Hughes runs his channel under the alias “Bucks”, and has been making popular videos since 2012. His highest viewed video has amassed over 1,800,000 hits. He undoubtedly has captivated fans around the world with his sense of humor and creative stylization of videos, and this year he has travelled internationally to meet fans and collaborate with high-profile brands. He is completely committed to his craft, and considers social influencing to be an all-the-time job rather than a full-time one, and that is part of what makes it so enjoyable.
“I love the freedom of being an influencer. Being able to work for myself, be in charge of everything I’m doing and be responsible for it. In previous full-time jobs, I was told what to do, even if I had ideas that I thought would be successful. Being an influencer allows you to channel your work ideas through your own personality to connect to an audience. This is so crucial for us as human beings to shine in our talents, for how can our talents ever be expressed if they’re controlled by others? I like having positive impacts on other people’s lives, and being able to make people smile and laugh. Alongside this is a 24/7 mental involvement,” he said.
This past September, Hughes collaborated with the company SkinSilo to promote the gaming app. SkinSilo is a platform that allows players of Counter Strike: Global Offensive (otherwise known as CS:GO) who can’t afford in-game purchases to get them for free in exchange for watching videos, downloading games, and filling in surveys. Hughes’ videos playing CS:GO are extremely popular, and the game that is featured in the majority of his content. Collaborating with SkinSilo was a natural match.
“We've worked with Ryan on a couple of sponsored YouTube videos. Working with Ryan has been a very positive experience. We can clearly tell that Ryan takes a sincere interest in whatever it is he's promoting. He makes this clear by keeping communication consistent and working with our team directly to reach a finished video product that everyone is happy with - and that his audience will definitely enjoy watching! In other words, when we decide to work with Ryan, we can be sure that his video will be high in both quality and entertainment value. It's clear that Ryan puts forth a great amount of effort when it comes to his content. This effort is what makes Ryan great at what he does, it allows him to create entertaining content while also successfully helping our brand grow. His charisma definitely shines in most of his videos, it keeps the viewer immersed and entertained," said Arturo, a representative of SkinSilo.
SkinSilo reached out to Hughes after seeing how he had previously promoted brands. Unlike many influencers, he doesn’t have obvious promotional plugs. Instead, Hughes inserts his brand deals in very creative ways into his videos. In the past, he has turned down potential partnerships if they are not willing to be creative, or offer a service that would be an asset to his many fans. There is nothing Bucks cares more about than his fans.
The result of the campaign was a tremendous success for SkinSilo, Hughes, and his viewers. Hughes took SkinSilo’s initial idea and completely tailored it to his fans and his channel, making it both entertaining and informative. He was given total freedom for the promotion, so he took the opportunity to include a skit as well as some destruction. The video begins with a comedic sketch of an injured Bucks, who at the time had actually fallen just beforehand, so he played off of that. He then displays several devices that will work with the newly launched app. These devices include a very low budget phone, a mid-range budget phone and a high budget phone to showcase that the app works on most average phones and you don’t need the latest iPhone or Samsung per say. Afterwards, the destruction part of the promotion came with the comedic approach of using an inexpensive Walkman phone, which Hughes tried to install the app on but did not work properly. Hughes’ then sets the phone on fire.
Influencers are often given the opportunity to be imaginative, but Hughes takes it to a next level. His crazy antics are thoroughly entertaining, and in previous videos he even set a firework off with an Xbox controller, and showed many unique ways to destroy fidget spinners. Having so much creative space is one of Hughes’ favorite parts about his job, and says it is everything he could ever want.
Hughes is at a point where he is truly living his dreams. Most people imagine such fame and passion for what you do, but very few realize this at only 22-years-of-age. That being said, he has some essential advice for those looking to follow in his footsteps.
“Find your creative. Never copy or follow someone else’s footsteps or rely on others. You want to create your own source of entertainment, where you are the soul of your work. It’s you people want to see when making a video on X topic, it’s your creativity that brings people back, it’s your unique personality that stops people from leaving or not wanting to watch another video of yours. Investing back into your career, even out of your own pocket, is something you should consider to continually increase your quality of content. When you find something that works well, take notes and learn from it,” he advised.
To watch Buck’s SkinSilo promotional video and be very entertained, click here.