DECA

Still, discipline is the key to success. That was my takeaway from a conversation I had yesterday with Michael Wayne, co-founder and CEO of DECA, an online-only entertainment company whose properties include Smosh, Momversation, Good Bite and others. Michael notes DECA’s success stems from being very analytical about which projects to greenlight. Key success criteria include how large the targeted audience is, how engaged they are (measured by things like blogging, Twittering, commenting), whether other media properties have succeeded with the audience and if there’s demonstrated advertiser interest.

Importantly, DECA looks hard for pre-existing online communities or “tribes” along with “tribal leaders” as Michael puts it - people who have emerged from the online rabble to become recognized leading voices in their vertical space. DECA tries to partner with these tribal leaders to build properties that have video at their core, but capitalize on all the publishing and interactive capabilities the web has to offer. Michael notes the need for all of this to be done on very lean, non-Hollywood budgets.

The third most subscribed channel on YouTube is a comedy team who calls themselves “Smosh” and they have almost 1 million people following their account. The cool thing about them is that they are from the area.

Anthony and Ian, also known as Smosh, grew up in Carmichael and after high school started writing and shooting comedy sketches. They started putting some of their stuff on YouTube and they haven’t looked back since.

Listen to the two-part interview with Anthony and Ian on KDND’s website.

DECA, an acronym for Digital Entertainment Corp. of America, is exploring several ways to produce Web series in unusually marketer-centric ways. It seeks extended sponsorships—generally three months or longer, the prices for which start in the six figures—for specific properties. Rather than attempting to import to the Web the scripted series model birthed by television, DECA capitalizes on existing bloggers’ popularity to build properties that feature established online personalities and are aimed at specific demographic slices. It also enlists its talent to make and star in commercials for its advertisers. If this works, DECA will have found a way to fund online video—having a long-term sponsor or two significantly reduces the pressure to sell lots of ads—and bring chary advertisers into a new media realm.

The top-100 midtail producers — including names such as College Humor, Smosh and MyDamnChannel — have racked up more than 2 billion views during the past six months on YouTube, growing nearly 5% a month on average, according to video analytics firm TubeMogul. Meanwhile, the full-length hour-long and half-hour TV shows on YouTube, 3,215 episodes in all, have accumulated 19.5 million views.

Momversation’s Heather Armstrong, Karen Walrond, Giyen Kim, Mindy Roberts, and Daphne Brogdon (also of Cool Mom) were featured on the April 6, 2009 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Secret Lives of Moms.

LeVar Burton buys Smosh.

Levar Burton (”Star Trek: TNG”) guests today on smosh.com (online comedy).

I’m on Levar Burton overload this week after seeing him and the rest of the TNG cast on Family Guy. But apparently the Reading Rainbow host has taken over SMOSH.com today.

LeVar Burton — you know, the guy who took us all along for a trip down the Reading Rainbow back in the day — is putting his two cents in over at Smosh, literally. The Star Trek actor has invested in the comedy website by purchasing shares, and is now taking his hand at changing some things around, including teaching the two Smosh guys how to rap.

In a video posted today, Burton and his two new partners in crime, Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox, released their “announcement” about the new takeover, along with some interesting footage of Burton rapping, followed by a scrolling message warning viewers to look forward to the new changes on Smosh.com.

Among the media companies with the most popular channels on YouTube are Universal Music Group, CBS, Showtime, and the National Basketball Association. Mixed in with those big names are a pair that you’ve probably never heard of: Mondo Media (currently the sixth most-viewed channel) and Smosh (No. 13).

Both are examples of a growing number of independent content producers that have built sizable audiences on the Google-owned video behemoth. These mostly born-on-the-Web players say that after a slow start, YouTube has become a far more collaborative distribution partner and is quietly becoming a consistent revenue generator…

Similarly, Smosh—which features a pair of 21-year-old guys who produce sophomoric comedy sketch videos—has noticed a shift at YouTube. “They have evolved,” said Barry Blumberg, general manager of Smosh. “Now we have an actual person [dedicated to our account]. They are better organized, and they call us with ad opportunities.”