Are these Vloggers just a scam? SOL or Shmee etc? (Vol 2)

[The Li-ion King]

S11Steve said:

egor110 said:

I’d be interested how much merch they actually sell .

Who really would wear a sol or schmee t shirt ?

Strangely enough I was in Tesco at lunch and a rather rotund guy who must have been the higher side of 50 walked past me wearing a black T shirt with "yiannimize" emblazoned across it in what looked like gol sequins.

He was also wearing a Hoonigan cap back to front. What a style icon he was.

Yianni has let himself go

The YT content is drying up... Paul Wallace from SOL sat in Archie Hamilton's A35, and discussed Brabus mods for the car, despite the fact he's replacing it at some point with an A45s... he threatened to put tyre graphics on the A35, after the success of the ones on his GT3 RS. Meanwhile TGE mooched around Bramley Motors in Guildford whilst looking to buy a £160k Mercedes... First World problems

Edited by The Li-ion King on Friday 6th September 20:56

[ooid]

Shmee said:

Fortunately for me I've had 2 months of my strongest numbers ever...

I have not watched a single video of you for ages.. maybe since the Autobahn video?

[johnwilliams77]

ooid said:

I have not watched a single video of you for ages.. maybe since the Autobahn video?

Then perhaps you are not the target audience

[AlexNJ89]

So pleased the "target audience" is being considered on this thread now.

The posts saying that something has to change with the wrap, collections and exhausts videos or the YouTubers will die is just silly. They'll be watching their numbers and if you don't like those videos then they were never for you.

The people in this thread are in the minority when it comes to viewing this type of content.

If you want to see who the true target audience is, take a look at who shows up to TGE and Archie's collections, it's 13yo kids wearing LDNM and 11 degrees tracksuits.

[95JO]

The Li-ion King said:

It's all to do with greed, simply put. The Boris Johnson's of the car world will eventually run out of ideas, you can see it when they sometimes converge and appear on each others videos, or if car manufacturers gather them all together for testing a popular model (There was a video earlier this year where TGE and Archie even shared a hotel before going somewhere like an alpine resort for a ride in a Mercedes Unimog, then later in some G350d cars)... I don't think all these YT'ers have the same cameraderie as 483 bus drivers waving to each other as they pass through West Ealing, for instance... it's all about scraping together enough money to keep going.

When one of them is "gifted" a Hyundai i30N, for instance, that's probably a result of continual begging and brown nosing for a few weeks before the other borrowed car's lease runs out. Depending where you are on the food chain accidents have to be catered for (Shmee150's bump with the lorry with the Maclaren seems nothing compared to SOL melting his Go Pro on a Urus exhaust the other day ) ... probably why SOL went begging to Honda for CBT lessons to add different content as his channel is clearly dying...

If you are more successful, then the destinations are more exotic, i.e Drive The World, or Shmee150's jaunt to the States... or you have to make do with Hatfield Tunnel / backstreets of Rickmansworth / "YouTube Square" in Central London / Sloane Street and Dorchester Hotel looking for Supercars whilst pretending you're having a whale of a time.

Probably why I prefer HubNut where the thrill of a car can be fixing a thermostat in a City Rover, or thrashing an invalid carriage on Welsh country lanes, or just getting a car you bought home in one piece

Edited by The Li-ion King on Friday 6th September 04:34

Well said.

[Shmee]

pincher said:

Can you see yourself moving over there on a semi-permanent basis if the numbers stack up for you?

If everything was purely about chasing the numbers and growth of the business then I would do a permanent move within a heartbeat and not look back. It's quite clear to me that the social media and entertainment future is all about the USA where the numbers, audience and money is all greater than anything in Europe and certainly the UK. However, that ignores the personal elements like my girlfriend with a full time job in Europe, my family and friends at home, and a garage full of UK registered RHD cars.

The question which I'm trying to work out is exactly as you ask on some form of semi-permanent basis where I can balance time between the two; simultaneously also creating a nice diversity in content. Fortunately with my US visa I can do this as I'd like to, the only question is the time, effort and money that gets spent crossing back and forth over the Atlantic and the timings to try to be at every event and opportunity.

Unsurprisingly manufacturers don't like it too much if you don't attend an event they put on, and I've already got a few breathing down my neck for things I've missed over the last 2 months that I couldn't make because the overnight trip across to Europe would have just been too exhausting and there's not exactly been a short supply of amazing opportunities on the Stateside. The coming days at the Frankfurt motorshow will include a lot of meetings to discuss plans and options, even just amongst my team who will be present with me and what we do now.

[Dave Hedgehog]

Tim,

Was nice to see you cover the Tesla, and the supreme joy you got from driving the Zonda

[anonymous-user]

Shmee said:

pincher said:

Can you see yourself moving over there on a semi-permanent basis if the numbers stack up for you?

If everything was purely about chasing the numbers and growth of the business then I would do a permanent move within a heartbeat and not look back. It's quite clear to me that the social media and entertainment future is all about the USA where the numbers, audience and money is all greater than anything in Europe and certainly the UK.

It is certainly true in Doug's case with the numbers, location and his access to interesting metal. I often feel he has gone too far into a rabbit hole of one formula though. If the blinkers come of YT's content algorithm, which is possible at some point as they certainly have with the main SERP's one with RankBrain taking over, the pump and dump of similar content could spell creators a headache if they can't adapt.

If YouTube is turning into a TV channel would it not be wise to treat it as such in the USA, set up a studio, film a load of content, come back to the UK to edit and dump it out over a few weeks with build up / highlights in-between?

[jayemm89]

I've been doing something not entirely unlike that. Recently popped to Scotland where a bunch of like minded enthusiasts let me review their cars. Got a month's worth of content from a week's worth of filming. Makes a lot of sense for me, practically and financially

[0a]

RobDown said:

I’m definitely watching less and less now on YT. Really just not that interested in “X has bought a McLaren 720s!” That market is definitely saturated

I’ll still watch a bit of the Car Guys. I’ve got a bit more back into JayEmms stuff recently (which has been good, partly because he’s been driving cars that I might actually want to own at some point, eg the 430). And Harry’s garage is strangely addictive (I have absolutely no idea why but I watched a whole video of someone taking his Espada engine out yesterday).

I’ve not watched a STG/Sol/Shmee video now in months. Just not interested in the current content

I’m actually wondering whether the future may be podcasts? I can listen to them in the car, or whole doing something else. Really enjoying the Chris Harris ones, really liked Behind the Glass too. Just feels more entertaining when people are having a conversation about my passion (cars) rather than relying on some visuals/b-roll

Ha, we have a very similar Youtube playlist it seems! Recently I have been watching furiousdriving as well. He gets some random interesting cars on there.

[johnwilliams77]

Enjoyed this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhLLyuQezJ0

Decent chap too

[Meridius]

Have to give a hand to JayEmm, the range and amount of cars he has been able to get a hold of to put out as much content as quickly as he has done is top notch work.

[jayemm89]

Thankyou very much.

When I decided to commit to three videos a week this year, I was worried it would involve putting out filler videos or content I wasn't happy with, or struggling to get enough shot.

As it turns out I now have videos uploaded and ready to go until October, with a huge mix of stuff. I've got everything from a £500 Astra to a V12 Ferrari and all in between coming up.

I'm almost hoping it slows down a bit over winter so I have a chance to do some content on my own cars!

[egor110]

jayemm89 said:

Thankyou very much.

When I decided to commit to three videos a week this year, I was worried it would involve putting out filler videos or content I wasn't happy with, or struggling to get enough shot.

As it turns out I now have videos uploaded and ready to go until October, with a huge mix of stuff. I've got everything from a £500 Astra to a V12 Ferrari and all in between coming up.

I'm almost hoping it slows down a bit over winter so I have a chance to do some content on my own cars!

What's been the car that's surprised you the most this year ?

the cheap car that's over performed rather than a expensive car designed to perform in the 1st place .

[grudas]

jayemm89 said:

Thankyou very much.

When I decided to commit to three videos a week this year, I was worried it would involve putting out filler videos or content I wasn't happy with, or struggling to get enough shot.

As it turns out I now have videos uploaded and ready to go until October, with a huge mix of stuff. I've got everything from a £500 Astra to a V12 Ferrari and all in between coming up.

I'm almost hoping it slows down a bit over winter so I have a chance to do some content on my own cars!

does that mean you're doing this full time as a job now?

[Shmee]

Lord-Haggis said:

If YouTube is turning into a TV channel would it not be wise to treat it as such in the USA, set up a studio, film a load of content, come back to the UK to edit and dump it out over a few weeks with build up / highlights in-between?

Unfortunately daily videos don't really allow for such a schedule but also you can't spring backwards and forwards or you disconnect the audience, so for example I need to finish the LA content before starting things from London.

You won't be surprised also to know that normally I'm actually a week ahead of what you see, outside of public facing events.

[Dave Hedgehog]

johnwilliams77 said:

Enjoyed this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhLLyuQezJ0

Decent chap too

His 3 ingredients for a road trip

Burgers
Pizza
Curry

[johnwilliams77]

Dave Hedgehog said:

His 3 ingredients for a road trip

Burgers
Pizza
Curry

Odd comment. Was it a joke?

[jayemm89]

grudas said:

does that mean you're doing this full time as a job now?

It has been full time since day one really - I never expected to be able to make a living from something I didn't put full time hours in. It's only in the last few months that it has actually started generating meaningful income.

To answer the question about cars which surprised, I know you said not ones which were designed to perform in the first place, but actually the TVR Cerbera. Now I know it's a "Performance car" but in my mind I thought it would just disappoint - fast in a straight line, and not much else. Actually some of the best steering I've ever experienced in a car, a totally striking design even after 25 years and actually a delight to pilot.

Biggest disappointment conversely was the Caterham 620S. Didn't feel much faster than the 420R I'd been given before, and it tried to gas me.

[The Li-ion King]

johnwilliams77 said:

Dave Hedgehog said:

His 3 ingredients for a road trip

Burgers
Pizza
Curry

Odd comment. Was it a joke?

I was a bit lost on that one too... good review of the Audi R8 though by Jay