For brands that wanna be big influencers on Facebook and YouTube (so … basically every brand), the Tubular Labs‘ State of Online Video Q2 2018 report is a veritable goldmine of information.
Here are the important bits:
Influencers Rule YouTube & Facebook

Influencers (basically YouTube celebrities) wrack up way more views than brands and also upload way more than brands. In the first quarter of 2018, the breakdown for YouTube views was:
- 84% influencers
- 13% media companies
- 3% brands
Influencers clearly trounce companies, but they also uploaded way more content than media companies or brands. The breakdown for uploads is:
- 89% influencers
- 9% media companies
- 2% brands
When you consider those numbers, media companies and brands actually got pretty good bang for their buck considering how little they uploaded.
Over on Facebook, the viewing numbers were:
- 56% influencers
- 40% media companies
- 4% brands
That compares to the following upload numbers:
- 56% influencers
- 38% media companies
- 6% brands
So, brands fared slightly worse for the amount they were uploading on Facebook in Q1 this year.
Clearly, if brands want to be influential on social media platforms, it would be a good idea for them to partner with influencers on the sites. These influencers can have millions of views of their videos and any endorsement they give can be a huge boon to a brand.
Part of the reason they can accumulate so many views is that they either jump on or initiate trends that sweep through the platform they’re on. So, if you identify a type of video that is trending and you can somehow shoehorn your brand into an influencer video about that trend, you may find a winning combination.
What are some of these trends?
The report classifies 11 trends into four categories. Let’s look at nine of these trends across the four categories.
Vicarious Living

One of the great things about social video is that it allows viewers to spend some time seeing how other people live. The category of Vicarious Living lets people step into the lives of these influencers (visually, anyway).
Switching Lives
As the name implies, Switching Lives videos are when an influencer switches lives with one of their friends or another influencer. It can be simply switching clothing or cosmetics or it can be switching possessions. The popular ones, as you could probably guess, involve extreme switches, such as a man trying to live as a woman for a day and dressing like her and wearing makeup, etc.
24 Hours
This trend is when viewers are invited into a subject’s life for a full day or subjects take up some kind of challenge for a full day, like being handcuffed to someone or staying in a mall for a full day, for example. Other videos that use this trend are finding things to do in a certain city for 24 hours. The videos are, thankfully, not actually 24 hours long.
Room Tours
Whether it’s a room, an apartment or a mansion, giving people a peek inside where an influencer lives, works and plays is an ongoing trend that brands can take advantage of if the influencers happen to leave something with a brand’s logo laying around.
Food Fanaticism

Food is something we all share in common. Nobody can live without it. A couple of big trends in food videos in 2018 are eating a lot and eating off the streets.
Mukbang
A trend that started in Korea, (mukbang translates to “food broadcast”) this is where influencers eat food in front of a camera. Now, that in and of itself probably wouldn’t create a trend, but it’s the twist that’s put on the eating that made it a trend.
That twist is usually people eating copious amounts of food. Think people eating more of one type of food than you can even imagine in one sitting. Sometimes they just eat a normal amount, but in an unusual setting.
Street Food
This is a trend that you can actually find on television, too. People love to learn about the various types of street food one can find around the world and, apparently, they love to see people eating said food.
But, it’s not just eating, either. Videos showing street food vendors making their dishes are also popular, as well as interesting street food vendors with fascinating stories to tell.
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Anti-Tutorials

While tutorials are highly interesting and helpful, for entertainment value, influencers have gone in the other direction and have made anti-tutorials a big trend on Facebook and YouTube.
Not To Do
These can range from serious videos about what not to do while you’re visiting other countries to silly videos highlighting fails or social faux pas.
Tried Following
The tried following trend is a variation on the tutorial video, as it follows an influencer as they try to follow a tutorial, usually failing at it in the process, making it all the more entertaining.
Evergreen Video Trends
Another two trends worth noting are so-called evergreen trends, meaning they’ve been around for awhile already, but are still on the uptick.
ASMR

Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos have been around for a decade now, but they are really taking off right now. These types of videos are basically just people doing quiet activities like whispering, tapping on things lightly or brushing their hair, for example. The quiet sounds are meant to stimulate a physical and emotional response in people. Many people love listening to the quiet audio stimulation and they can easily be crossed with other types of videos, like the makbang ones.
Sent Me
An offshoot of the popular “unboxing” and “haul” type videos, Sent Me videos are where influencers unbox things that they’ve received from fans or sponsors.
How do you get in on the trends?
While it’s tempting to hop on one of these trends and partner up with a social video influencers, it’s worth noting that a trend becomes uncool approximately eight seconds after brands start using it for marketing purposes. So, it’s best to try and “sneak” your brand into a video rather than making it too obvious.
If an influencer is seen using your brand, their cultish followers will take note, so it’s best not to draw too much attention to your brand and just let it somehow make its way into a video naturally.
Having said that, allow us to draw some attention to our own brand. One type of video that never goes out of style is the tried and true animated explainer video, like a whiteboard video, for example. Click here to get started on planning and pricing your very own whiteboard animation video.