It's perhaps the opposite of the hard knock life for YouTube content creators, who are increasingly getting more and more partnership opportunities with Hollywood and television. One such partnership, in support of the Sony Pictures remake of Annie, gave YouTube singers a platform to cover iconic songs from the musical on their YouTube channels.
The film company partnered with multichannel network Fullscreen to feature its creators, including Tyler Ward, whose music video and cover of "It's The Hard Knock Life" already garnered 1.1 million views.
The Annie partnership is another in a long line of films reaching out to YouTubers as part of their promotional strategy. Most recently Seth Rogen and James Francocollaborated with several well-known YouTubersto promote their film The Interview, and in the past Sony has tapped stars for projects likeThe Hunger Games and Interstellar. For the new Annie partnership, the fact that it allowed creators to simply cover iconic songs instead of more directly pushing the film stars or film's premise gives it a more organic feel within the landscape of YouTube.Other covers in the campaign include a ukulele version of "Tomorrow" by Max Schneider and a pop-punk "You’re Never Fully Dressed (Without A Smile)” thanks to TeraBrite. Overall the Annie-themed covers reached over 5 million viewers across the Fullscreen YouTubers collective subscriptions, a decent dent in marketing for a hopeful holiday blockbuster.
Screengrab via Tyler Ward/YouTube