Cultural Content - Building a YouTube series
Guest post from National Museums Liverpool's Ellie Field
Hi there Cultural Content
This post is a case study from Digital Content Producer Ellie Field at National Museums Liverpool.
They’re talking about how they built up the YouTube series “What Artists Wear” from scratch. It includes:
The rationale and initial positioning of the series
How it performed
What really shifted the needle in terms of views
What to do differently next time
Season 2 preview
Over to Ellie…
Sometimes the YouTube algorithm can feel like a Pokémon (bear with me). It is constantly evolving, sometimes into something better and sometimes into some monstrosity, making us wish we could go back (who would evolve a Pikachu into Raichu?). As a Content Producer it can be infuriating making content (especially for a cultural organisation) that fits in with the current algorithm. The rules around; length, thumbnail, title, description and so on change all the time.
As a millennial, I grew up on YouTube. I was there at the beginning and as a 30-year-old I’m still here, I’m just watching slightly different videos nowadays. In the copyright era world we live in today we can sadly no longer watch full episodes of TV shows. In my time as a content producer, and a YouTube millennial, the one constant I have noticed is that YouTube loves a series… Consistency truly is king and if you can think of a unique idea that you can deliver once a month/week/even a day, YouTube will reward you.
Back in 2022, my manager at National Museums Liverpool Mannika Dhadwal (now Head of Digital) tasked our team to think about some original content that we could serialise for our YouTube. After a few discussions about wanting to do something around combining fashion and art, ‘What Artists Wear’ was born.
Thinking behind the series
The premise was simple; we ask creatives in Liverpool to show us three different outfits that they would wear for different occasions, and we look at how connected these outfits are to the artist's creative identity. Perhaps they are chosen for comfort and practicality, to blend in or stand out, to support a burgeoning black designer, or give yourself a dopamine boost. The reasons are endless, and they all have meaning.
I had two aims in mind when making this series:
To highlight the incredible creative talent in the North of England. There is a misconception that the only place you can be an artist in England is London. This is a grossly misguided thought and makes it much harder for people coming from lower-income backgrounds to have equal opportunity as London is very expensive. I moved to the North in the middle of a lockdown and when I was finally let out of my flat I was able to explore and experience the incredible culture the North holds, especially Liverpool.
To show that style is not determined by designer brands or the latest trending items. These things can be a part of style, but they are not pre-requisites. Ultimately what we wear should make the individual feel good regardless of trends or brands. Talking to creatives about this was a great way to show how style can be incredibly personal. Sometimes it overlapped with their creative output and sometimes it didn’t. Everyone has their own unique reasons for wearing what they want and listening to the stories, thoughts and emotions behind these decisions was equally fascinating and inspiring.
The Stats…
So let’s get into the stats
YouTube
Total views (as of 29 Nov 2023): 16,500
Average views in the first month per video: 2,204
Of that, 2000 were new to our YouTube.
Total views (as of 29 Nov 2023): 650,000
New to our Instagram; 500,000.
Big wins
Filming an episode with Felix Mufti was a big win for us. On the day of the filming, he told me about being cast in Sex Education season 4, so we released his episode a week after it went up on Netflix. As we made Instagram edits for each episode anyway, we got Felix to collaborate on an Insta post with us, which really bumped up the views. We also got lucky when Ncuti Gatwa (the current Doctor Who) reshared it on his Instagram stories (a moment I will never forget, the screenshot will never be deleted).
Luck aside, I am very happy with the results of the series. I knew it would be a grower as it’s very different from the usual content we publish, but a couple of months on and the views are still going up. Plus, it opened us up to a whole new audience on Instagram, which was great for achieving one of our overarching social targets – to grow our 16-25 audience.
Series two!
Series two has already been filmed. This time round I co-produced with my colleague Gina Schwarz which made it far less stressful, and we were able to create a more exciting set (expect some cameos from our household plants). We also used the same videographer, who was eager to make improvements this season. We even had a green room this time and some music to help create a relaxed atmosphere. The latter made a big difference which hopefully you will see in the next series.
TikTok
The biggest change this time round however will be adding TikTok to our release plan. Since releasing the first series we have started a TikTok which provides a more direct line of contact to the younger audience we are seeking. What Artists Wear feels TikTok friendly as it can be easily cut to a portrait video and 'Fashion Tok’ is a huge part of its audience, with outfit of the day’s and fit check’s filling the ‘For You’ pages. It is very much a trial to see how more professionally filmed and edited content does on TikTok, as phone-made content can achieve very high results, so watch this space.
Takeaways
I have a few takeaways from this project:
Give your staff the space to be creative. This idea came about because when I had some downtime, I wasn’t immediately given work to fill it with. As a Producer it is important to be able to sit and think and look around for inspiration.
Don’t be afraid to try something completely different, we don’t learn anything if we don’t try. I’m so excited about the next series because I learnt a lot from the first.
Be open to other’s ideas, bringing on Gina for the second series was such a blessing as we were able to agree, disagree and inspire each other to create something that was the most fun and loved project I’ve ever worked on.
Lastly and most importantly, serialise your content!! If you deliver a particular type of content regularly (does not have to be super frequent if you're limited in resources, there are plenty of YouTube channels that have slower release schedules) people will subscribe knowing they will get a type of content on a regular schedule.
The first episode of the next season is being released on 15th Feb, so I encourage you all to head over to our YouTube to watch it!
That’s it for this week. See you in a fortnight 👋