Análisis de la tipología de contenido publicitario insertado en los canales de los/as youtubers adolescentes

YouTube is the social network of choice for teenagers and it is where companies have turned their advertising strategies to reach this audience through influencers, who have become new digital celebrities. These new celebrities, known in this social network as youtubers, have an audience that gives their messages greater credibility, compared to those launched by other characters through traditional media. Using content analysis methodology, 300 videos of teenage youtubers, aged between 11 and 17, with more than one million followers, have been studied. The videos were up to 15 minutes long and had more than 1000 views each from Spanish teenage youtubers (11-17 years old), with more than one million followers, from the announcement of state of alarm until its end (year 2020). This investigation goes further into the study of advertising strategies teenagers’ youtubers incorporate in their videos, considering to possible differences in message according to the gender and the age. It concludes that teenage YouTube channels have become commercial showcases with semi-professional performance of minors in which passive product placement is advertising strategies most used by youtubers. In relation to gender, boys are the ones who integrate more content and advertising strategies in their videos and teenagers between 15 and 16 years old are the ones with the highest rates of advertising insertion, above 90%.