Where Does the Tic Tac Toy Family Live
Welcome to Creators Going Pro, where in partnership with Semaphore — a creator-focused family of companies providing business and fiscal services to social media professionals — we profile professional YouTube stars who take hitting it large by doing what they love. Each week, we'll chat with a creator about the business side of their channel, including identifying their Semaphore Moment — the moment they truly went pro.
For the folks backsideTic Tac Toy, loving toys runs in the family unit.
Before joining YouTube, father and longtime toy enthusiastJason made his living selling toys. In 2015, when his daughters Addy and Maya showed a cracking interest in toy-themed YouTube channels, Jason and female parentLucy got to work learning the ins and outs of creating a toy aqueduct of their own. Nowadays, their flagship channel boasts almost 2.5 million subscribers and nets betwixt 60 and 80 million views every month. That'south in improver to their vlog channel, Tic Tac Toy Family, which has a healthy 773,000 subscribers and between 15 and 25 one thousand thousand views per month.
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The family unit (which now numbers v, with most recent improver Colin) generally uploads once per week. Viewers who tune in to their videos can expect to see slickly produced, scripted skits with full sets — the unique content niche Tic Tac Toy has settled into after showtime experimenting with toy unboxings, reviews, and themed variety shows.
Managing the Tic Tac Toy channel has become a full-time chore for Jason and Lucy. And over the last few months, their plate has gotten fifty-fifty more full: they developed and self-published the first Tic Tac Toy merch, a journaling book chosen All Virtually Me . It debuted in Dec and has already brought in more than $10,000 in revenues, prompting talks with traditional publishers for the family's next literary foray.
Tic Tac Toy has more merch developments coming in 2019, but can't reveal all the details just yet. For what they can reveal, along with an in-depth look at how they grew a booming channel in just three years, check out our conversation with Jason below.
Tubefilter: Tell us a bit virtually your family'south background! When and how did you decide to starting time a YouTube channel?
Jason: Lucy was an elementary school teacher, and I came from the financial industry. We've e'er had an entrepreneurial spirit. In fact, prior to starting our YouTube channel, I actually flipped toys on Amazon for a number of years. It was during Christmas pause of 2015 when my married woman and I noticed our kids watching these toy unboxing videos on YouTube.
We didn't think much of it for a while, until my eye caught the massive view counts that some of those videos were able to achieve. The affair that really hitting habitation was that these weren't highly-produced videos. They were conspicuously homemade. I said to Lucy, "We can do that!" Two months later, later learning everything that we could about video, audio, lighting, editing, and SEO, we posted our outset video…and the residuum is history.
Tubefilter: What made you lot gravitate to toy-themed content when you launched your channel? Your content strategy has shifted over time—tin can you talk a little well-nigh that?
Jason: We started a toy-based channel specifically because that'south what we knew. We had two immature daughters who loved watching other toy channels on YouTube, and I really sold toys for a living. It seemed like a natural fit. Coming from a business groundwork, I enjoy studying charts and graphs and numbers and such.
Afterward about a year and a half of producing toy unboxings and reviews, I started to notice a gradual decline in our rate of growth, which up until so was very steady and predictable. We were determined to figure out a path to renewed growth. The market had clearly been saturated with the numerous amounts of toy channels all producing similar content, and nosotros knew we had to differentiate ourselves.
Every bit a result, we came up with a whole new concept for a toy channel on YouTube — a diverseness prove. Nosotros would incorporate our kids with an unboxing segment, a mail service time segment, a joke of the day segment, etc. Nosotros were inspired by the likes of Sesame Street, or to go manner dorsum in my day, Pee Wee'south Playhouse, whereby we could start to brand these different characters in a way that couldn't be replicated. We felt that it was something that would stand out from the crowd.
This renewed our growth for a brief menstruation, until the retention metrics started to get pretty inconsistent. I knew right abroad it was the bodily segmentation of the show that was causing the viewer dropoff. It was a unique concept, but information technology was not conducive to longer retention times, which is the fundamental to keeping YouTube'southward algorithm happy. This is when we started incorporating total story arcs and investing more time and coin into scripting and improving the quality of our production. No ane we knew of was doing purely scripted skits in the toy genre at that fourth dimension. Our growth really started to take off at that signal.
Tubefilter: What are the challenges of running a YouTube channel where your kiddos are the stars correct alongside you?
Jason: Our biggest challenge is always our lack of fourth dimension. Nosotros have education very seriously in our house. Lucy was valedictorian of the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California, and I did several years of post-graduate written report in concern and finance. The girls are in traditional schooling and take many extracurricular activities such every bit horseback riding, violin lessons, gymnastics, and ballet. We too value family time, friends, and church. In order to keep things prioritized, we limit filming for our videos to only a few hours on Saturdays. We accept to be very efficient with our time.
Tubefilter: When did you go your first check for online video revenue? How much was information technology for?
Jason: Nosotros received our first check in March of 2016. I retrieve it was for around $105. It was and so cool to encounter that this could actually help supplement our income a bit. Then our side by side monthly check came in. It was something like $600. I remember thinking to myself, "Wow that's a big rate of growth!" Even then, I never idea nosotros would ever reach even 100,000 subscribers, and that this whole YouTube thing wouldn't be anything more than just a partial supplement to our other income.
Tubefilter: Have you had any sponsorships?
Jason: Yes, somewhere around the fourth dimension when we started to get into scripted content is when Semaphore contacted the states. I recollect my beginning conversation with JD Obbards vividly. He had asked me what dollar corporeality I thought that we should exist getting paid for a brand deal. When I answered, he just laughed. Our starting time deal together was for most 10 times that amount. Nosotros've been with Semaphore ever since.
Tubefilter: You recently launched a book! How did that come nigh?
Jason: We would get emails and DMs almost daily from fans, and their moms and dads, asking for some sort of product (T-shirts, stickers, etc.) to buy for kids' altogether and vacation gifts. There was an obvious demand for trade. We idea about marketing shirts and stickers and things like that, but in the spirit of our overall creative strategy, we actually wanted to do something unique.
Addy actually enjoys diaries and journaling books, so that was our "lightbulb" moment. We went to piece of work with a graphic designer and created a one-of-a-kind All About Mevolume where readers tin can learn all nigh the Tic Tac Toy Family but also have tons of room to write nearly themselves — things like their favorite places, facts about their family unit, their hobbies, and lots more. It's super engaging and the response was massive!
Nosotros decided to give our first month'due south worth of profits to St. Jude's Children's Enquiry Infirmary, which ended up beingness over $10,000! I'thousand shocked that we were able to create such a successful book using the cocky-published route — no backing from whatever of the major publishers. Based on feedback from fans, we're at present looking into creating a series of fiction and other activity books. That is something that we could employ some assistance with, so we are actively engaging with traditional publishers on that front.
Tubefilter: If you're comfortable talking almost information technology, how does budgeting for the channel piece of work? Do you invest a lot in props?
Jason: When we outset launched our channel, we set upwards a "studio" past immigration out a corner of our small master bedroom closet. We bought a piece of plywood to use as a tabletop, and we taped up some bulletin board paper to create a background. Lucy filmed with her jail cell phone camera using a plastic $xx tripod. That was our entire setup!
Now, we can hands spend thousands of dollars on a new set. Our originalToy School series is a bang-up instance. We accept 6 bodily educatee desks, a whiteboard, an activeness table, all sorts of educational posters, rugs, and and then many other little supplies scattered throughout the prepare — just to make the viewer feel similar they're really inside of a real schoolhouse classroom.
Tubefilter: What was that Semaphore Moment for you—the showtime fourth dimension you realized yous were a professional YouTuber family?
Jason: Around September 2017 is when we made the major shift in our channel to motility toward scripted content. Previously, nosotros'd closely follow the trends and try to capitalize on hot keywords, popular toys, new movies hitting the theaters, and trending content from other channels. But those methods tin simply aid you grow then much.
When nosotros shifted to original scripted content, nosotros didn't pay attention to what other channels were doing or what was trending at the moment. Nosotros did our own unique thing. We very quickly went from adding simply a few hundred subscribers per day to thousands per day. Instead of tendency chasing, we were trendsetting, and we experienced a rapid charge per unit of growth. That was our Semaphore Moment.
Tubefilter: Can you let us know how many people are on your team? Do you accept an editor? Do you have any employees? What are their roles and when did they bring them on lath? What about a director or network?
Jason: Up until this point, it's just been Lucy, myself, and the kiddos working on our family business, a fact that we take great pride in. When we began to produce scripted stories, we decided to utilise an independent video editing service. Nosotros brought on Christina Fleming, owner of Murasaki Media. Her amazing editing squad coupled with her business organization consultation services have been instrumental in our growth. People tend to underestimate the ability of neat editing when, in fact, it can be the deviation between an boilerplate and a great story. She helped us push our retention metrics through production, story, and editing techniques while understanding our business goals.
Tubefilter: What do you think are the most vital skills your family unit possesses as creators?
Jason: When yous recollect of what drives any given business to success, y'all recall of things similar hard work, perseverance, and talent, merely I truly feel that all of that gets you to a sure "baseline" of success. The feedback we receive from brands and other business associates are that we are genuine, nosotros care about our fans, and nosotros respect the power of our reach.
We utilize that reach to assistance better the world effectually united states of america, be it with our partnership with St. Jude and other charities, or the educational slant that we put into many of our vlogs, or just the way that we engage with our fans both on screen and out in public. We've taught our kids that our lives are non similar most, and that we are very blessed to be in the position that we are in. Our goal in all of this isn't to gain tons of subscribers or to make as much money as we tin. Rather, it's to use our influence to better our community. That'due south what has driven the states to this point and will lead us in our hereafter.
Tubefilter: What'south adjacent for your family unit and your channel? What are you building toward?
Jason:Big things are coming in 2019, for usa and the industry. Online influencers are building strength within the retail landscape. Ryan's World is a great instance of this, and also Karina Garcia with slime.
We're currently in negotiations with some major players in the industry in hopes of launching our own line of toys later this year. Our brand will focus on cute, silly surprises — something that resonates perfectly with us. We recollect Tic Tac Toy fans are absolutely going to love what we accept in the works and we can't wait to share more details every bit things progress, then stay tuned!
Semaphore Business Solutions provides customized services for clients across the land, taking an all-encompassing arroyo to run into all your financial needs. Whether you lot're a veteran YouTube entertainer or just starting out, managing your business organisation correctly is crucial to avoiding major headaches down the road. The sooner you lot call the states, the sooner nosotros can help y'all put a plan into motion to grow, as well as to keep more coin in your pocket, with avant-garde taxation strategies. Semaphore Brand Solutions has established itself as a leading influencer marketing bureau representing our sectional talent relationships and services to the almost recognized brands and agencies.
Source: https://www.tubefilter.com/2019/01/30/creators-going-pro-tic-tac-toy/
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