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Digitas and Outrigger Show Emerging Talent Tracker at Meet-Up

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Advertising agency Digitas announced the Emerging Talent Tracker (ETT) during its 2013 NewFront in May, and last night several members of New York City's advertising community got their first look at it. During a meet-up in Digitas's Park Avenue offices -- the first in a monthly series called "Art, Science, YouTube" -- Mike Henry, CEO of Outrigger Media showed off the tool. Outrigger provides deep YouTube analytics for brand advertisers, and the ETT is a refinement of its product co-developed by the two companies.

The purpose of the ETT is to identify YouTube's stars of tomorrow before they're well known. This lets brands invest in a YouTube star with potential, getting in early and saving money since the star isn't yet charging large fees.

YouTube currently has around 130,000 channels, Henry said, a number difficult for advertisers to process. By filtering for quality in key metrics, Outrigger's OpenSlate tool helps advertisers winnow that number down. The ETT is the result of tweaking OpenSlate's momentum measurement, showing which channels are starting to emerge.

To demonstrate the ETT's discoveries, two YouTube-stars-to-be sat on the panel: Beth Hoyt, creator of BethInShow, and Nate Bennett, creator of OkayNate. Both had built sizable followings and stuck to consistent posting schedules, although neither had yet been able to quit their day job.

Digitas currently holds a 12-month exclusive on the ETT. During that year, Outrigger can only license the tool to companies that don't compete with Digitas, and only with Digitas's consent.

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