While many may not have heard of ‘Viva la Dirt League’, their kids probably have.
Self-described as a ‘bunch of nerds who play games and make comedy sketches about games,’ they’re a YouTube sketch comedy group and independent production company based in New Zealand.
But what was once a channel that made a couple of hundred dollars a month has grown into a multi-million dollar business, with millions of subscribers, billions of views, and their own streaming platform.
It was founded by Alan Morrison and Adam King in 2011, with Rowan Bettjeman joining a couple years later.
Like many, the content they produce has changed throughout the years – beginning with parodies before pivoting into shortform comedy when it became unprofitable.
“We pivoted pretty hard into comedy sketches quite early,” Morrison told Mike Hosking.
“Like two or three years in. We literally found there was a tech store called Playtech that allowed us to film there after hours,” he said.
“And we just filmed in the store and got like, one sketch out every couple of weeks.”
For some success comes fast and hard, but for others like Viva la Dirt League, it takes a bit longer.
“It’s been a slow burn across out entire lifespan,” King told Hosking.
“There were the odd sketch here and there, we’ve had a few, what you’d call ‘viral successes.’”
But it wasn’t until they committed to a consistent schedule that they really started to take off.
“When we were committed to doing three videos a week, the algorithm was like, okay, these guys are reliable and started to present us,” Morrison explained.
But consistency isn’t the only factor in the group’s success.
“Part of our success and the success of people online is people don't necessarily want you to just make the exact same thing over and over,” King said.
“They want to see your creativity, and often the videos that do best are the ones that we’ve thrown our heart and soul into that might be a little bit different.”
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So let's talk and learn about VIVL Dirt League. Essentially,
they make games and comedy sketches. It looks to be
a multi million dollar enterprise. They started small, crowd funded
their way to success. These days, they have their own studio.
They've been viewed over five billion times. Ellen Morrison and
Adam King are a couple of the founders of this
particular enterprise, and both with this good morning to you.
Good morning, and I should background this forum for listeners
(00:22):
that we're old mates.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Old we go way back.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
He used to work in his building.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
I used to work in this building, and Mike and
I were we we have a history.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, we do.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
I I had to ask you what that history was.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Reminded me and all came flooding back.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
And both both of you have worked on mike' Sminett.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Worked on The Minute, We worked together up at Tivans.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
What did we do at TV and Z?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
They worked up in the in the commercials department, and
you did the old thing for us.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Was I a pretentious pratt in those days?
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Or was I.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Almost one day almost run me down in the car park?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Oh here, so all we've done is really wow? So
what what was I in Yeah, yeah, what was what
car was?
Speaker 4 (01:10):
God?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I don't remember. I still got the bruiser of the logos.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Well, let me let me apologize, Let me apologize for that.
But you did work on, Mike Smith, I.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Did work on. Yeah, it was me and you was
the tally prompt that never works properly.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
It was still doesn't.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
It still doesn't. It still still still doesn't.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
It still doesn't. So what the great story about you two?
There is life after dealing with people.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Like you can thrive. Anyone tell you different.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
You can get out into the world and do your
own thing. Okay, So the first silly question what what?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Why?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Vivil a dirt who drummed that upheah.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
God, I wish we had a different name.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, I didn't expect to succeed.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
It's a little gaming in joke is that there in
a lot of video games, you start with Bronze League.
If you're the worst, you go up to kind of silver,
then to gold, then to masters. Some have higher than that,
and the jokers were so bad at video games. We're
not Bronze League, We're dirt leg.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
And was simply taken on YouTube and then we had
to add something in front of it so Viva La
and then the name was born.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
And the rest of the say is history. So twenty
eleven was the start, Yeah, that's exactly. So that's a
long time ago. So you've got some So when did
it actually start working?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Fifteen? Yeah, sixteen, So.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
In those years eleven through fifteen, you're you're doing what.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
You think don Mike's minute for a big part of it. Yeah,
it was genuinely a part time job. After hours, after
I worked here and did me, we'd go to off,
I'd try and wrangle whatever energy I had left and
go film something out and we're literally park somewhere.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
We'd literally film on either after work or on the
weekends or just whatever time we possibly could get and
then edit after working on the weekend and you were
filming what though.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, we did.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
We we did a bunch of stuff. We started with
parody music videos, which is something we we don't don't
do anymore, it's not profitable. And then but we pivoted
to getting into short form.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
I used to do. I was creating an artistic.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Until it wasn't profitable, and it.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Wasn't probably it never was. But we pivoted pretty hard
into comedy sketches. Quite early on, like two or three
years into it, we we literally found there was a
textalk called playtech that allowed us to film there after
hours while the manager was still there tinkering the back,
and we just filmed in the in the store and
and got like one sketch out every couple of weeks
something like that.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
And so what was that what triggered the success? What
actually happened? Was it a sketch? Was it a big rise.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Slow burn across our entire lifespan? Actually, but there were
the odd sketch here in there. We've had a few
what you'd call viral successes. There was one called girl Gamer,
which is Ali who also used to work here in
the building, right, Alie Howard, and she uh, it's a
little stupid sketch about her playing VR and swearing like
an absolute, absolute safe.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
You know what it was? I was it was when
we committed to doing We're really committed to a schedule,
were briefly discussing the algorithm on YouTube before. When we
committed to doing three videos a week, the algorithm was like, Okay,
these guys are reliable and started to present something.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Algorithm will pick that up.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Yeah, the algorithm loves canteen and consistency because, once again,
to explain to listeners off here, I was because.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I'm amazed by the world of tech, like I'm a loudeyede,
but but I'm keen to learn on how it works.
So I don't quite get how it works. I'm not
convinced it's a great thing.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Still, I agree, and we we are constantly battling with
it and were We have contacts now at like Facebook
and YouTube that we sink up with from time to
time and we're like, what do you want and they go,
we don't know, Like it's just genuinely they give us ideas,
but it's just to try, let's tray that rather than
this is what we're after.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
The algorithms absolutely mystifying, like there's no way to no
way for anyone to try and crack that.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
That's and I don't want to bore you with Mike's
minute story, but the Mike's Minute thing is you don't
know what hits Like some days, stuff that I wouldn't
think in a million years goes off.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
So I stopped imagined like pretending to know what's right.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Where's the money in this? Because you guys did to
fast forward from twenty eleven. Are wildly successful.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Thank you, Oh my god, that.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
I see.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
I'm interested in business as models. Yeah, and so you
are as successful business you have made it work.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Broadly speaking, it kind of goes into two camps. It's
either fan funding or advertising. So we get the money
from the ads that play in front of the YouTube
videos and Facebook videos, and a little bit from Instagram
and TikTok. And then the other side of it is
people who directly donate to us, whether that's through merchandise
or through fundraiser as we do, or our website Viva plus.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Right, and you get the occasional sponsored job as well
that comes up to make a sketch exclusively about a
particular video.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Game, because what you guys are a listen And once
again I was explaining this off here not to insult you,
is that I had literally never heard of you. So
you were wildly successful with millions of people and billions
of streams, and you can exist in a will where
I wouldn't have a clue who you are.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Which I don't mind, Like I really like living here
and nobody really knowing who we are. And and then
go overseas briefly and be like and feel, especially if
we've got a convention or something like that and feel
super famous for a few days and then come back
to his only be oh thank god, that's.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Is that a mind if, as they say, wouldn't.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Yeah, it's a really unnatural environment that that's difficult to
wrap your head around when you're there. You've got like
a Serida conventions, just people queuing for hours to meet you.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
We had We went to Games Common Germany last year
and literally had to have a security team just to
be able to walk through the convention. No like, and
they're literally pushing people out all the way.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Sometimes they didn't have to. I think they just enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
So the two ends of revenue, you've got one of
the people click on and go I want to be
a member, I want to be whatever you want to
call it. Plus your ads. Quick question on the ads.
This is very much like the musicians we talk to.
How do you know that what you get is real?
How many streams, how many times? How many clicks? I
don't know if it's checks in the letterbox?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
I you ask a very good question, and now I
want to know because we kind of just have to
take YouTube and Facebook at their word that they're paying us.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
That's a random thing, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (07:30):
See, I know what I'm going to get paid because
the guy's upstairs. Yeah, and with money exactly. And you're
in a world where it might be right, it might
not be.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, very much so. And we wouldn't even know who
necessarily to have you.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
And I don't want to be too personal about this.
Have you been amazed at how much money you've been
able to make when that when that goes off.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
When it goes off, when it goes it's one of
those as the algorithm. Again, don't want to always constantly
bring it back to that, but you go through ups
and downs and and when it's up it feels really
bloody yeah going off. But then when it's down, you're going.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Bah, yeah, wait, what's happening right now?
Speaker 4 (08:08):
There was a moment years ago now that Facebook just
decided to stop stop giving us money for a period
of time or just like what happened and it turned
out was this bizarre The Facebook thought that we were
trying to sell firearms on Facebook because one of our videos,
which is Pubgo Logic, which is video involves firearms, but
they because somehow connected the dots that this company's trying
to sell firearms, and we just eighty percent of revenue
(08:30):
just stopped. And this was a long time ago, and
we were much more dependent on Facebook, but it was
like this a very scary wake up call, like, Okay,
we cannot be entirely dependent on YouTube and Facebook.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Have you, as the algorithm slash income has grown, have
you found yourself to be less creative then you might
have been once you've worked out what pays the bills?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
That's a really good question.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
I was say, only ninety only a drop of five percent,
and now and again we go, oh, we shouldn't put
a gun on a thumbnail, or we we things are
small things.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Like I guess we also feel more obligated to keep
giving the fans more what they want, if that makes sense.
But like so sometimes yeah, it feels like, well, oh god,
we've got we've got to keep cranking this out. But
we still make content that we want to make and
have some big plans later down the line. But yeah,
very much beholden to.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
And also I think part of our success and success
of people online is people don't necessarily want you just
to make the exact same thing over and over. They
want to see your creativity. Often the videos that do
best are the ones that we've thrown our heart and
soul into that might be a little bit different.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
The other side of the revenue stream is the I'm
giving you money to be part of the club, part
of the gang. How many is how many people have
done that?
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Roughly around across all the all the things we've done
tens of thousands into the early hundreds of thousands for people.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
From all over the world, from all of the world. Yeah,
and is that a vibe they're buying into? What are
they buying into?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
It depends what they're buying into. So we used to
have Patreon, which is just as per the word, just
a bit of an art patron. They're just giving you money,
just to nice about it. We now have our own website,
Viva Plus, which is similar, but they get extra content.
We actually do paywalled videos for them.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
It's become a community for as a real community that
we we dive into and we'll chat with them, and
we we stream from time to time and talk to them,
and at conventions we get to meet a whole bunch
of them and yeah, they and I think the people
that want to see us continue to grow and expand
and also get more out of the different worlds that
we've kind of created. The big, biggest world is Epic
can be c Man, which is like this fantasy, medieval
(10:30):
kind of world that has more context and viva.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Plus.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Try not to be humble about this, but clearly you've
done extremely well, and good on you for doing it.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Do you have.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
To be a genius to be really really successful or
are you just moderately.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
There's a combination of like creativity but also for me,
at least, desperation. There was a long time we shouldn't
have succeeded for and any sane person would have stopped. Yeah,
but I really wanted it to work out.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
But yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Feel like there's a bit of you have to have
a bit of creativity. You have to have a bit
of luck as well, because just sure, getting stuff to
go viral on the internet it's so freaking difficult. And
then yeah, I think you also do need to game
the algorithm to a certain extent.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
But no, no, we're and we are smart people as well.
We are smart people when we get into the writers
whom we come with ideas that there's a lot of
gold that comes out. I'm constantly blow away, not just
by us. Obviously, we've got a writing team now that
we say.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
Yeah, see how many of you employed there a full
time I think it's about fifteen on a quiet day,
properly full time, and then when we get into a
shooting block it can be a busy.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Day, could be forty fifty sixty people.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yeah, so you're the real deal. It's fantastic. No, I'm stoked.
That's because I mean there's a million people who try
and die. Yeah, and it's good to so the big plan,
big picture.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Or keep turning into a mega multimillion dollar studio TV show.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Finture films are a big one where we just released
our first video game last year, which is well, we
want to do more video games. Our two passions coming
into this making video game video content with video games
and filmmaking.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
And you thought of a movie of Mike's min I
have I've got an idea.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Pit after this, mate, hour and thirty minutes is bad.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Listen, good luck with it all. Good to see you
appreciate it very much. Ellen Morrison Adam King.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
For more from the mic, asking Breakfast. Listen live to
news talks it'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
So let's talk and learn about VIVL Dirt League. Essentially,
they make games and comedy sketches. It looks to be
a multi million dollar enterprise. They started small, crowd funded
their way to success. These days, they have their own studio.
They've been viewed over five billion times. Ellen Morrison and
Adam King are a couple of the founders of this
particular enterprise, and both with this good morning to you.
Good morning, and I should background this forum for listeners
(00:22):
that we're old mates.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Old we go way back.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
He used to work in his building.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
I used to work in this building, and Mike and
I were we we have a history.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, we do.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
I I had to ask you what that history was.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Reminded me and all came flooding back.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
And both both of you have worked on mike' Sminett.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Worked on The Minute, We worked together up at Tivans.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
What did we do at TV and Z?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
They worked up in the in the commercials department, and
you did the old thing for us.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Was I a pretentious pratt in those days?
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Or was I.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Almost one day almost run me down in the car park?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Oh here, so all we've done is really wow? So
what what was I in Yeah, yeah, what was what
car was?
Speaker 4 (01:10):
God?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I don't remember. I still got the bruiser of the logos.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Well, let me let me apologize, Let me apologize for that.
But you did work on, Mike Smith, I.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Did work on. Yeah, it was me and you was
the tally prompt that never works properly.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
It was still doesn't.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
It still doesn't. It still still still doesn't.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
It still doesn't. So what the great story about you two?
There is life after dealing with people.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Like you can thrive. Anyone tell you different.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
You can get out into the world and do your
own thing. Okay, So the first silly question what what?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Why?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Vivil a dirt who drummed that upheah.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
God, I wish we had a different name.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, I didn't expect to succeed.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
It's a little gaming in joke is that there in
a lot of video games, you start with Bronze League.
If you're the worst, you go up to kind of silver,
then to gold, then to masters. Some have higher than that,
and the jokers were so bad at video games. We're
not Bronze League, We're dirt leg.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
And was simply taken on YouTube and then we had
to add something in front of it so Viva La
and then the name was born.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
And the rest of the say is history. So twenty
eleven was the start, Yeah, that's exactly. So that's a
long time ago. So you've got some So when did
it actually start working?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Fifteen? Yeah, sixteen, So.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
In those years eleven through fifteen, you're you're doing what.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
You think don Mike's minute for a big part of it. Yeah,
it was genuinely a part time job. After hours, after
I worked here and did me, we'd go to off,
I'd try and wrangle whatever energy I had left and
go film something out and we're literally park somewhere.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
We'd literally film on either after work or on the
weekends or just whatever time we possibly could get and
then edit after working on the weekend and you were
filming what though.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, we did.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
We we did a bunch of stuff. We started with
parody music videos, which is something we we don't don't
do anymore, it's not profitable. And then but we pivoted
to getting into short form.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
I used to do. I was creating an artistic.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Until it wasn't profitable, and it.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Wasn't probably it never was. But we pivoted pretty hard
into comedy sketches. Quite early on, like two or three
years into it, we we literally found there was a
textalk called playtech that allowed us to film there after
hours while the manager was still there tinkering the back,
and we just filmed in the in the store and
and got like one sketch out every couple of weeks
something like that.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
And so what was that what triggered the success? What
actually happened? Was it a sketch? Was it a big rise.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Slow burn across our entire lifespan? Actually, but there were
the odd sketch here in there. We've had a few
what you'd call viral successes. There was one called girl Gamer,
which is Ali who also used to work here in
the building, right, Alie Howard, and she uh, it's a
little stupid sketch about her playing VR and swearing like
an absolute, absolute safe.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
You know what it was? I was it was when
we committed to doing We're really committed to a schedule,
were briefly discussing the algorithm on YouTube before. When we
committed to doing three videos a week, the algorithm was like, Okay,
these guys are reliable and started to present something.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Algorithm will pick that up.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Yeah, the algorithm loves canteen and consistency because, once again,
to explain to listeners off here, I was because.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I'm amazed by the world of tech, like I'm a loudeyede,
but but I'm keen to learn on how it works.
So I don't quite get how it works. I'm not
convinced it's a great thing.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Still, I agree, and we we are constantly battling with
it and were We have contacts now at like Facebook
and YouTube that we sink up with from time to
time and we're like, what do you want and they go,
we don't know, Like it's just genuinely they give us ideas,
but it's just to try, let's tray that rather than
this is what we're after.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
The algorithms absolutely mystifying, like there's no way to no
way for anyone to try and crack that.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
That's and I don't want to bore you with Mike's
minute story, but the Mike's Minute thing is you don't
know what hits Like some days, stuff that I wouldn't
think in a million years goes off.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
So I stopped imagined like pretending to know what's right.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Where's the money in this? Because you guys did to
fast forward from twenty eleven. Are wildly successful.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Thank you, Oh my god, that.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
I see.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
I'm interested in business as models. Yeah, and so you
are as successful business you have made it work.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Broadly speaking, it kind of goes into two camps. It's
either fan funding or advertising. So we get the money
from the ads that play in front of the YouTube
videos and Facebook videos, and a little bit from Instagram
and TikTok. And then the other side of it is
people who directly donate to us, whether that's through merchandise
or through fundraiser as we do, or our website Viva plus.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Right, and you get the occasional sponsored job as well
that comes up to make a sketch exclusively about a
particular video.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Game, because what you guys are a listen And once
again I was explaining this off here not to insult you,
is that I had literally never heard of you. So
you were wildly successful with millions of people and billions
of streams, and you can exist in a will where
I wouldn't have a clue who you are.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Which I don't mind, Like I really like living here
and nobody really knowing who we are. And and then
go overseas briefly and be like and feel, especially if
we've got a convention or something like that and feel
super famous for a few days and then come back
to his only be oh thank god, that's.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Is that a mind if, as they say, wouldn't.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Yeah, it's a really unnatural environment that that's difficult to
wrap your head around when you're there. You've got like
a Serida conventions, just people queuing for hours to meet you.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
We had We went to Games Common Germany last year
and literally had to have a security team just to
be able to walk through the convention. No like, and
they're literally pushing people out all the way.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Sometimes they didn't have to. I think they just enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
So the two ends of revenue, you've got one of
the people click on and go I want to be
a member, I want to be whatever you want to
call it. Plus your ads. Quick question on the ads.
This is very much like the musicians we talk to.
How do you know that what you get is real?
How many streams, how many times? How many clicks? I
don't know if it's checks in the letterbox?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
I you ask a very good question, and now I
want to know because we kind of just have to
take YouTube and Facebook at their word that they're paying us.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
That's a random thing, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (07:30):
See, I know what I'm going to get paid because
the guy's upstairs. Yeah, and with money exactly. And you're
in a world where it might be right, it might
not be.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, very much so. And we wouldn't even know who
necessarily to have you.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
And I don't want to be too personal about this.
Have you been amazed at how much money you've been
able to make when that when that goes off.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
When it goes off, when it goes it's one of
those as the algorithm. Again, don't want to always constantly
bring it back to that, but you go through ups
and downs and and when it's up it feels really
bloody yeah going off. But then when it's down, you're going.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Bah, yeah, wait, what's happening right now?
Speaker 4 (08:08):
There was a moment years ago now that Facebook just
decided to stop stop giving us money for a period
of time or just like what happened and it turned
out was this bizarre The Facebook thought that we were
trying to sell firearms on Facebook because one of our videos,
which is Pubgo Logic, which is video involves firearms, but
they because somehow connected the dots that this company's trying
to sell firearms, and we just eighty percent of revenue
(08:30):
just stopped. And this was a long time ago, and
we were much more dependent on Facebook, but it was
like this a very scary wake up call, like, Okay,
we cannot be entirely dependent on YouTube and Facebook.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Have you, as the algorithm slash income has grown, have
you found yourself to be less creative then you might
have been once you've worked out what pays the bills?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
That's a really good question.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
I was say, only ninety only a drop of five percent,
and now and again we go, oh, we shouldn't put
a gun on a thumbnail, or we we things are
small things.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Like I guess we also feel more obligated to keep
giving the fans more what they want, if that makes sense.
But like so sometimes yeah, it feels like, well, oh god,
we've got we've got to keep cranking this out. But
we still make content that we want to make and
have some big plans later down the line. But yeah,
very much beholden to.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
And also I think part of our success and success
of people online is people don't necessarily want you just
to make the exact same thing over and over. They
want to see your creativity. Often the videos that do
best are the ones that we've thrown our heart and
soul into that might be a little bit different.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
The other side of the revenue stream is the I'm
giving you money to be part of the club, part
of the gang. How many is how many people have
done that?
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Roughly around across all the all the things we've done
tens of thousands into the early hundreds of thousands for people.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
From all over the world, from all of the world. Yeah,
and is that a vibe they're buying into? What are
they buying into?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
It depends what they're buying into. So we used to
have Patreon, which is just as per the word, just
a bit of an art patron. They're just giving you money,
just to nice about it. We now have our own website,
Viva Plus, which is similar, but they get extra content.
We actually do paywalled videos for them.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
It's become a community for as a real community that
we we dive into and we'll chat with them, and
we we stream from time to time and talk to them,
and at conventions we get to meet a whole bunch
of them and yeah, they and I think the people
that want to see us continue to grow and expand
and also get more out of the different worlds that
we've kind of created. The big, biggest world is Epic
can be c Man, which is like this fantasy, medieval
(10:30):
kind of world that has more context and viva.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Plus.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Try not to be humble about this, but clearly you've
done extremely well, and good on you for doing it.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Do you have.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
To be a genius to be really really successful or
are you just moderately.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
There's a combination of like creativity but also for me,
at least, desperation. There was a long time we shouldn't
have succeeded for and any sane person would have stopped. Yeah,
but I really wanted it to work out.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
But yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Feel like there's a bit of you have to have
a bit of creativity. You have to have a bit
of luck as well, because just sure, getting stuff to
go viral on the internet it's so freaking difficult. And
then yeah, I think you also do need to game
the algorithm to a certain extent.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
But no, no, we're and we are smart people as well.
We are smart people when we get into the writers
whom we come with ideas that there's a lot of
gold that comes out. I'm constantly blow away, not just
by us. Obviously, we've got a writing team now that
we say.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
Yeah, see how many of you employed there a full
time I think it's about fifteen on a quiet day,
properly full time, and then when we get into a
shooting block it can be a busy.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Day, could be forty fifty sixty people.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yeah, so you're the real deal. It's fantastic. No, I'm stoked.
That's because I mean there's a million people who try
and die. Yeah, and it's good to so the big plan,
big picture.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Or keep turning into a mega multimillion dollar studio TV show.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Finture films are a big one where we just released
our first video game last year, which is well, we
want to do more video games. Our two passions coming
into this making video game video content with video games
and filmmaking.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
And you thought of a movie of Mike's min I
have I've got an idea.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Pit after this, mate, hour and thirty minutes is bad.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Listen, good luck with it all. Good to see you
appreciate it very much. Ellen Morrison Adam King.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
For more from the mic, asking Breakfast. Listen live to
news talks it'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.