AI - artificial intelligence. What role does it play on YouTube? 

Andreas Briese: At YouTube, it plays a role in all areas and has done for a long time. On the one hand, we help creators like Kris to create videos easier and better, also with the help of artificial intelligence. We launched a lot of tools last year and again this year. Dream Screen is a tool in which you can create artificial backgrounds. We will be launching a tool that helps with more analytics via artificial intelligence, so to speak, to better understand the channel and get better suggestions on how the next video can look.

YouTube and Deepmind have worked a lot with music labels, especially in the music sector, to create new music using artificial intelligence. Which is an incredibly exciting topic. See here a videowhich shows the work with some of these music artists.

On the viewer side, we help to remove barriers. For some time now, there have been artificial translators, i.e. audio commentaries that are translated into text and then automatically translated into other languages. This has meant that many users who may not be able to speak French can suddenly watch French videos in Germany or Spain.

Automatic dubbing tools are the next step in this development. Aloud is a tool that we announced some time ago, which is certainly also very exciting.

 

What new things does YouTube have planned for advertisers in the AI sector? 

Andreas Briese: The advertising side is a very, very exciting area. On the one hand, we help advertisers to generate advertising assets more easily using artificial intelligence and to target campaigns better and more effectively, and then one thing that we have been doing for a long time is keeping the platform secure with the help of "classifiers", which are ultimately nothing more than robots trained using artificial intelligence that check whether videos are allowed on the platform within the framework of our community guidelines or not. 90 percent of the content that is removed from YouTube is ultimately identified using AI classifiers.

 

Kris, where are you already using AI? 

Kris: Personally, I mainly use it for video editing, because I can generate subtitles, I can do autocuts to shorten my videos and sometimes also to create scripts. I have several accounts, I have them in different languages, sometimes also a bit more informative videos and creating a small script with the AI to research things can be very helpful. But I think especially at the moment, what I use the most are really these subtitles and editing videos with the help of AI.

 

What does the future hold for your Creator account? 

Kris: I definitely think there will be more longform projects in the long term. I believe that YouTube really offers this opportunity to realize these longform projects, I definitely want to go in that direction. My followers are always asking me, wanting to see longer videos from me. I believe that short form is the way to go, especially to get started. I've been on YouTube for over three years now, can slowly make this switch and have also very keen on it, also implement longer projects. What would also set me apart from other platforms on YouTube.

What can we look forward to with the shorts?

Andreas Briese: AI, i.e. AI creation tools, are certainly very exciting and we will be doing a lot in this area. A closer integration of shorts with all the other forms of content, with long form, with live and with podcasts and certainly also very exciting expanded monetization opportunities on YouTube. Creativity must be worthwhile, and we will be investing particularly in the area of shopping, so that creators can sell their own products on YouTube.

 

Finally, I would like to ask you each to send a message to the Swiss advertising industry to show where you think they have the greatest potential to make their messages more creative and media-friendly so that they can also survive in these new forms such as shorts?

Kris: I think there are numerous possibilities. You definitely have to have the courage. I don't think there are that many examples at the moment, but as soon as someone takes the plunge and you see that it works, more and more people will get on board and it can become established. And I think it's a great way to reach the new generation, even slightly younger people, precisely via this platform. And I think there are almost no other ways to reach this audience so directly, for example via shorts.

Andreas Briese: On the one hand, YouTube offers advertisers highly efficient and effective formats, no matter in which area of the advertising funnel, be it on the awareness side or on the consideration side, which really offers a great return on investment. But one thing that is very important - YouTube should not be underestimated, especially when it comes to social budgets.

We can see that. YouTube reaches 90 percent of Gen Z. That's more than most other platforms offer. YouTube is number one when it comes to relevant content. We have a huge creator ecosystem. We offer advertising formats, whatever the marketing goals are, that serve every kind of advertiser need, especially in the social space. And that's why I can only encourage advertisers, who always like to make a distinction between branding and social budgets, to expand their social budgets more on YouTube.

 

We're going to Cannes for the Lions Festival. A question you would have liked to have answered that I can ask the world's most creative people there? 

Andreas Briese: What will be the decisive human factor in creativity over the next five years?

 

Any final thoughts? 

Andreas Briese: I think there are huge opportunities with YouTube. And you should definitely dare to use this opportunity. And to be a bit ahead of the others if necessary.

 

---

Kristian "Kris" Grippo @kris8an from Basel

On social media, Kris is present on all major platforms and with multilingual accounts, focusing on the international and German-Swiss market. He shares a lot of his life with his community, but is best known for his hair videos, GRWM's ("Get Ready with Me" videos) and funny trends. His basic goal on his platforms is to be a role model and inspiration for other people and to break typical gender stereotypes.

 

Andreas Briese - Director, YouTube Content Partnerships, Central and Northern Europe

Andreas Briese joined Google in 2008, where he held various positions in the YouTube content partnerships team. He currently leads the German-speaking territories as well as Central and Eastern Europe, where he and his team are responsible for partnerships with broadcasters, production companies, rights agencies, multi-channel networks and YouTube creators. In addition, as Regional Director YouTube, he is responsible for cross-functional management in the region. Prior to Google, Andreas held various positions at RTL Group, ARD and ProSiebenSat1. Andreas studied physics, mathematics and economics in Münster, Edinburgh and Munich.