• by P.J. Bednarski , Staff Writer @pjbtweet, December 24, 2013

Tubular Labs, the big data outfit that gives analytic insights for online video makers, measures engagement and claims impressive gains for its clients.

And it's put together a pretty interesting list of the 30 “most engaging” videos for 2013 based on those measures.

The list verifies a pretty solid fact: People are interested in getting stuff for nothing, or at least having a chance they’ll get lucky.

And also, this one: A lot of teens and young women just like to know about products. They may not be born to shop, but apparently, they are eager learners.

I watched the video that tops the Tubular Labs list, a back-to-school video on YouTube from Miss Glamorazzi, who is this super--and I think I can call her “super” because it’s a word she uses a lot—sweet young woman. Her real name is named Ingrid Nilsen, I’ve learned, and very obviously she’s from Los Angeles, super thin and engagingly bubbly. I like her.

Many do. She has made more than 300 videos, and has over two million subscribers.

In August she presided over an almost 13-minute long video that laid out her fave products, absolutely necessary for the September return to the classroom.  (I’m a little confused about her age, because though she talked knowledgeably about sweating in gym class, right now on YouTube, her video is all about a holiday drink that takes three kinds of alcohol.)

What-ev.

Back to back-to-school. There were 18 categories, by my count, though in some cases, more than one product. Like, “I love green nail polish, you guys know that,” she explained, so she also provided tips on other colors and brands rather than her favorite, made by Revlon.

There was also blush, eye shadow (“Tenacious Taupe” by Maybelline), bronzer, concealer, eyeliner, lip balm, gloss and lipstick, moisturizer, blemish scrub and… deodorant. 

“Now, let me tell you,” she confides to the back-to-school crowd, “deodorant is going to be your best friend…You don’t want to be funkin’ up the place.” She swears by Secret Clinical Strength Sport.

Away from cosmetics (but why ever leave, really?), she recommends a back pack and these things to put in it:  A  binder (kinda iffy on the binder, actually, because she prefers a subject organizer), a pouch for pencils, mini-stapler, Post-It notes, a supply of Clif Bars, a water bottle and  a Papermate Profile pen, (black). She is very specific about the girls equipping themselves with a mechanical pencil—a .7 MM HB pencil.

“It’s just the best for everyday writing,” she says. The .5 breaks too easily. The .9 is too thick.  

The great thing is you could have won it all, plus a 13’’ Macbook Pro, and to enter, all you had to do was subscribe to Miss Glamorazzi on YouTube, post a comment and/or click the thumbs-up button. 

Tubular Labs says this video got 1.27 million views, but more significantly nearly 1.2 million comments —now, that’s engagement! Several of the topic videos on the Tubular Labs list earned nearly as many comments as views.  

And that’s significant!

In fact, says Allison Stern, the co-founder  of Tubular Labs and general manager of media solutions (who earlier in career served as an intern  at YouTube), 53% of the “most engaging” videos in 2013 were beauty/style or beauty/style…and giveaway videos.

About 10% were gaming videos, the best of which was the Minecraft Ender Dragon Fight—Lonely Island (Hardcore) Live Stream in June, seen by 1.19 million and commented about by almost 484,000.

This involves watching a popular gamer fight dragons. As he does, we watch and hear his excitement and fear (as in “Oh, my shit in hell.” He’s British.)

Tubular Labs provides granular knowledge to video makers about who’s watching and when and what kind of influencers they are—do they go to lots of sites and comment, for example.

The business has pretty heavy-duty investors, like Machinima big deal Allen Debevoise and funding from FirstMark Capital, High Line Venture Partners and Bedrocket Media Ventures, among others. Tubular’s other founder is Rob Gabel, who also was once an executive at Machinima.

Says Stern, “Most people think of the viral sensations—Miley Cyrus, ‘What Does the Fox Say’ "–those things” as the gold standard. “But we find and help the sites where users go day in and day out, huge, eager audiences.” Tubular Labs claims its regular users grew their channel subscribers by 37% in the third quarter of 2013, and by 33% in views.

There are some obvious trends but none, perhaps, bigger than the power of the giveaway, Stern says. It’s a way for brands to get their name and product out there easily and efficiently “as opposed to hiring a celebrity to talk about it.” She advises brands, “Partner with existing talent on the platform . It’s actually very simple.” 

In fact, some of the host/presenters on YouTube channels, unknown to most of America, have rock star appeal to people who come to that social media video site. Most of America doesn’t know PewDiePie. But millions of YouTube visitors sure do. “You see the way people react,” Stern says. “At VidCon, when his fans see him it’s as if he’s Tom Cruise.”

BACK SOON: The VidBlog returns Dec. 26. Have a great Christmas!  In the spirit of the season, watch this …

 pj@mediapost.com