The ‘YouTuber’ is a manifestation of the technological age. Kids who sit in their bedrooms, upload videos to YouTube and shoot to fame through their ability to identify with the average teenager – a skill that few brands recognise with even fewer knowing how to harness it. However as brands’ percentage share of audiences dwindle through the advent of platforms like YouTube, Vimeo and Vine, one brand that has recognised the potential for growth on the back of YouTubing sensations is Rule’m Sports, the UK arm of Digital content creator Endemol Shine.

Rule’m Sports has seen their brand launched into the stratosphere over the past 12 months through their work with KSI, one of the most charismatic YouTubers on the Internet.

To discuss their latest collaboration, part of the ‘Beast 5 Sports in 12 months’ project, I was pleased to be afforded the chance to sit down with YouTube sensation and prolific gamer KSI. KSI is only his nickname with his friends calling him JJ and his family knowing him as Olajide Olatunji.

If you didn’t know who JJ was (that was the name I landed on), the best way he could be described is a charismatic gamer who found his niche in uploading videos of himself playing FIFA and pointing out the shortcomings of the games through funny and in your face commentary.

So… How does a kid sitting in his room playing FIFA turn into a universally recognised celebrity who is employed to represent brands?

In the beginning I just started off by doing skills on FIFA and posting them online. I didn’t commentate; I didn’t even show my face online. After a while I got annoyed at the game because it had so many flaws so I just started complaining which is when I started to commentate. I was just ranting and people found it funny. Eventually I showed my face which is when I became this character.

If it strikes you as a little odd, it certainly struck me as very odd. Especially upon hearing about the deals he’s struck and the audience he has. His influence can be summarized by his numbers.

• 7 million twitter followers
• Over 9.8 million subscribers on his personal Youtube channel
• A further 600,000 subscribers on his joint channel with Rule’m Sports
• Voted the 4^th most influential figure among American teenagers in a Variety survey where he ranked above superstars Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo Di Caprio, Beyonce and Katy Perry

Representing a person polar opposite to the character portrayed in his YouTube videos, JJ is a very clever, business smart and tuned in individual

Despite the money, the fame and the followers, it doesn’t seem to have had too much effect on the 22 year old though. Since his dramatic rise to fame, he’s become a lot more concerned with how his brand comes across, especially after becoming aware of how big his influence is.

I’ve changed my brand quite a lot, mainly because of the amount of people who watch me. In saying that, I am completely different to before. Before I was just talking to numbers on a screen and I’d see a million people have watched me and it’s tough to quantify something like that. But since I’ve been going out there and meeting the people, I see quite a lot of young people and I feel a lot more responsibility to watch what I say and what I do.

Sitting down talking to JJ really made me want to become a YouTuber until it dawned on me that not everyone gets a chance to live their dreams like JJ has done. And when asked about his success and why he came across on-screen better than others, he had a very relevant perspective.

I’m relatable because I’m not your average person, but I am if that makes sense. You can see from the beginning where I started off, it wasn’t like I jumped to success. I wasn’t born with a spoon in my mouth and I didn’t have any help which I think is relatable. Coming from my bedroom to having the opportunities to live this crazy life. I worked hard and it’s paid off.

When asked about the collaboration with Rule’m Sports, he said that it essentially came out of nowhere.

They just hit me up about doing a project and then we kind of brainstormed what we should do, what would be fun and what they’d enjoy being part of. This is what we landed on; what I’d enjoy, how I could showcase my skills and how we could get professional athletes involved. In school, I wasn’t allowed to do certain sports but through this, I could try different sports while also meeting the athletes so it turned out to be a perfect project.

YouTube has created an environment where companies and brands are essentially being held to ransom by these types of identities. Instead of it having a negative impact on companies, their advertising and marketing structures have changed and they’ve had to adopt different strategies such as recruiting talents like JJ to push their brand. JJ and other YouTubers like Zoella and Tanya Burr have become intermediaries between big corporations and the audience that they want to interact with directly.

When asked about working with specific brands, JJ didn’t mince his words in his advice for companies and brands.

A lot of businesses feel like they know it all. The mentality that ‘they’re just a big brand so people are going to like them’ is widespread whereas it’s the complete opposite. People relate to people, not big companies so when companies come to me to promote their brands, I have to tell them to let me be in charge; I must do what I do for it to work but a lot of the time, they want to take control. If they don’t let me take control, suddenly it looks like their trying too hard to sell products, it gets boring and then they switch off. It doesn’t help my brand and it doesn’t help theirs.

From having a rap video to being offered all these opportunities to work with different brands, his mantra for future success was just to build on his internet fan-base and despite his fame to date, was still interested in working hard and staying relevant.

The Internet has passed platforms like television in several fold. For me, platforms like tv are quite limited. It is restricted to just one country, the internet is worldwide. Every country I go to I get recognized, that’s the difference between online and doing stuff like television. I feel it limits me. I just want to get bigger, more content, more interesting and exciting content, just about more subscribers, keep at it and working hard.

Now that you’ve read about it, take a look at the latest episode from Rule’m Sports featuring KSI. Rule’m Sports can be viewed on YouTube with new episodes every Wed, Sat and Sun. Subscribe here