Image Enhancement

 So, what even is an image in terms of marketing a specific brand, company, channel, or person? "A clearly defined image strategy will guide you in the development of the right visual assets to drive sales of your product. Your image strategy should align with business goals and objectives, and meet the interface requirements of specific resellers." 

The specific brand that I chose to write about is the infamous Smosh YouTube channel. 

Smosh is a YouTube channel that has been around since the beginning. Smosh is an American YouTube sketch comedy-improve collective. It is independently owned by Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla. It was created in 2002, starting as a website making flash animations. Smosh (main channel) has a total of 26.6 million subscribers. In total, the main Smosh channels have 10.721 billion views. Smosh (pit channel) has a total of 8.1 million subscribers. Smosh Games has a total of 7.61 million subscribers. There is also a Smosh Podcast available on all podcast streaming platforms such as; Youtube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts. This channel on Youtube has 479 thousand subscribers. After the website, they began posting videos in the fall of 2005. 

Positive Publicity can be defined as; "it's acquiring positive attention through various means, leading more people to become familiar with who you are and what you do. It's building credibility through positive visibility-- which is priceless in business."

They are genuinely such a positive light in the YouTube space. Some of their current types of videos that they do are, of course, skits. However, they have also started series where they react to Reddit stories, try trends, silent library, trivia, try not to laugh challenges, and eat it or yet it. The description underneath their title on YouTube simply states, "Two boys making videos." 

    To provide a bit of a back story of Smosh, it was acquired by Defy Media in 2011. Defy Media was an American digital media company that created content catered specifically towards people ages 12 to 34 years old. Defy Media bought out Smosh during this time, and was also over another content channel named Clevver. On November 6th, 2018, Defy Media completely died. It completely shut down, thus leaving the members of Smosh confused and some without jobs or work. Defy Media was later found to have shut down due to bad financial practices and investments. 

Right before this had occurred, during the main madness of the Defy Media drama, Anthony Padilla (Co-owner and founder) had decided to leave the company and create his own personal YouTube channel. His leaving was announced in June of 2017. So, after Defy and Anthony left, Ian Hecox had to decide how to continue with the Smosh channel. He decided to keep posting. Ian Hecox, along with Shayne Topp, Courtney Miller, and Damian Haas held down the fort as cast members. At first, when news around Anthony leaving and Defy shutting down, subscribers and view count started to decrease. However, as time went on, Smosh slowly started growing again. 

Throughout their time as a channel, the main thing that caught my eye as well as other audience members' eyes was their positivity and their energy in games and challenges. A good example of this is their time creating the Smosh Summer Games. Smosh Summer and Winter games lasted from 2015 to 2019. This series genuinely took the audience members on an adventure. These were Summer camps filled with lots of games. Throughout these many games, there were ranks and points set up. In the final bit of the game, the winners were chosen and crowned the champions of that season of Smosh Games.

Ian was making great Smosh Content! However, he needed more assistance in running and growing his channel. In February of 2019, Mythical Entertainment bought Smosh to become its new parent company. 

To skip ahead many years from the old Smosh to the new Smosh, I bring you the: reunion. In June of 2023, Anthony Padilla returned to Smosh in a video titled, "We bought Smosh!"

On Anthony's channel, we see a video of his titled, "I spent a day with Ian Hecox." During their split, Anthony's channel grew tremendously to a total of 7.61 million subscribers. His channel focuses on interviewing a variety of personalities and people. He mainly focuses on either internet personalities or just people living in unique life situations. In his videos, he spends a day with them. The Spend a Day with Ian Hecox video was quite a great marketing strategy to not only get his fan base excited but also Smosh's fan base excited. Since Anthony rejoined the Smosh Channel, lots of original fans have come back to watch not only the old videos but also some of their new work! If you ask me, his coming back was great for him and Ian's friend group, but also for Smosh's reputation and their overall image! 

Their image strategy is all about nostalgia. In simple terms, nostalgia can be defined as; "a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations." Because this channel was a lot of people's childhood, they try to hold on to that by bringing back some old traditions and having most of the same cast. However, because 2024 is so vastly different from 2002, they obviously have to adapt. In my personal opinion, I think their marketing strategies of expanding their different types of videos really helped them. Obviously, at first, this change probably lost some of their original audience, but since the return of Anthony Padilla, some of their original and new audience members have been combined.