How Jukin Media Generated Big Revenues With UGC

40,000 Licensed Video Assets Generate Billions of Views, Millions in Revenue

Jukin Media predicts user-generated video is the future of storytelling, and they are leading the way by licensing videos that capture authentic, spur-of-the-moment stories. If you’ve seen a funny, inspirational, entertaining, or newsworthy video that’s gone viral, chances are it is one of Jukin Media’s 40,000 video assets.

Over the past six years the company has become the go-to source for advertising agencies, digital publishers, and TV producers looking for original video stories that resonate with consumers. “We provide high-quality, hand-selected videos that transcend geography and language,” states Mike Skogmo, Vice President of Communications and Marketing. “There are videos we licensed five years ago that are still being used by partners, and they’re still generating revenue for the people who filmed them. That’s the power of really compelling video; it’s universal and timeless.”

In addition to its licensing revenue, the company monetizes its video assets through branded social video properties on YouTube and Facebook and original programming for television and OTT channels. Jukin Media's brands currently have 55+ million fans and record more than 1.5 billion video views per month. The company’s original TV programs air in 200 markets around the world.

Authentic, “Caught on Camera” User-Generated Videos Are the Future of Storytelling

Jukin credits advances in technology with the burgeoning availability of compelling user-generated video. “Ten years ago the cost of creating original video footage or broadcasting live was prohibitive for the average person,” notes Skogmo. “Today, everyone has a personal television studio in their pocket. Anyone can capture beautiful HD 4K footage with their cell phone and upload it to social media sites with a touch of a button. As a result, the amount of video people are generating has gone through the roof. This has opened the door for our business and enabled us to grow exponentially.”

Although it receives thousands of user-generated video submissions each week, Jukin Media relies on its internal research staff to identify the bulk of the videos they license. They scour the Internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week to identify videos with the right content to go viral.

“Our focus is video that captures compelling, everyday life moments,” explains Skogmo. “Ninety-nine percent of our videos are filmed by amateurs—not professional videographers, not entertainers, not people trying to make a career on YouTube. The videos are organic life moments from everyday people who happened to catch something remarkable on video.” To date, Jukin has paid over $10 million in royalties for user-generated videos.

Brightcove Powers Jukin Media’s Expansion

Jukin Media hosts its library of 40,000 videos on the Brightcove Video Cloud platform. “Brightcove is the video player for our online business-to-business ecommerce platform,” declares Skogmo. “We needed a reliable and flexible platform to support the volume of videos we host and the large number of people who view them on a daily basis. We integrated the Brightcove player with our back-end system and website, and that’s been great from our perspective.”

Before transitioning to Brightcove, Jukin Media tried other video players to solve the challenge of reliability. “Our business depends on people being able to watch videos when they want to watch them, on whatever device they choose. We can’t afford to have any issues with the video playback,” explains Skogmo. “We needed a reliable solution that would ensure our videos loaded quickly and displayed well. And that is why Brightcove is so important to our business. It just works as it’s intended to work.”

Brightcove’s search and preview functionality are also critical. “If you’re a TV producer and you need to fill 50 clips for a show, you don’t want to look through hundreds of irrelevant clips to find the 50 that meet your needs,” explains Skogmo. “The videos need to load, present well, and play quickly. Brightcove’s video preview feature is a huge time saver for our clients. The convenience to search and preview is extremely important to our customers.”

“Our website plays a critical role in our expanding business,” concludes Skogmo. “With Brightcove, our website delivers the reliability and performance our business demands.”

Original Programming for Social Media, Television, and OTT Channels Drives New Revenue

Jukin is breaking fresh ground and establishing new revenue opportunities by using its diverse video assets as the foundation for branded YouTube channels and original productions for television and OTT channels.

The company’s dedicated YouTube channels, which focus on specific verticals, have attracted large and engaged fan bases. The largest of its collection is the “FailArmy” channel, a global comedy brand that blends blooper videos with graphics and on-air hosts. “FailArmy” has 25+ million global fans and garners more than 500 million views a month. Similarly, Jukin’s “The Pet Collective” channel has 6 million fans between YouTube and Facebook combined, and it receives more than 200 million views a month. Another channel—“People are Awesome”—features videos of ordinary people doing unusual and extraordinary things. It has attracted 12 million fans and draws three hundred million views per month.

Jukin has created additional monetization opportunities for its videos by producing its own original television shows. One of the shows, based on the “FailArmy” brand, airs in 200 markets around the world. The show is in its fifth season and has aired 80 episodes to date, with an additional 20 episodes currently in production. The company also develops original shows for OTT and streaming platforms, including Verizon’s mobile video service, go90, and Comcast’s Watchable.

“We’re finding new creative ways to package our video assets,” explains Skogmo. “Jukin is the only licensing company that produces our own TV shows. We use only videos from the Jukin library in our shows, and we pay users a license fee if we feature their video in one of our shows.”

User-Generated Content Opens New Opportunities

“As online video continues to grow and become a bigger part of people’s lives, you’ll see that our brands also grow right along with people’s consumption habits from traditional to digital media,” states Skogmo.

User-generated content is creating a new age of entertainment, and Jukin Media sees its next big opportunities coming from international expansion. Jukin expects an increase in UGC coming from international markets, a result of device proliferation combined with better, more accessible global internet access. Advertisers in new markets will be able to seamlessly play back authentic, organic content that resonates more with a digital audience. “Our content is so visual that it works just as well in non-English speaking countries as it does here in the states,” concludes Skogmo.