YouTube shorts are snappy, easily digestible, and increasingly providing fodder for licensing. 

Videos between 15 seconds and one minute in length, YouTube shorts accounted for 57% of Q2 views compared to 21% a year earlier. These shorts are generally created with a smartphone and uploaded directly to YouTube through an app.  

And, much like their long-form brethren (5- to 15-minute videos with an average length of 11.7 minutes), short-form creators are gaining the attention of the licensing industry. But, unlike long-form, 95% of short creators are individuals, according to Wahl Media. 

That’s not to say long-form creators don’t sometimes dabble in the short-form milieu, because they do.  

The short format—something that is also championed by TikTok, Instagram Stories and Reels, Snapchat Spotlight, and Twitter Fleets—is helping brands and creators drive engagement as well as entertaining audiences, serving as a new form of marketing and brand expression in 15 seconds or less. And the stakes are likely to rise as Google expands advertising to YouTube shorts later this year. 

Pocket.watch recently struck an agreement to represent 19-year-old British magician Dan Rhodes, who has 10 million followers on TikTok and 16 million subscribers on YouTube Shorts. The deal focuses on content development, original programming, and franchise opportunities. Pocket.watch, which works with about 30 social media creators, also represents the likes of Ryan Kaji of Ryan’s World, the Onyx Family, and Toys and Colors.  

With Rhodes, Pocket.watch will work to combine the short-form videos to create a long-form version and determine whether audience demand translates into consumer product sales, said Kerry Tucker, chief marketing and franchise officer at Pocket.watch. 

“The approach to brand licensing for short-form is similar to long-form in that you have to determine whether there is audience demand for products and services beyond the content,” Tucker said. “With Dan, it’s determining whether the demand for the magic content in short-form swells to the point that we can be really confident that it will throw off ancillary businesses like consumer products. If we see that, we will move in that direction.” 

YouTube’s move to emphasize short-from content doesn’t stray far from its roots. The platform debuted in 2005 with 18-second videos and this focus on shorts enables brands and creators to jump on a trend (like a dance routine or challenge) that’s making the rounds on social media.  

The shorts also are a cost-effective means for marketing. They can be created by anyone with a smartphone and eliminate having to hire a creative agency or video marketing company to help create content. The average length of views diminishes as the videos get longer—the average engagement for short-form starts at 70% for a one-minute video, but falls to 47% for a 20-minute video.  

“YouTube shorts and other short-form content should be an essential part of a video social strategy that can translate into licensing but not become the entire social strategy,” said Claire Beveridge, a content marketing consultant. “People should work to incorporate shorts into a campaign and always have a purpose for a video.”