Official Blog
How one family used YouTube to build a home and rebuild their lives
Monday, January 23, 2017
In December 2007, Cara Brookins was a 36-year-old computer programmer working full- time and taking care of her four young kids (ages 2, 11, 15, 17). From the outside, she looked like any other mom but personally she had just closed the door on an unsafe marriage and was preparing to rebuild her life.
After buying an acre of land in Bryant, Ark. and taking out a $150k loan, Cara and her four kids did something amazing … they rolled up their sleeves and started building their own home with the help of YouTube videos. The videos they watched on YouTube equipped them with the information they needed to make their big dream a reality. They watched videos to learn everything from how to build a solid foundation and construct countertops to even how to do their own plumbing. By September 2008--after nine months of working 20-hour days--Cara and her kids had finished their dream home. We spoke with Cara about finding hope, the power of YouTube, and why she chose to share her story:
Q: Take us back to the moment you decided to build your own house … what sparked the idea initially?
Cara: I had left a domestic violence situation with my four kids and we were really emotionally destroyed. All the advice I found for improving my life talked about baby steps and small goals. I couldn’t see how just resolving to get dressed in the morning was going to get me anywhere. We needed a safe place to live, and I was determined to do something big. So building a house felt like the most natural solution in the world.
Q: Why did you turn to YouTube?
Cara: We had always had a DIY mindset and we’d used YouTube to make our own jewelry and art projects. So we instantly focused on YouTube as the place to also learn how to set a foundation block or how to frame a window. I also researched energy efficient building ideas on YouTube. YouTube was really our go-to destination for the information we needed throughout the process.
Q: How did your family react when you told them what you were planning to do?
Cara: My parents thought I was absolutely nuts. They tried to talk me out of it and that shocked me. It seemed like such an obvious and perfect solution. Of course once they saw I was going to build it anyhow—yes, they already knew I was a very stubborn girl—they supported me in every way, even showing up on the job site to work.
Q: How did you and your family use YouTube throughout the process?
Cara: We used multiple videos for each project to learn multiple ways to do each thing, like frame a window or run a sewer line. And we tried to understand why each thing was done a certain way rather than just how to do it. Because we were watching at home on a computer (no smartphones!) and would have to remember everything to make it work the next day on the job site.
Q: Was there ever a point where you looked at the construction around you and thought “what have I gotten myself into?!”
Cara: From the day we broke ground, I thought this every single day until we moved in! It was an overwhelming number of decisions and amount of work. But I was the only adult to pull all the kids together and I had to play it confident and cool the whole time. I had to make the decisions and plans and then be the cheerleader. It was emotionally exhausting, but of course incredibly rewarding too.
Q: For anyone out there who may want to learn how to do something but doesn't know where to start or thinks they can't do it, what would you tell them?
Cara: Never stop with the phrase, “I don’t know how to do that.” Always add, “YET!” There are no limits to what you can accomplish if you truly want it. And of course that’s because if you want it badly enough you’ll put in a solid effort and endless hours of hard work. Approach each project with steady determination. I was a small computer programmer and an author. If I can build a house with my kids, there is no limit to what other people might accomplish.
Q: Why did you decide to write a book about your journey and what do you hope people take from reading it?
Cara: I never intended to write a book about the house when we were building it. I was pretty ashamed that my decisions had put us in this place, where our sanest option was to build our own shelter. Fiction writing was my big focus at the time. But after we finished, I knew I had to tell our story, not because I wanted other people to look at what we’d done but because I wanted them to imagine the big things they could build with their life. It took me six years to figure out how to write the book in the right away. I had dozens of versions before “Rise” sold. Even then there was a big fear over how people would react and what they would focus on in the story. It’s such a vulnerable time of our lives to share. But we’ve had so much support from across the entire world, and best of all the message people are receiving is that they really can do anything they dream of if they put in enough hard work.
Q: How did this experience impact your kids and your family?
Cara: My kids were so weak and small when we started this project. All our energy went toward survival with no energy left for setting goals or dreaming of a big future. After we built the house we each came away with the sense that absolutely anything was possible. Our dreams are ridiculous, crazy things and we don’t doubt for one second that we’ll achieve them.
Celebrating ten years of Big Game ads on YouTube
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Every year, a few Big Game ads stand out from the pack and keep us smiling long after the last play … like
your daughter’s first date
,
that time Liam Neeson wanted revenge
, or the year we met
whatever this is
.
Today, we’re kicking off
YouTube AdBlitz
for the tenth time, a destination where you can come watch and vote for all your favorite Big Game ads.
To continue to spotlight excellence as part of our AdBlitz program, we've made two key changes. First, in addition to our main list of AdBlitz winners, we'll be recognizing top performers in individual categories, like automotive and food & beverage. Second, we've seen more and more traditional in-game advertisers choose to launch ads around the Big Game versus during the actual broadcast. This year, these spots will also be eligible to compete in AdBlitz.
In honor of AdBlitz's ten-year anniversary, we’re also taking a look back at the top 20 Big Game ads from the past nine years that have stood the test of time. Collectively, these ads have
racked up more than 440M minutes of watchtime
along the way.
Of course as much as we love Big Game ads, they also represent just one slice of all the football-related content people watch on YouTube. Overall, watchtime for football-related content has grown over 90 percent year-over-year.
1
Given this huge interest, it’s no surprise that the NFL’s YouTube channel, which they unveiled two years ago, just passed the 1 billion views mark, a huge achievement.
In looking at the ads that made our top 20 list, we noticed a few things.
The ad your ad could smell like:
Iconic ads continue to thrive on YouTube long past their initial release. Some of the most memorable ads from previous years, like Old Spice's “
The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
” (2010), Ram Trucks’ "
Farmer
" (2013) and GoPro and Red Bull’s “
Red Bull Stratos - The Full Story
” (2014) collectively garnered over
5M views in 2016
, years after their original airing. And combined, these ads have driven
over 92.5M lifetime views
.
Advertisers use the force … of uploading early.
Advertisers that upload early do better overall. The share of Big Game ads released on YouTube before game day
grew over 200 percent from 2008 to 2016
, due to a combination of more advertisers releasing their television spots early on YouTube as well the growing popularity of teasers. Among YouTube's Top 20 ranking, 90 percent of the ads listed were released on YouTube before the Super Bowl that year, including Volkswagen’s “The Force” and Budweiser’s “Puppy Love.”
Pokemon goes global:
Just as the Big Game has become a global moment, so have the ads. Outside the U.S., Super Bowl ad viewership on YouTube
has grown over 28x since 2008
. In 2016, the three countries outside the U.S. that watched the most Super Bowl ads on YouTube are Canada, the United Kingdom and Russia. Some of the most popular Super Bowl ads internationally included: Pokemon’s “
#Pokemon20: Pokémon Super Bowl Commercial
,” Coca-Cola’s “
Coke Mini (Hulk vs. Ant-Man)
,” and Heinz’s “
Wiener Stampede - Extended Cut
.”
Our full AdBlitz 10-Year Anniversary report is here
along with the full list of the top 20 ads of the past nine years. We encourage you to take a look and come up with your own insights. And of course check back with AdBlitz before, during, and after the Big Game to see and vote for this year’s additions to the catalog of iconic Big Game ads.
Tara Walpert Levy, Vice President of Agency & Media Solutions, recently watched “
NFL 2016: Part One” -- A Bad Lip Reading of the NFL
.”
1
YouTube Data, U.S. Classification as American Football video was based on public data such as headlines, tags, etc., and may not account for every such video available on YouTube, January - November 2016.
Presidential Inauguration, live on YouTube
Friday, January 13, 2017
From
conventions
to
debates
to
election day
, millions of you came to YouTube over the past year to stay informed and engage in a conversation on the 2016 U.S. election.
The results are in and in one week President-elect Trump will take the oath of office. As in 2013, YouTube is live streaming inauguration coverage and this year you can tune into live streams from more news organizations than ever before.
Head to YouTube on Friday, January 20, and choose a news channel to follow the day-long events:
NBC News
CBS News
Telemundo
Univision
Bloomberg Politics
USA Today
Washington Post
You'll also be able to feel what it's like to be in the center of the action - look out for special coverage from some of the channels above in 360 degrees.
Stay up to speed on U.S. political news, including live coverage, by heading to youtube.com/news.
Brandon Feldman, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched ”
Presidential History
.”
Can we chat? Hello Super Chat!
Thursday, January 12, 2017
We’re always trying to help creators share their stories, deepen relationships with their fans and succeed. In order to help out with the business part of the equation, over the last few years we’ve developed and released several tools to help creators monetize their videos and live streams in a variety of ways.
Today, we are introducing our latest tool for fans and creators to connect with one another during live streams: Super Chat. Anybody watching a live stream can purchase a Super Chat: a highlighted message in the chat stream that stands out from the crowd to get even more of your favorite creator’s attention. And Super Chats remain pinned to the top of chat for
up to 5 hours
, giving more airtime for your messages.
For creators, this means Super Chat does double duty: keeping their conversations and connections with (super) fans meaningful and lively while also giving creators a new way to make money. We’re excited to start the Super Chat beta today with a few creators, such as
iHasCupquake
,
Great Library (buzzbean11)
and
Alex Wassabi
. And we plan to broadly launch Super Chat on January 31 for creators in 20 countries and viewers in more than 40 countries.
As we welcome a new tool for fans and creators, we bid farewell to an old one: Fan Funding. We launched Fan Funding in 2014 to let viewers make voluntary payments to support creators directly. While we were really excited about Fan Funding, it never achieved widespread usage outside of live streams, where we saw the majority of revenue. Fan Funding will stop accepting new sign-ups today, but can continue to be used on enabled channels until February 28, when it will be discontinued.
We are
super
(get it ;) excited to see how our new creator funding tool keeps the conversation going.
Barbara Macdonald, Product Manager, recently watched "
David S. Pumpkins
."
‘Bennie and the Jets,’ ‘Rocket Man,’ ‘Tiny Dancer’ and You
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Ever wanted to direct a music video? How about a video for some of the most loved songs ever written? And then collaborating on that vision with one of entertainment’s most imaginative minds? Well then step up and see if you can make “The Cut.”
“
Elton John: The Cut Supported by YouTube
” is a global competition to create the official music videos for three of the legendary singer’s most iconic songs—“Bennie and the Jets,” “Rocket Man” and “Tiny Dancer.”
Dreamworks Animation CEO
Jeffrey Katzenberg
(“Shrek,” “Madagascar,” “Kung Fu Panda,” “Monsters vs. Aliens,” “How to Train Your Dragon”) Grammy Award-winning video director
Melina Matsoukas
(Beyonce’s “Formation”; Rihanna’s “We Found Love”) and
Barry Jenkins
, writer-director of Golden Globe Best Picture (Drama) “Moonlight,” will serve as judges for the competition that gives aspiring creators from all over the world the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to apply their creative vision to these hits.
Entries officially opened to the public on Jan. 9, 2017, and close on January 23, so now is the time to get started!
Entries will require different artistic elements for each music video entry—submissions for “Rocket Man” should feature animation, “Tiny Dancer” should be live-action, and “Bennie and the Jets” should feature choreography.
Need inspiration?
YouTube creators Kurt Hugo Schneider, PES and Parris Goebel, who will shortlist the entries and present their selections to the judges, will put together some inspirational videos to kick things off.
PES, an Oscar- and Emmy-nominated filmmaker, gives some
inspirational examples
of how he would apply his unique stop-animation style to “Rocket Man.”
The competition is open to anyone over 16, subject to local terms and conditions. To find out more about “Elton John: The Cut,” supported by YouTube, and how to enter, please visit
https://thecut.eltonjohn.com/
.
Good luck!
Maya Amoils, Product Marketing Manager, YouTube, recently watched “
James Corden Auditions for James Arthur
.”
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