In 2006, ad agency BuderEngel was about to turn down a client that wanted it to promote an MP3 player called Zvue because the client’s budget was too small for traditional advertising. Brendan Gahan, who was a recent college grad working for the agency, suggested they instead pay a popular YouTube channel called Smosh to promote the device. 

“We got millions of views and crashed the client’s website,” Gahan, who is now partner and chief social officer at creative agency Mekanism, recalled in a recent interview with The Information. “I was like, ‘Yes, this hunch is spot on.’”