Share this article
During the 2016 Entrepreneur Fair , one of the guests was Antonio Tabet , the comedian and scriptwriter of many of the videos for Porta dos Fundos , the Brazilian comedy show that publishes new videos on YouTube every week . Today, it is rare to find someone who does not know what Porta dos Fundos is or who has not seen one of its videos. In Portugal, some of these videos were even shown on the Fox television channel .
Porta dos Fundos ' success can easily be measured by the numbers it has achieved since 2011. As of July 2016, the YouTube channel had over 12 million subscribers. However, this is a number that promises to continue growing, as more and more users from foreign-speaking countries are enjoying the humorous videos of Brazilian comedians.
In this article, we talk about the success of Porta dos Fundos , using the japan email list explanations presented by Antonio Tabet during the 2016 Entrepreneur Fair .
Who is behind Porta dos Fundos?
It all started with a group of five friends who were not entirely satisfied with the lack of creative freedom on Brazilian television. Who were these friends? Fábio Porchat , Gregório Duvivier , João Vicente de Castro , Antonio Tabet and director Ian SBF . Although Porta dos Fundos began operating at the end of 2011, the videos only began to be published in August of the following year. Until then, a long process of production and promotion of the channel took place. The Porta dos Fundos team , which also intended to broadcast the videos on national television, did not find any investors and ended up resigning itself to the Internet.
When they finally published their first videos, Porta dos Fundos became one of the first YouTube channels to standardize the days on which they published their videos. A schedule was established so that the content would be published on fixed days (Monday and Thursday mornings, at 11 am) as if it were a real television program. Which it was... except that instead of being broadcast on television, it was being broadcast on the Internet . The proven success of Porta dos Fundos meant that this group of comedians increased their video production so that they could also publish them on Saturdays.
Of course, an audiovisual project of this magnitude required financial investment. For this reason, it was agreed among the five founders of Porta dos Fundos that each one would invest 5 thousand reais in the company every month. As Tabet explained at the Feira do Empreendedor , this was an investment that doubled to 10 thousand reais from the third month onwards. However, all the effort and investment paid off. A few months later, Porta dos Fundos had become a self-sufficient project. The money it generated was enough to pay the bills, even if it was not yet profitable.
At least, that's what happened until they released the Spoleto video . For those who didn't have the opportunity to see this video, here it is:
Initially called Fast Food , this video, written by Fabio Porchat, was released on YouTube on August 13, 2012, and was the sixth to appear on the channel. During the production phase, the team sought sponsorship from a fast food brand to use during filming. However, due to the controversial script, they were unable to secure support from any brand.
After the video was published, the Brazilian brand Spoleto contacted Porta dos Fundos directly and invited them to a meeting. They wanted to know why they hadn’t filmed the video in one of their restaurants, because they thought the end result was incredible and that the video space could easily be associated with one of the restaurants in their chain. This meeting resulted in a partnership – two videos would be filmed at Spoleto – and the brand, in turn, would receive advertising. Not long after, Spoleto saw a 700% increase in the number of people sending in their CVs to work there.
When it comes to Porta dos Fundos' revenue , it's not hard to see where it comes from. We've said on our blog more than once that, with a good digital strategy, we can make a profit on YouTube . Porta dos Fundos makes its money mainly from sponsored content. Brands pay comedians to use their spaces or brand elements to create humorous videos. However, as Tabet explained, this works best when companies are given complete creative freedom.
However, when Porta dos Fundos began to grow, the team had to call on business and management experts to guide them through so many positive results. The success is such that today, what started as a mere YouTube channel is a company with more than 70 employees.
