The very charismatic DJ/Producer Ryan Raddon (Kaskade), often referred to as one of the spokesmen for the dance music scene, was invited onto a panel for NYC’s Advertising Week this past week to discuss the role of video, in particular YouTube, in developing and maintaining his brand.
Kaskade sat adjacent to media industry experts Doug Ray and Bonin Bough on “Video Today: Where Culture for Brands is Born”, where they each were able to provide their unique perspective on YouTube being utilized as a video and a social platform. 
When asked what kind of role YouTube takes in Kaskade‘s professional life, and how he has taken advantage of this new media space, Kaskade discussed how it has become primarily just a place to connect directly with fans.
“On my channel I’m just sharing insight, I mean anything from ‘hey this is music that I’m listening to,’ to ‘this is what I’m doing in the studio,’ ‘this is my life on the road,’ I feel like I can speak to the fans really directly. I didn’t have to wait for radio to break my song. I put it up on YouTube, a self produced video, get it out there and see what the reaction is and start some momentum that way.”
Kaskade went on to answer advice about how it is important to focus on the happenings of the moment when it comes to social media branding, providing the recent Krewella debacle where he and Deadmau5 chimed in on Twitter as example.
“It’s about living in real time. Things are happening so fast; the message is always changing. Deadmau5 and I were having some banter on twitter last night about Krewella- one of their former band mates is suing the other two band members, and it’s kind of like – that’s happening right now. He made a comment. I retweeted it. He was like ‘hey, let’s start a band,’ and we were slagging on the fact that these guys were suing each other. But it was hot last night. Without constraints, it’s about moving really fast.”
Kaskade also made mention of the many memes that were probably created within hours joking about his new band with deadmau5, further proving just how fast social media moves. In a constantly evolving world, Kaskade emphasizes the importance of utilizing current events and using these relatively new forms of media, like Twitter and YouTube, to further develop a brand and connect with fans. Check out the entire session below to see what else he had to say during NYC’s Ad Week.
