Opinion
Casey Neistat: Succeeding on YouTube is the highest watermark in filmmaking
“So for me, like, there is no higher watermark In the world of filmmaking, then what it means to succeed on, on the internet, what it means to succeed on YouTube, and that's why I embrace that title.”
Insight
Neistat: Engineering Viral Videos Is Completely Beyond Anyone's Control
“Those things, by the way, are like fucking moons aligning with Pluto, like they are the greatest anomaly, and if I knew how to prescribe them, that's all I'd do, but they are way outside of anyone's person's control, and that's why I reject sort of the term of…”
Opinion
Neistat: Nike 'Make It Count' video launched the obnoxious 'inspirational' ad trend
“If you bring it all back, there was none of that before that video. That video was the inflection point.”
Disclosure
Neistat's early YouTube videos got 500 views despite his active HBO show
“When I started my YouTube channel that I have now, I had a show on HBO that was premiering a new episode every single week with a multi-million dollar marketing budget behind it. But I was putting new videos up on YouTube as often as I could, and I was getting…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Casey Neistat: I only want to be identified as a YouTuber
“And it wasn't until really this year that I started to reject this term of being a filmmaker, and now I only want to be known as a YouTuber. That's all I want to be identified as.”
Insight
Neistat outlines the rigid content expectations across major social media platforms
“If it's on Snapchat, it needs to be funny or cool or make me look cool. If it's on Instagram, it's gotta be beautiful. If it's on YouTube, it's gotta be meaningful. If it's on Facebook, it has to be something that my friends and peers really want to engage wit…”
Opinion
Neistat: YouTube is by far the hardest social platform for creators
“I think YouTube is unique in that perspective. I think YouTube is by far the hardest.”
Opinion
Neistat: Live streaming is boring unless centered on an event
“Live is really, really boring. Yeah, unless it's an event, centered around an event, it's boring.”
Insight
Neistat: Focus on content quality rather than aiming for virality
“To say I want to make a viral movie is like a musician sitting down and saying I want to make a hit song. It's just not a good place to start. I think the best place to start is I want to make a really good movie.”
Disclosure
Neistat matched five years of YouTube subscriber growth in five months
“In five years, I accrued 500,000 subscribers and a hundred million views, which made me a runaway success. I switched to daily content, and in the next five months, I accrued another 500,000 subscribers. So it took me five years, I duplicated in five months. I…”
Insight
Casey Neistat: YouTube is a symbiotic conversation unlike one-way traditional media
“Television and feature films. It is a one way street. It is a one way conversation. It's me talking to you and that's where it ends. And YouTube. YouTube is, is a symbiotic relationship between the creator and the audience.”
Insight
Neistat: Brand deals must elevate the creator's brand as much as sponsor's
“The value exchange has to be at least equal. I mean, it has to elevate my brand as much as it elevates yours.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Neistat: 'Make It Count' was Nike's top or second-most watched online video
“I do believe that my Nike video is still, it was the most, it might now be second most watched video that Nike's ever put online.”
Disclosure
Mercedes prohibited Casey Neistat from showing his car crashes in sponsored videos
“They wouldn't let me put, when I wrecked the Mercedes, either time, any of the times in the video. And one night when I wrecked one, I had to cover it in a tarp before I could get it towed away.”
Disclosure
Neistat raised venture capital for Beme to solve platform content compartmentalization
“I raised a bunch of money and built a whole company that's doing just that. We're still really far from success, but like, I believe in this compartmentalization of content so, so strongly that I built an entire company because I needed another box to put cont…”
Assertion Partly supported
Neistat's viral bike lane video forced a same-day response from Mayor Bloomberg
“That video's done, I think, close to twenty million views, but that video was put online and Michael Bloomberg had to answer to that video in a press conference the same day.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Neistat: VidCon fan meetup required 24 security guards who were overrun
“I did one meetup in my entire career, and it was last year at VidCon. And we had 18 security people, like 18 bodyguards, and then they had to call in six more. And they were all overrun.”
Disclosure
Neistat: Mercedes-Benz four-video campaign was pitched on a one-page brief
“I remember it was a one-page brief that I sent them for a four-video campaign that lasted five months long that was, like, really, really well received by my audience, and I think they were very happy with the impact that the videos had because it was really h…”
Casey Neistat