People I’m Watching in 2010

An article by Ryan    No Comments

In my first post of the new year, instead of talking more about myself, I’d like to point out a few people who I think should be watched in 2010. I fancy myself as someone who can identify the “it factor”. There are a few I stumbled across in 2009 who were just getting their personal brands going and I think can really kill it in 2010 and create legitimate businesses around their content. Although there are many more people who I think are skilled enough and can become successful in due time, these people featured here I feel can create sustainable business models in the next year if they take the correct steps.

DarkSydePhil – DarkSydePhil is a gamer based in the north east. In 2009 he began posting videos of himself playing video games while providing commentary to the in game action. Within one year his youtube channel skyrocketed to over 40,000 subscribers thanks to his hilarious often angry in game commentary.

Why do I think he can turn it into a business? First off, gaining 40k subscribers on youtube in a year from 0 is an indication that he resonates with a specific demographic. Sure 40k is a fraction of the top subbed channels on youtube, but the difference is DSP is very niche and attracts a very specific and lucrative advertising demographic (males with disposable incomes). This audience is growing at a very high rate as well. When December began he was around 30,000 and shooting for a goal of 35,000 subscribers, It reached 40,000 before the year.

What he should do? Create a web presence outside of youtube that allows his viewers to become an online community. By creating a community your options for monetization grow. You can do advertising, sponsorships, products. By creating an online community you allow your viewers and fans to create content on your website via their discussions. Money will come with the eyeballs and the earlier he creates his own space on the web, the faster he’ll get there.

Obstacles – His content (video game playthroughs) skirt the line of legality. Some may argue that play throughs are copyright infringement. If you consider video games the newest form of interactive story telling then this may be the case. There have been court cases that have established that putting recordings of movies and music online as illegal but there has been no precedence set for play throughs as of yet.

Ryan Gutierrez aka gootecks – Gootecks is a top SoCal Street Fighter 4 tournament player. In early 2009 he decided to dedicate more of his time to growing the fighting game scene and began pumping out podcasts, video content, and his own branded event ‘Street Fighter Bar Fights’. Within the last year he has appeared in the documentary ‘I Got Next‘ by Ian Cofino and has been featured on G4 TV.

The good thing about gootecks is that he gets it. Street Fighter fans are amongst the most passionate fans of any video game. They study and devour everything related to the game and many have been doing so since the early ’90s. With the release of Street Fighter 4 in 2009 and the upcoming Super Street Fighter 4 in March 2010, Gootecks has done a great job positioning himself to be one of the faces of the Street Fighter community. He is also friends with Justin Wong, the best SF4 player in the country and if they started working together it would undeniably demand the attention of everyone in the community. I’ve talked to Ryan a few times the last year and many of the ideas he has are awesome and if executed properly and with focus, there should be no reason why he can’t make a very comfortable living for himself doing what he loves.

There are many others who I am watching, some further along than others but these 2 are the ones who I am most intrigued by mainly because they are 2 more examples of the shift in media and media consumption by consumers. I believe that the next, next generation of celebrities will be born on the internet and not on TV and watching people like DSP and Gootecks grow their brand equity online is a good test of my theories.

Anyways, those are my thoughts, who do you think will have a breakout year in 2010? (besides me of course )