Alexandra Balkovskaya, known under the pseudonym Sasha Spielberg, came to the meeting State Duma devoted to youth policy, and told how the deputies should correctly conduct a video blog, what is wrong with Sokolovsky, what she thinks about the rallies and how the state can earn the trust of young people. Her performance was memorable, but not everyone liked it.
I am not a supporter of extremes - both logging into the network with a passport from the age of 16, and rallies about the fact that someone is wearing yellow sneakers.
And about Ruslan Sokolovsky, who is under Articles 138 and 282 of the Criminal Code for insulting the feelings of believers and inciting hatred.
And finally - about catching Pokemon, since we are talking about the trust of young people. Recently, my colleague Ruslan Sokolovsky received a suspended sentence. I'm sorry, of course, but he's an idiot. And idiots need to be treated or fined. It is cruel and not pragmatic to judge such people. And it certainly does not contribute to the trust of young people.
After that, the video blogger thanked the deputies.
One and a half million rubles for advertising on the blog of 20-year-old EeOneGuy, millions of incomes of 18-year-old blogger Sasha Spielberg, the object of envy of competitors Natalia Samburskaya. Even the millionaire LJ bloggers can hardly keep up with the income of YouTube and Instagram stars, and there is practically no business on Facebook and other social networks.
MARIA LIBERMAN
The 18-year-old blogger Sasha Spielberg (actually Sasha Balkovskaya) has 4 million subscribers on YouTube, almost 3 million on Instagram and another million two hundred on VKontakte. In her video blog (a classic lifestyle blog - a girl goes shopping and parties, makes up, plays video games, talks about her fears, etc.) advertising costs from 500 thousand rubles, and, as her dad admits, an advertiser and venture investor Alexander Balkovsky, 1 million rubles per month - her minimum wage.
Dad, Alexander Balkovsky, is directly related to these earnings. A year ago, in partnership with director Timur Bekmambetov, he launched Agency Z, which specializes in promoting and monetizing Internet stars, and the project, which was born out of his daughter's hobby, is already generating income for him.
Sasha began to shoot a video and upload it to YouTube about eight years ago, first on English language... Then, however, because of the haters, she deleted the blog and relaunched it a couple of years later in Russian. Some time later, fame overtook her, and with it the first advertising contracts, and then the father began to seriously develop her daughter's talent. “When the counterparties began to apply, it became clear that this was already a real business: it was necessary to negotiate with large corporations, formalize transactions - and, of course, I began to help,” says Balkovsky. “Moreover, Sasha was only 14 years old then.”
Over time, Sasha introduced her dad to her blogger friends - also, as it turned out, quite popular. Today, with a dozen of them, Agency Z has signed an exclusive contract to represent commercial interests.
Alexander Balkovsky treats his young wards (many are under 20) more like children, not colleagues, and, unlike other advertising agencies that simply sell ads from bloggers, also spends his energy on "pumping" them. Balkovsky wants to grow them into full-fledged stars: so that they act in films, and record music, and write books, but at the same time do not leave their main platforms - YouTube channels.
The age of a YouTube star is short - one to two or three years, unlike the age of traditional celebrities. "The dream of any blogger is not to do any advertising at all, but to engage only with their own content," Alexander idealizes his wards. "Nobody likes advertising, but they want to eat, and we help the guys to defend their interests."
As befits a father, in any dispute, Alexander Balkovsky is on the side of his protégés. "Imagine, Katya Klap (YouTube blogger with almost 5 million subscribers, a direct competitor of Sasha Spielberg. -" Money") told Marie Claire magazine that youtuber could theoretically make 600 thousand a month, but you need to drive any" bad "(a lot of bad quality ads. -" Money"). This is false information! Perhaps Katya earns only such amounts, but almost all YouTube stars (not to mention Sasha Spielberg, Ivangai and the like) have earnings either close to this figure or exceeding it several times, "he says.
Alexander Balkovsky does not disclose the turnover of his agency, but, most likely, we are talking about several tens of millions of rubles - the agency fee ranges from 5% to 25% of the price of advertising campaigns of his star wards, in the quantity and quality of which he is much more interested in themselves.
Unsinkable LJ
Alexander Balkovsky is successfully producing his own daughter and other top bloggers, who he treats like children
Photo: Kristina Kormilitsyna, Kommersant
“When I met Ilya Varlamov in 2013, I immediately told him that LJ was dying,” recalls Ekaterina Patyulina with a smile. “He showed me statistics with two million unique visitors a month. I realized that I would easily increase them. "
The story of the relationship between Ilya Varlamov and his agent and partner, of course, is completely different from the story of Sasha Spielberg. At the moment, Varlamov is already a human corporation, a whole staff of employees works for him, and here we are talking about earnings that are much larger. Patyulina and Varlamov registered the Author's Media company, which unites eight blogging platforms on exclusive terms, including the blogs of Sergei Dolya and Sergei Anashkevich (blog in LiveJournal "Life in Travel") and almost the most popular YouTube channel in Russia about technologies - Wylsacom Valentina Petukhova (2.3 million subscribers). The income of "Copyright Media" from the promotion of bloggers is formed on a progressive scale depending on the personal earnings of each of them. Last year, the company's turnover exceeded RUB 30 million. and, according to Ekaterina's forecast, this year the figure will be higher.
To achieve such a result, Ekaterina Patyulina radically changed the working conditions of bloggers: she opened prices, formed package offers and media kits, hired a lawyer, accountants and salesmen, or sales specialists - sales specialists. “I only have 25 sales people, and it still seems to me that it’s not enough,” she says. Ilya himself does not delve into advertising a lot: "I have three author posts a day and only three advertising posts a week. Content for me is a much more important issue." But the partners share the profit approximately equally.
Maxim Tadevosyan, the first deputy general director of the Rambler & Co group of companies, believes that the volume of the shadow market of paid posts in social networks (without Instagram) today is about 700-850 million rubles, and a third of this money falls on the Live Journal. “Almost all thousand-strong people are bent from the point of view of advertising efficiency, only million-plus people are effective,” says Elena Torshina, head of the Torshinsky Trust group of digital promotion companies. Last years in LJ I work only with tops, they are full-fledged opinion leaders. They somehow miraculously know how to consistently commercialize their audience into effective leads and sales throughout all these years. "
An advertising post in LJ from an "opinion leader" can be bought for 100-350 thousand rubles. depending on the complexity and volume. Here, for example, a post with Ilya Varlamov in the frame, prepared by his team, will cost 365 thousand rubles without a discount, and with his cat Martha - 300 thousand. Social networks usually come in a package - 10-15 thousand extra for the announcement post on each network. Links and banners are paid separately.
For beginners, however, this market is actually closed today. To reach it and start earning, it will take, according to agents' estimates, more than a million rubles, as well as round-the-clock feedback from the LJ blogger himself. "Newbies come, try, but they only hold out for a few months," says Sergei Baryshnikov, founder of the BigPicture.ru media group, which also promotes LiveJournal bloggers. ...
Big fitonyasha
However, even millionaires living in LiveJournal are losing in income to the new advertising Eldorado - YouTube. Advertisers, of course, came to LJ earlier. After the era of banners, timid customers were just settling into the world of bloggers, and adult intellectuals were clearer and closer to them than purring and kicking teenagers, chewing lemons on camera, shoving marshmallows in their mouths or giving birth to a watermelon. The situation, however, has long since changed.
"The largest flow of orders is now received by YouTubers, followed by Instagram celebrities such as Nastasya Samburskaya and Irina Gorbacheva," Tanya Ivanova, founder of the platform for bloggers Hello, Blogger, comments on the alignment of forces in the market.
Determining the exact amount of ads on YouTube and Instagram is difficult. According to the most optimistic estimates, it already reaches 1.5 billion rubles on Youtube, and about 700 million rubles on Instagram. Some market participants cite more modest figures - about a third less. But at the same time, everyone agrees that the market is growing with good progression, in contrast to the social media market. “I used to be the marketing director of VKontakte and left just to deal with bloggers - the market is growing very much. Advertising campaigns with bloggers already cost 5 million, 10 million, and 20 million rubles,” says Yaroslav Andreev , CEO of WildJam agency.
In such cases, a photo post with hashtags and a link to the advertiser's Instagram page will cost from 20 thousand to 50 thousand rubles, advertising integration into a video on Youtube - 100-200 thousand. A blogger with 500 thousand subscribers is already considered a top one, and a photo on Instagram will already cost him about 100 thousand rubles, and an advertising insert in a vlog (video blog) - 200-300 thousand.Advertising among million-plus stars of these two sites can cost millions - it already depends on the specific tasks.
While this market, of course, is mostly shadow, or, as agents like to say, "native", without any marks "advertising". “I have never met posts like“ I advise everyone ... Partner. So Ilya Varlamov, who honestly marks every post and openly despises those who do not believe in it, is more the exception than the rule.
Becoming popular, the blogger quickly finds himself at the disposal of advertising agencies and production centers - there are about seven strong teams and several dozen small players on the market. They take on the main front of the work, including the search for orders for the stars signed up for an exclusive. “Bloggers are so popular today, largely because they are so actively offered by agencies,” says Vasily Yashchuk, co-founder of the Players agency, which promotes Stas Davydov (5.7 million subscribers on YouTube). “Yes, the blogger's talent and audience important, but the advertising product on the blog is the result of agency work. "
Due to the huge loyalty of the audience and a very high agency fee (as a rule, it is about 15-30%, but sometimes it reaches 50% of the contract amount), advertisers are sometimes ready to forgive bloggers for almost any antics and take all the risks. "There is real case, after which the owner of the agency working with bloggers almost turned gray, - says Victoria Virta, creator of the service of mutual assistance of entrepreneurs "Delovik." , not S, and tried to fit into the provided model. It was funny to everyone except her agent. "
Ivangai - fly in
Trying to focus solely on star bloggers and promoting them, as Agency Z does, is just one possible ways work in a still emerging market.
"The advertiser, first of all, should be interested not so much in the personality of the blogger and the topic of the channel, but in the quantitative indicators of its audience. Gender, age, geography, devices," says Hayk Mkrtchyan, founder of Blueberry Agency and the platform for analyzing video blogs Vlogster. Through this platform, so far the only one of its kind, video bloggers and advertisers can interact both directly and with the involvement of its managers. “We are against bloggers on exclusives, because, as it seems to me, this greatly affects the effectiveness of an advertising campaign,” Mkrtchyan says.
In addition, campaigns with less popular bloggers sometimes turn out to be more effective. “For example, we had a video integration of a blogger who had only 78 thousand subscribers. Each transition from this channel cost us 8 rubles, which is very good. At the same time, we worked with a blogger who had almost 600 thousand subscribers. from his channel already cost us 88 rubles ", - says Natalia Kharitonova, Head of Content Marketing at Travelata.
The advertiser can not always be sure that thousands or millions of subscribers of celebrity bloggers are not cheating. There are a myriad of tools and specialists for multiplying views, and, as both bloggers and their agents admit, many resort to them. "That's what's bad about Instagram - some simply unrealistic number of bots," complains Elena Torshina. "Especially among the girls from House-2." Blogger AnnaMama also claims that in the market the stars of the scandalous TV show are also not liked for dumping.
The blogger market is so young that there is not even a clear understanding of how it is more profitable to work - through an agent or on your own. There are no agents, for example, Katya Klep and Ruslan Usachev (1.1 million subscribers on YouTube). And the most popular Russian-speaking YouTube blogger Ivangai (EeOneGuy - almost 10 million subscribers) never agreed to sign an exclusive contract with anyone. He rarely does advertising, but it is expensive - the price tag for a 20-year-old guy starts from 1.5 million rubles.
Sasha Spielberg is a popular Russian video blogger and singer, whose voice is well known to fans of the Russian fantasy film "He is the Dragon". Sasha turned out to be the first young girl in Russia who has not yet reached the age of majority, who became the officially confirmed owner of the channel on the portal Youtube.
Sasha Spielberg, whose real name is Alexandra Balkovskaya, was born in Moscow in 1997. It should be noted that the blogger herself does not disseminate information about her real name and does not confirm it. The first years the girl lived in Russia, but at the age of 7, doctors diagnosed her with asthma. To cure their daughter, the parents decided to move to a country with a warmer climate, so the family moved to Cyprus.
Alexandra felt much better there. She became very active, taking up tennis, horse riding, swimming, figure skating and even playing golf. And in the 5th grade, the girl first appeared on stage as part of a school amateur girl group and realized that she wanted to devote her future to music. She began to develop her vocals, and this hobby did not disappear even after the family returned to Russia.
But in Moscow, Spielberg faced another problem - longing for her Cypriot friends. She spent a lot of time at the computer, communicating with them, and it was during that period that she began to upload her first videos to YouTube. These were musical cover versions of famous hits. Seeing that their daughter is more and more immersed in virtual reality, the parents sent Alexandra to an American boarding school. But even there, the girl continued to sing, record herself and lay out the result for general viewing.
Blogger
Sasha Spielberg addressed the first videos to an English-speaking audience, but upon returning home from the boarding school, she began to make videos in Russian as well. In 2010, the girl created her first YouTube channel, which contained music content.
Two years later, she needed another channel, which became her personal blog in the format of a video diary. There you can see Sasha Spielberg's impressions of her travels, cosmetics, clothes, fashion, and so on. The blogger also advertises products of well-known brands, including the famous "Procter & Gamble".
In a fairly short time, Spielberg's projects became in demand. She even received a Golden Button prize from YouTube organizers. To date, the number of subscribers to Sasha's video blog is much more than three million, and her program "Spielberg Vlog" was even aired on TV for some time, on the TV channel "RU TV".
In 2016, according to Sasha's father, the video blogger's earnings exceeded one million rubles a month.
Music and films
Sasha Spielberg fell in love with singing at a very tender age. At first she tried to re-sing the famous hits of other performers, and later she began to record her own hits. From the first attempts at writing, the spectacular "Gatsby" s Girl "stood out, inspired by the reading of the novel" The Great Gatsby "and the last film adaptation of this book, where he shone.
Great success brought her such songs as "Your Shadow", the duet composition "I Promise", which she performed together with the singer, but especially the ballad "It's Scary to Love", which became the soundtrack to the fantasy film "He is the Dragon" in 2015.
In 2016, Sasha Spielberg presented three new songs at once: the energetic dance hit "Melt the Ice", performed together with, the solo song "Miss Hippie" and the song "I'll Always Be With You", recorded in collaboration with the Friends team.
Also, together with DJ Leonid Rudenko, Sasha Spielberg starred in an advertising video for Cornetto ice cream from Unilever.
Sasha Spielberg appears in projects of other musicians. So, for example, the video blogger, along with other guest stars, appeared in the video for the song "Gradus 100" by the group "Degrees".
In 2016, the girl discovered another facet of her own creativity. Sasha Spielberg released her clothing collection together with the Marmalato brand.
Also, 2016 brought Sasha Spielberg a new turn in his creative biography. The girl got a chance to try her own hand at the role of an actress. This year, Sasha Spielberg appeared as a cameo in the popular New Year's comedy "Fir Trees 5".
Also, the video blogger played a major role in the film "Hack Bloggers". The main roles, in addition to Sasha, were performed by, and. All the stars of "YouTube" played themselves in the film.
The film received sharply negative reviews and low ratings on movie site ratings. Critics noted the weak and banal plot, but they were much more interested in the low-quality animation. A popular blogger (BadComedian) told Dozhd in an interview that such animation is done for a couple of thousand rubles, not 35 million.
The Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation even instructed to check the feasibility of financing the film.
Personal life
When in high school Sasha Spielberg went to study abroad at a closed boarding school, she took a dislike to this educational institution. The only bright spot during that period was the girl's first love. True, after Alexandra returned to Russia, she and her boyfriend broke up.
Today, Sasha does not talk about romantic relationships, although fans regularly attribute Sasha to romances with colleagues. The popular rumor concerned Sasha Spielberg and ex-boyfriend Maryana Ro Ivan Rudskiy, better known as Ivangai. It was later revealed that this relationship is a fan invention. Then there were rumors about Sasha's relationship with the blogger, but also did not receive confirmation.
In 2017, the girl joked with fans and filmed how she opened her shirt and danced naked. But the figure of the girl was hidden by blurry squares.
Sasha Spielberg now
In addition to arranging a career as a singer and video blogger, Alexandra tried herself as a fashion model and even appeared on the cover of the Russian version of Elle Girl magazine. In 2017, together with, and Karina Kasparyants appeared on the cover of the January issue of "Elle Girl".
In 2017, Sasha Spielberg began to take an interest in politics and social issues. In March 2017, Sasha participated in a meeting with bloggers on the issue of popularizing education and culture among young people, and in April of the same year, she filmed a blog with the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky. In the video, the minister advertised the films "Bolshoi" and the sites "Culture. RF "and" History. RF ".
On May 22, 2017, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma and Secretary of the General Council of United Russia invited Sasha Spielberg to participate in parliamentary hearings on youth policy. Sasha said that she was not a supporter of the rallies, spoke negatively about and urged the deputies to work on the Internet. The girl's performance in the State Duma received an ambiguous assessment of journalists, politicians and other video bloggers.
Also in May, the deputy and representative of the LDPR State Duma party Andrei Svintsov Sasha Spielberg become his assistant. After Sasha's speech in parliamentary hearings, the deputy decided that the blogger is smarter and more erudite than a number of deputies and is suitable for this position. But, according to Sasha's father, the girl does not plan a political career.
In October 2017, the video blogger became a guest of the Let Them Talk show. The release of the TV program told about the stars of the Internet platform "Instagram". During the program, he asked Sasha to comment on the scandalous video where the blogger incorrectly answers the questions of the school curriculum. In response, she did not even return for a forgotten cell phone. Viewers called Spielberg too vulnerable.
Later, Sasha told this act to the press that she left the studio in protest against the violation of the show script agreed with the TV presenter.
Projects
- 2013 - "Love"
- 2013 - "Gatsby's Girl"
- 2014 - "Orange City Skies"
- 2015 - Your Shadow
- 2015 - "I Promise" (feat. Alexander Panayotov)
- 2015 - "It's scary to love" (soundtrack to the movie "He's a Dragon")
- 2016 - "Melt the Ice" (feat. Leonid Rudenko)
- 2016 - Miss Hippie
- 2016 - "I'll always be with you" (feat. Friends)
- 2016 - "Fir-trees 5"
- 2016 - "Hack Bloggers"
Hello dear Afisha. My name is Papa Spielberg. I really love Winnie the Pooh.
- Truth?
Of course, who doesn't love Winnie the Pooh? Okay, let's be serious.
- Where have you gone? Nothing loud lately.
I'm a manager. Clients hire me to make more money. When public resonance helps to make money or to sound, we resonate. Recently, commerce does not require loudness, so nothing is heard. Blogging as a market has formed, there is a routine workflow.
- Have you ever wanted to try blogging yourself?
I didn't want to, but in December I open my channel and become a YouTuber.
- What for?
I know a lot about the social media industry, about YouTube. I was even invited to the Moscow Film School to supervise the course "Video blogging as a profession." We start in January. I want to start my own video blog with the students. The conventional name is "How to spend a million." Now there are many blogs on the topic "How to make a million", but earning is hard and boring, and spending is pleasant and fun. The main human scientists, British scientists, have unearthed what people love more than anything else [to spend money]. Well, except for the period from 18 to 35, when they most like to have sex.
- Spend money.
Yes. Spending - especially a million and especially not rubles - is a science. And there are no competitors yet, there are no channels on this topic. I will talk about beautiful and expensive goods, services and phenomena. I won't buy anything, because I already have a lot. Would you like to buy an expensive watch?
- You are without a watch, by the way.
Yes, I am without watches, crosses and ties. I'm allergic to them, like pirate Jack Rackham - he was allergic to rings and ties too. As a result, he was hanged, but I hope that I will not be hanged.
So that's it. If the watch is worth more than $ 1,000, that's almost an investment. You need to understand what a watch is for, to know the market at least a little. One of the videos will be with the watch dealer very understanding. I will send you a link and learn how to choose the right watch in price categories up to five thousand dollars, up to ten, up to twenty, up to fifty, up to one hundred, up to five hundred.
There will be playlists with unique specialists in various fields. For example, "Etiquette with Albina Kholgova". Albina is one of the top etiquette experts in the country.
In short, [it will be] a channel on how to spend a million with sense and pleasure.
- Why do you need this?
For the last seven years of my life, I have been working with very young people who have something to say. A video blogger is a person who has something to say. I gained experience from clients and decided to exercise my right to freedom of speech. I have something to say.
I will be successful because I like what I will do. If a person does something with pleasure, with love, then he will certainly achieve success.
- What do you miss in life?
Age. I wish I was at least thirty years old again, so that time would go in the opposite direction. It is only after fifty that you begin to understand.
- What traits in yourself do you dislike most of all?
I am a child of an era of change. Our new Chinese friends say that God forbid to live in an era of change. Life was very dysfunctional, cruel, harsh, and I stayed in those times. I often act like I’m not living in 2018. I struggle with this, I work on myself. Then everything was very specific, fast, people had more responsibility than now
- I didn't live in the 1980s and 1990s. Can you tell us about the main feature of that time?
It's 1990. You leave the subway. Winter, minus twenty degrees and there is a line, about forty people, in a stall with the inscription "Ice Cream". Do you know why it's worth it? For butter. Become a tail. Fifteen minutes later, you take two packs, because more than two in one hand do not give, and this makes your evening.
- Is it too late to go to YouTube in 2018?
Just right. Now a lot of companies looking for information, sorting, selling, buying, dismembering ... Do you know what their main deficit is? Content!
Content comes first. If you are producing content that the viewer wants, then it is never too late to go to YouTube. There will be both a viewer and a buyer
Alexander Balkovsky
Papa Spielberg
- What is the worst film by Bekmambetov?
Timur, the director, has no bad films.
- Why don't you like BadComedian?
I really love BadComedian, especially fried in batter. Seriously though, this is not my content. I don't have much time to watch thrash metal.
- Have you looked at the review on "Hack Bloggers"?
Sure. This is a classic showdown of social media stars. BadComedian and Katya Klap sleep together. Katya Clap and Sasha Spielberg are bitter enemies. How to screw up Sasha Spielberg? Ask your boyfriend to crap an unsuccessful project in which she is involved. That's the whole story.
The same review
- What are you most ashamed of in life?
Ashamed in life? Oh, damn ... Well that, I can't say. This is too personal and not interesting to anyone. Most often I am ashamed of the moments when I was unfair to people or undeservedly rude.
- were your daughters in the State Duma with your permission?
She consulted with me. Sasha is one of the leaders in his industry. She has management. When counterparties - be it the State Duma or a commercial brand - want to talk to an artist, they get in touch. Nobody came to the State Duma and said: "Let Sasha Spielberg speak at you." State Duma employees contacted Sasha's management and discussed the possibility of collaboration. Deal. The Deputy Speaker of the State Duma sent Sasha an official invitation to speak. The procedure was absolutely standard.
Sasha agreed because before her speech in the State Duma, most of the country's population did not know at all who the video bloggers were.
The same performance
- And I didn't know who Sasha was.
Yes, sure. It was a great opportunity for more people to know about my client and our industry. And this is not at all a shameful occasion.
Alexander Balkovsky
Last year, YouTube in Russia overtook the main TV channels - its monthly audience coverage (users who visit the site or turn on the TV channel at least once a month) amounted to 82.7%, while First and Russia 1 received 81. 5% and 79.4% of viewers (according to TNS data for June 2016 among an audience of 12-44 years old large cities Russia). Popular Russian-speaking video bloggers have billions of views, but each of them earns no more than several tens of millions of rubles a year. The video blogging advertising market is still emerging, with about ten YouTube celebrity agencies in the industry. One of them is Z Agency, created by director Timur Bekmambetov (Bazelevs) and Alexander Balkovsky, father of YouTube star Sasha Spielberg.
"Secret" met with Alexander Balkovsky to find out how he became a manager of popular vloggers, what is the specifics of the Russian video blogging market and how much vloggers earn offline.
“There were no financial investments, this is a myth”
- Your daughter is one of the most popular Russian-speaking video bloggers, on YouTube she has almost 5 million subscribers. I saw that her rival was called Katya Clap ( 5.5 million subscribers). Video blogging competition sounds absurd. Does it exist at all?
There is no classic competition on YouTube like on TV. There is a first channel and a second channel, they make approximately the same transmissions. Those who have made better quality get more advertisements. And here children are subscribed to dozens and hundreds of channels. If you are a pretty person and make good content, then you will be watched with the same pleasure as an accomplished star.
You can't build anything long-lasting on HYIP, because a blogger is, first of all, a content producer. When something starts with a scandal, where is the content, besides the scandal itself?
It is quite possible that a company with a strong production will take Shurygin or someone like that under its wing and its role will simply be reading the text.
This is not a TV for you, people do not believe in strong production on YouTube. They are interested in the person.
"I fought to get bloggers to be treated like real stars."
The impression was that before Z Agency you were hiding your identity. There were even some investigations about who was behind Sasha Spielberg. And now you are modestly presented everywhere as a venture investor and advertiser, without details.
From 1996 to 2015, there was not a single mention of me on the Internet. Draw your own conclusions.
- I would like to know from you why this happened.
I didn't want to be mentioned about me, so to speak. And now I am a pensioner, so I am slowly but surely turning into a public person.
- Can you still tell us what you did before?
In the 90s I was in advertising - I am one of the founders of the advertising industry in this country. I was a co-owner of one of the first private printing houses, I was engaged in outdoor advertising, there was a lot of things. Then I was engaged in development and IT projects as a private investor. I've never worked for anyone other than myself.
(In the media, Alexander Balkovsky appears as the founder of the full-cycle advertising agency LBL Media, now LBL Communication Group. The company was also engaged in the printing business. According to SPARK, in 2003 Balkovsky ceased to be the owner of the company, his share passed to co-founder Tatyana Lifantyeva, and in 2006 The company became the owner of the company "Mark Media." Also, Balkovsky was a co-owner of the company "Utah Invest" from 2003 to 2005. - Note. "Secret").
- Can you give an example of what you invested in?
Honestly, I would not want to. I was engaged in specific projects, this is not Facebook or YouTube, but all sorts of cunning garbage that is little known to the consumer. I still continue to work on some projects. But I do not want to advertise them, and very few people know about them. I got out of the advertising and development business successfully, but I'm not a billionaire. When you cross a certain milestone, then you have a lot of haters, but I don't need that.
- How did Timur Bekmambetov appear in your life?
Timur Bekmambetov appeared in the same way as he always appears when new trends arise. Everything turned out very quickly. One fine day two years ago, his employees contacted Sasha and offered to cooperate. We got to know Bazelevs, got to know Timur personally and after a few months decided to create a structure that would deal with video bloggers. Timur tells everyone that video bloggers are just like him, filmmakers, because they create their own visuals and content. At the beginning of 2016, all this took shape.
It seems that even before Z Agency you began to manage other video bloggers, not just Sasha Spielberg. How did you meet them?
Sasha introduced me - the first were Julia Pushman, Karina Gasparyants, Lena Sheidlina. They also needed a manager. My task was to ensure that their work was paid fairly. And many of them tried to deceive, offend, cash in on them.
- Now you have the minimum price for advertising on YouTube on your website - from 150,000 rubles. Was it much less then?
Ten times. Four years ago, the market was just emerging, there were few qualified persons involved - as now. What is the main activity of a digital agency? A 20-year-old girl from her second year at the institute is sitting there, and they tell her: “There is a budget of 10 million rubles, please send it to Yandex.Direct”. She does it all with her fingers in an Excel spreadsheet. And YouTube and social networks are a special project. How to evaluate it: in a ruble or 100 rubles - a question for large structures is incomprehensible. And they are trying to crush everyone under themselves.
I fought to get bloggers to be treated like real stars. I did it: all our bloggers have riders, conditions that cannot be circumvented, and price lists. _ (Requirements for customers of projects from the agency's website: “When working on the road, bloggers live in 4-5-star hotels or in the best hotel in the city, fly by Aeroflot or by airlines partnering with Agency Z, do not travel in reserved seat cars and combined compartments , eat at the expense of the inviting party in decent establishments, do not drive Lada Sedan eggplant cars. ”- Approx.“ Secret ”).
- Before Z Agency you had a legal entity "Bloggers United" with the author of the Internet show "+100500", co-founder of Caramba TV Maxim Golopolosov and founder of The Viewmakers Studio, former top manager of Caramba TV Nikita Zeltser. Is this another ad agency?
No, no, we were trying to make the YouTube Videofan festival following the example of the world's largest conference VidCon. But this did not quite work out, because in Russia there is not such a large community and the structure of the audience for such events in the West is completely different. We did a couple of festivals, but we froze this project because it is not very interesting financially.
"Offline is a side activity"
- Now there are almost 30 bloggers on the site. Did they come gradually?
No, everyone who is - from the very beginning. But this is not so little. We work periodically with every second network star. We offer them only management and charge a commission of 5–25% on their advertising earnings. On average 15%.
Everything is classic: there is the cosmetics industry, there is the fashion industry, there is the electronic games industry. Sasha had an unexpected collaboration with Dolce & Gabanna, they themselves offered to work with her. They explained this very dryly: “We believe that in the Russian-speaking world, your social media profiles are the most suitable for our brand.”
Someone comes up with an idea, and those who are more literate and longer in the blogosphere market ask to create a creative. Usually, the result is one-off items or urgent campaigns - two, maximum three separate videos or brand mentions. Long-term ones are an exception. The market is not yet ready to make a blogger the face of a business.
Why do we need these brands at all, which they sympathize with? Bloggers need money. For example, Sasha Spielberg sympathizes with the Mac brand, and I do not sympathize with them at all, because they have no budgets. When they have a budget, I will sympathize with them.
Nothing like this. Sasha has her own collection of clothes together with the Marmalato brand. She also performs at corporate parties, sings songs. In the structure of its income this year, already half of the money will come from offline activities.
- How does this happen?
The bloggers themselves have some offline inclinations: someone sings, someone comes up with clothes, someone is a presenter. And so they say: "It would be cool to try yourself in this." We start looking for some options for them.
There are two lines of behavior for video bloggers around the world: some focus exclusively on YouTube, as PewDiePie is the main youtuber in the world, with 50 million subscribers. Here he focuses only on YouTube projects. And there are people for whom YouTube is a launching pad for going offline.
No, this is still the one Sasha in all Russian YouTube. The rest get no more than 5-10% from offline. Usually more than 80% of revenue is from product placement, and the rest is from YouTube royalties. Well, this is for commercially successful people, someone gives deductions and 100%.
Offline is a side activity. A blogger is a media that belongs to himself. Who will go to work on the program if he has his own media? In parallel - yes, but to dive in and abandon your main platform - of course not.
Here the beauty is in what: this is a unique opportunity to vary your own activities and acquire a new audience without losing the old one. Here's something you did not work offline, you just - and back in the shell to your favorite subscribers.
You yourself tried to make money offline - Bazelevs filmed the film Hack Bloggers. Everywhere he was called a failure - he earned only 7 million rubles, the lowest mark on Kinopoisk. What happened to him anyway?
It was a wonderful attempt to make YouTube viewers into moviegoers, but it didn't quite work out. As for the rental - it was practically not there, it went for several days in several dozen halls. There was a soldier out at the premiere in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The story is not over with this film. Bazelevs has not yet made a final decision on what to do with it next, and I am not authorized to speak on behalf of the film company. As for the ratings on "Kinopoisk", the film is for children, and the children are not registered on the resource, they do not vote there. And the adults have not seen this film.
And when bloggers start participating in TV programs, is this the same attempt to bring YouTube viewers to TV?
Yes, and generally exchange audiences. But I believe that you need to work on your audience, and not to conquer someone else's. I do not believe in such an exchange, it is difficult to get TV viewers somewhere. No one succeeded except for Kolya Sobolev (the blogger participated in the “Let the Talk” program with Diana Shurygina and posted videos about her on his channel. - Approx. “Secret”). But this is an uncharacteristic example: if I have a small YouTube channel and five programs from Malakhov about the rape of minors, I think I will also gain a large audience.
"The advertiser wants adult projects"
In addition to young video bloggers, you have adult stars on your site - Maxim Vitorgan, Irina Gorbacheva, even Alexander Kerzhakov. Why did they appear?
These persons are on our website in the “Partners” column. We sometimes work together. YouTube has a wide audience, and the advertiser wants adult projects. Requests for an audience for more than 20-30 years now prevail, there are simply no qualified advertising carriers that are designed for an adult paying audience. But they will appear soon, here " Khach's diary"- this is the first swallow. Do you know?
- No.
What a shame! Take a look, you will like it.
- And what's in there?
There are many strange vlogs for an unprepared viewer. But the audience likes it.
- Is the fact that there is no adult audience a specific feature of the Russian video blogger market?
Of course, including. Now people over 35 years old periodically have problems with relationships with networks. But the main thing is that the content is suitable, and then everything will change. Those who will soon become grandparents are a powerful audience.
In general, this is a great market. We are in third place after China and America in terms of time spent on the Internet. To do, in general, no shit on long winter evenings, so all this will only grow. Moreover, social networks are free entertainment.
- What to show to such an audience?
Yes all. They are curious, educated - life hacks, all sorts of stories like "In the animal world", "Travelers' Club".
And what about the content for the little ones - a video where kids open gifts, play? This is a new trend and new opportunity earn?
No, YouTube started with this. But this business has a short period - until the child grows up. The content consumption model by children under seven is completely different. They watch the same thing endlessly and consume less content. And they will not follow the heroes of these videos, because the audience until the age of seven does not personify their heroes, that is, they do not understand whether this is Mister Max or Miss Cathy (brother
- How many bloggers are there in the market?
There are hundreds of people who earn 300,000 - 500,000 rubles a month. The entire market is two billion a year. More than a thousand YouTubers will be typed only with those for whom 5000 rubles is already a budget.
- A school of video bloggers “Come on Lime” has recently appeared, maybe this number will grow.
It's just an attempt to make money, I don't believe in schools like this.
That is, this is not a story, as with startups, when everyone wanted to become entrepreneurs, came to "Business Youth" and brought a lot of money there?
Yes, there simply is not this heap of money. Parents believe that a video blogger is evil. They do not use social networks or are permanently stuck on Facebook and Odnoklassniki. I love Facebook, but it's like about tomatoes: I like to eat, but not really.
- What do you like?
YouTube is # 1 because it's the hardest part. Then Instagram, and then everything else went. VK is in third or fourth place.
Recently, new services have emerged that should have killed YouTube - Periscope or Snapchat. Why didn't they manage to make a revolution?
These are local things, cute but local. It was easy to compete with Ford at the beginning of the 20th century, and no longer possible after the First World War. For now, no one will catch up with YouTube, they will either buy them all, or adapt them for themselves.
- If you dream up, can you imagine some kind of communication channel that will block YouTube?
Only YouTube itself. Because it is developing very competently so far. Do you know Vimeo? Do you understand why YouTube is YouTube and Vimeo is Vimeo? Nobody needs your sensations and your art, you need to be able to do what a large audience likes. I say this from the point of view of a manager. I myself am very fond of art, I have a lot of things hanging on the walls at home.
- Is video blogging not an art?
As my beloved Timur Bekmambetov says, video bloggers are the same directors. It's just a mass market.
Photos: Egor Slizyak / "The Secret of the Firm"
