YouTube as a digital destination: what arts marketers are missing
See you at the AMA conference in a few weeks?
What happens when a gallery treats YouTube not as a dumping ground for old talks or show trailers, but as a serious tool for international audience development?
For the last 7 months, we’ve been working with National Galleries Scotland (NGS) on reimagining their YouTube channel as a key driver of reach, engagement and revenue – and a fundamental pillar of their international audience development.
We’re presenting the story of this at the AMA conference in Edinburgh on Friday 11th July at 2pm – hope to see you there. Here’s what we’ll be covering in our session.
It’s a shift in approach that sees digital not just as a way to market physical experiences, but as a destination in its own right – one that can build loyal audiences and generate sustained impact.
Discovery engine, not social feed
Most cultural organisations still treat YouTube as a holding space – somewhere to upload recordings, trailers or talks after the fact. But that’s not how audiences experience the platform.
YouTube – and TikTok – are what we call discovery engines. They serve content based on interest and engagement history, not who you follow. This means someone who’s never heard of your organisation – and might live in another country entirely – can still find and watch your content.
Compare that to Facebook and Instagram, which were originally built around the social graph – a model where content is shown based on your network of friends and follows. These platforms are now trying to shift towards more interest-driven feeds, but it’s not baked into their infrastructure – or into user expectation – in the same way.
On platforms like Instagram or TikTok, content is passively served in a scroll – the next thing just appears. On YouTube, uniquely, you have to make a decision about what to click on.
That makes titles, thumbnails and the first 30 seconds critical. They’re not afterthoughts – they’re the hook.
A uniquely positioned platform
There are some things about YouTube that make it particularly well-suited to what cultural organisations want to do:
It has a more balanced demographic spread – skewing less young, less female, and less UK-centric than many other platforms.
People spend longer watching – so you can go deeper with storytelling.
It’s less likely to be pulled overnight due to geopolitical whims (looking at you, TikTok).
It has a stable algorithm that’s been around long enough for us to learn what works.
It offers multiple monetisation routes – and it’s one of the few places where audiences are demonstrably willing to pay for digital content.
More than just monetisation – building digital community
One of the most exciting things we’ve seen from successful channels is how creators use membership models not just to earn money, but to involve their audiences more directly.
These aren’t just pledges or one-off donations. They’re ongoing relationships.
As well as financial gain (although, in this funding climate, that is significant), what’s interesting about these models is the depth of engagement they foster. Members can comment, join Q&As, vote on upcoming content, and genuinely help shape the direction of the channel.
They’re not just viewers – they’re part of the process.
That shifts the dynamic. It breaks down the old model of the institution as announcer and the audience as passive recipient. And it opens the door to building communities around your organisation who are connected not by geography, but by shared interest.
This is where we see real potential for arts organisations – especially those with loyal audiences who might be willing to support in different ways if we gave them a meaningful invitation to do so.
Digital content as a destination
Digital content should be seen as a destination in its own right.
In the sector we tend to prioritise the in-person audience and think of digital tools as an accessory to, or driver of, physical footfall – and they absolutely can be that. But that’s not all digital is good for.
If you have a point of conversion for your digital audience – like paid YouTube membership – it’s possible to think of your digital stack as a marketing funnel in its own right: complementary but separate to the physical one.
At NGS, we mapped out two parallel journeys – one for physical visits, one for digital engagement. Each has its own stages: awareness, consideration, conversion and loyalty.
Recognising that makes it easier to think of digital as developing a global audience around a digital product – in tandem with, but separate to, the more local marketing of the physical museum visit.
This doesn’t mean walking away from your core audience. But it does mean seeing your digital presence not just as a billboard – but as a product in its own right.
What we did with NGS
We worked with NGS for 7 months, helping them look at where they were and where they could go with YouTube. That included:
A channel audit – looking at best-performing content, traffic sources, thumbnail design, and subscriber growth.
A benchmarking report – comparing them to cultural and non-cultural accounts using YouTube well.
Audience search analysis – based on keyword data from YouTube and their own collection language.
Two workshops:
A Superpowers Workshop – where we looked at how NGS’s values translate into content potential.
A Format Generation Workshop – developing ideas that sit at the intersection of audience needs, institutional values and what works on the platform.
As a result of those workshops, we developed four distinct YouTube formats or series to take forward. Watch this space.
Building your YouTube strategy: 7 takeaways
Assume your audience is global and doesn’t know you – context-setting matters.
Think like a search engine, not a social feed – content needs to earn its click.
Prioritise strong packaging – your title, thumbnail and intro drive visibility and retention.
Take inspiration from creators, not the sector – creator channels often lead the way on structure and tone.
Build content formats, not just one-offs – repeatable series help build familiarity and expectation.
Map your digital funnel – awareness, consideration, conversion and loyalty each need different types of content.
Focus on participation as much as reach – your most valuable audiences are the ones who feel involved.
More of this at AMA
If you’re heading to the AMA conference, do come and say hello – I’ll be joined by previous Cultural Content guest authors Chris Unitt and Louise Cohen.
I’ll be talking about this project on Friday 11th July at the AMA conference in Edinburgh – hope to see you there.