Monetising exploding watermelons: Inside Buzzfeed’s video strategy
Buzzfeed continues to push its credentials as video content maker. Mumbrella met with key senior leadership team members, including editor-in-chief Ben Smith, in New York, to discuss the strategy behind the publisher’s online video push.
You wouldn’t think there was much strategy or insight behind wrapping a watermelon with rubber bands until it explodes, but Buzzfeed editor-in-chief insists there was.
“It was this very pure form of storytelling,” says Smith, explaining why 800,000 people watched the watermelon explosion live on Facebook and a further 10m people have watched the video afterwards. “It was just pure suspense.”
Smith understands that a lot of Buzzfeed’s critics will see it as trivial but the editor of one of the most high-profile news websites in the world insists those naysayers are missing something.
