YouTube was founded in 2005 and has been a pioneer in terms of growing video content strategies since 2008. One might say that the market is saturated; but it’s clear that while the YouTube market continues to grow that there will ALWAYS be a need for individual people and companies to grow their own video content strategies.
Whether you’re a young, entrepreneurial soul looking to build their very own personal YouTube Channel or you have an integrated content specific platform for your client or business, with 2 million subscribers; as the growth of Youtubers around the world continues to grow, so will the algorithm of Youtube will continue to shift and morph so it’s giving its users a fair and appropriate deal across the platform
There’s a well known adage that most good marketers should be aware of, and if you don’t know; well we’re going to tell you (and hopefully develop the idea little further). It’s a content strategy plan about how to populate your channel or platform/ website.
The ‘HELP/ HUB/ HERO’ content strategy model is an effective way to grow your channel and really are nomenclatures that differentiate the TYPE of content that you should be thinking about as a marketer/ content strategist.
THE HERO MODEL
The ‘Hero’ Film is the specific film where you want to make a visual impact with your brand and product. It is likely you might want to ‘splash out’ on a top name presenter here to be the figurehead of this particular video.
What’s the purpose? The aim is to ‘turn heads’, ‘stand out in the crowd’, deliver an ‘emotional knockout through engaged storytelling’ and you potentially gain access to a recognisable audience capacity (as that ‘icon’ will likely have a significant audience reach) and are able to leverage that for attention grabbing headlines or some serious tentpole marketing significance. It’s likely the video will have a high production value and a fairly large budget to execute it’s ‘brilliant’ plan. Just look at this advert from ‘VUE’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WZ1rvXD49Y
Interesting, simply, because it’s for a brand (VUE) it has knockout stars (Ridley Scott and John Boyega) but the messaging is simple; we can be attached to our screens (mobile phones/ laptops) but to truly enjoy a film, take a break and take 2 hours in a cinema to have a ‘true’ experience. That’s the key. Authentic experiences.
Also, here’s the ‘Behind the Scenes’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WZ1rvXD49Y
THE HUB MODEL
Hub Content is regular content that is engaging it’s audience from the outset. The ‘Hero’ film may have attracted and piqued the interest of the viewer but ‘HOW’ and ‘WHY do they stay?
One could say that the purpose of the hub content is to regularly attract the ‘staple audience’ that you need for your channel/ digital platform needs to sustain the feasibility of the content
A good example of this would be understanding the ‘identity’ of your audience.
For example, the BBC Three YouTube channel had tried to cater for specific broad audiences, but when they understood they had to think about aiming at a very specific youth oriented audience by creating content and formats that specifically engaged people in this direction, their figures started to rise.
Previously, they had been too ‘broad’ in the channels ‘scope’ of content; and this time around they were making more ‘focused and targeted’ content for it’s audience.
They have now positioned themselves directed at a youth, topical, current affairs engaged audience with documentary content as their key driver.
Their YouTube audience is currently at almost 2 million subscribers. Which is great for a public service YT Channel, funded by the taxpayers fee; it means that it’s gaining traction from an engaged public audience.
Here are some example videos:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcjoLhqu3nyOFmdqF17LeBQ – BBC Three YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z43gYxHPFqk – Skate social documentary channel
THE HELP MODEL
Finally, this is the content that guides the audience in terms of help and tutorials. The ‘How To’s and the ‘guidance’ films that an audience needs to figure out ‘life hacks’ or understand more about the needs of the niche audience that comes to that specific channel on a regular basis.
A good example of this is Maati Haapoja (> 800,000 Subs), a regular YouTuber who has an audience of dedicated filmmakers/ Videographers and anyone who is passionate, creative and loves filmmaking.
Here are two example videos that showcase his audiences needs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eriw_pT9N7Y – How to film a documentary – Part 1
Also a colleague of his, Peter Mckinnon (4.23 million subscribers) made a video called ‘8 Camera Hacks in 90s’ and it’s one of the most popular, watched videos on YouTube with over 7.1 million views.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PXCa6RCG28 – 8 Camera Hacks in 90s
Peter Mckinnon himself said that this simple explainer video was responsible for exponential growth on his channel. It goes to show that with a simple format; the ‘help’ video can become a viral sensation…
If you’ve managed to get all the way down to the bottom of this article, first of all – well done! We hope you’ve enjoyed the content. Secondly, if you’d like to discuss more aspects of video content strategy focused on audience growth and would like to see how Fable could help your business grow it’s brand identity through video content. We’re happy to be your partner.
Let’s get started…
Fable Studios is your partner in the world of video content.
We’re here to help you unleash the incredible brand-building potential of video to meet your challenges, engage your audience and grow your business.
