Creators are breaking through the screen and hosting in-person events to meet fans face-to-face. Events like live shows and meetups are helping creators foster deeper audience connections. Creator events are filling theaters with kids who watch YouTube and fans of podcasts.
Inside North Hollywood's Saban Media Center theater, a packed house of children chanted and grasped plush toys that matched the animated show playing in front of them. No, this wasn't a Disney or Nickelodeon event. It was an in-theater watch party for the new season of an animated show that lives entirely on YouTube.
The show, called "Battle for Dreamland" (or BFDI), was created by two brothers, Cary and Michael Huang. The July watch party, which also included content from the YouTube channel Animation Epic and its series "Inanimate Insanity," was one of several in-person events the brothers have hosted this year. The July event included a screening of upcoming episodes, a Q&A with the creators and voice actors, and interactive segments like letting the audience vote on the outcome of a video and chant along to viral videos they'd memorized word-for-word.
"I just love the idea of turning the microphone around and having the audience make the majority of the sound," Cary Huang said. "It's so core to the whole community." Like the Huang brothers, many other creators have increasingly been meeting with their audiences in person for live shows and community events.
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