these 3 brand new YouTube channels generate millions of views: this is their secret

Die-hard followers of the amateur football in Limburg may know Koen Geven as the premier league goalkeeper of RKSV Minor from Nuth. But he is better known today as the Dutch Goalkeeper on YouTube. A year ago this channel started, but his views really exploded in March this year. Where he previously generated a few tens of thousands of views with his channel, there were 4.6 million views (!) in March alone.

The secret of this success? In addition to his longer regular videos, he also started publishing YouTube Shorts: the short vertical videos from up to 60 seconds with their own prominent place on the platform. His most popular Shorts are reviews (‘$8 vs $80 goalkeeper gloves’) and listicles (‘Types of Goalkeepers’). Video formats with a proven track record and also good to adjust in shorter videos, such as Shorts.

Shorts were already introduced on YouTube last year, but (too) few creators are using them. This channel shows that the use of YouTube Shorts can serve as a flywheel for the success of a YouTube channel. The great advantage of Shorts is that it is primarily shown to new audiences. Thus, it has the potential to generate new subscribers and it can be a very good addition to your long-form content. Do you want to use this too? Read our tips on YouTube Shorts here.

Mini Island is a Swedish channel that started publishing videos in February this year. Three months later, the channel has generated more than 50 million views. How can a start-up channel achieve this so quickly? The answer is a combination of consistency, responding to nostalgia and a proven effective format. They publish several ‘evolution videos’ per week of characters from popular games, series and films. In less than a minute, you see what the character looked like when it was first published and how it has evolved over the years. No more and no less. These videos are then recommended to related videos on the same subject. And that millions of times a month. The video below about the evolution of Spider Man has been viewed almost 10 million times.

Mini Island only uses the ‘transformation format’. This is still surprisingly little used by brands on YouTube, but if you do it right, it can generate extremely many views. We already mentioned this a while ago. A YouTube transformation is a story in which a character or object goes through a physical and/or mental change and that change is highlighted. The big advantage of this format is that it does not require a high production budget. That makes it an interesting format for many small channels to experiment with.

Another Swedish channel that just started this year and is already getting millions of views is Dime. They publish (in their own words) ‘Basketball content, the way it should be’. Dime has acquired the archive rights to the American basketball league NBA. These are successfully exploited by publishing composed content, such as listicles, best moments and other types of top lists that are 8-9 minutes long. Combined with attractive titles and thumbnails, they generate millions of views and an increasing advertising revenue. They give the old archive a second life.

Not all brands have such a rich archive as the NBA, but many film producers and sports associations do. With a smart content strategy, you can activate this archive, achieve a lot of reach and generate revenue. Especially when you consider that other networks (such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok) are also showing more initiative to share advertising revenue with creators, this can be lucrative. The Swedish company Dime shows how this can be done. Perhaps a good example for our own premier league?

The examples of the new successful YouTube channels, may give the impression that you are only successful on YouTube if you manage to score millions of views. But success on the video platform goes beyond just generating a lot of views. Successfully using YouTube for brands is mainly a matter of influencing purchasing decisions. And to do that successfully, you don’t need millions of views. Looking for successful brands that already know how to do that? Then take a look at this list with 9 examples or these 7 successful B2B brands on YouTube.

Born and raised on YouTube, we’ve developed a unique, data-driven approach to create effective videos. As the second-largest global search engine, tapping into YouTube’s full potential requires more than just uploading videos. A specialized YouTube agency can efficiently navigate this complex platform, ensuring your marketing investment translates into measurable results. Click here to learn more about a YouTube marketing agency.