LA’s pocket.watch has added teenage magician Dan Rhodes to its roster of content material creators because it seeks to interrupt into a brand new class.
Rhodes already has 16 million YouTube subscribers and 10 million TikTok followers, and pocket.watch is seeking to apply its franchise formulation to broaden his private model by distribution offers, unique content material, shopper merchandise and dwell occasions.
Rhodes’s reputation is due partially to his technique of displaying youngsters do tips as a substitute of merely blowing their minds with them. This method has helped him construct an viewers and units him aside from different magicians, in line with Kerry Tucker, pocket.watch’s chief advertising and marketing and franchise officer.
“Magic is an unexplored franchise alternative, and there are not any main youngsters and household manufacturers doing it,” she says. “It’s additionally empowering as a result of Dan is self-taught, and now he’s displaying youngsters that they will apply, study these abilities, and maybe additionally get an enormous following on YouTube.”
Rhodes represents numerous firsts for pocket.watch, which constructed its enterprise by partnering with main YouTube channels reminiscent of Ryan’s World (33.5 million subscribers) and Youngsters Diana Present (101 million subscribers).However in contrast to the corporate’s different creators, Rhodes began out on YouTube Shorts, a platform for vids which might be below a minute lengthy. Pocket.watch has seen a surge in reputation for creators working on this area, an indication that may’t be ignored, says Tucker.
The plan for transferring Rhodes past YouTube Shorts is to create compilation movies and construct a package deal of longer-form content material that pocket.watch can distribute on YouTube correct but additionally promote to different patrons, says Tucker.
And he or she provides that there are pure alternatives to discover shopper merchandise extensions, reminiscent of dwell occasions and magic-themed exercise kits. Pocket.watch can be growing two long-form unique collection ideas for the model—an animated collection and a mixed-media selection present.
Rhodes began posting movies on YouTube Shorts a few 12 months and a half in the past. He has six occasions extra month-to-month views than the highest 5 influencer magicians on YouTube mixed, in line with pocket.watch. He additionally has extra subscribers than famend magician David Blaine (1.83 million subscribers). This information illustrates how hungry viewers are for magic, which might shock and educate, mentioned YouTube’s improvement accomplice supervisor Andrea Donovan in a launch about Rhodes being signed by pocket.watch. “His unbelievable rise to 16.7 million subscribers proves the worldwide attraction of magic.”
