James “Jimmy” Donaldson aka MrBeast’s YouTube channel counts 317 million subscribers and almost 60 billion views. And that’s not counting his other channels on or off of YouTube, like his TikTok with 104m subscribers.
You could say MrBeast has a university degree in video virality as he spent five years of his life locked up in a room studying everything that goes into making a successful YouTube video.
A few weeks ago, a former MrBeast employee leaked the company’s internal onboarding document.
The document is a mix of creative, project management and video production guidelines.
Here are my main takeaways from the content marketing side of things.
Goal Clarity
The stated goal of the MrBeast company is to “make the best YouTube videos possible .” He makes it clear that they are not trying to compete with Hollywood and that most Hollywood productions would do very poorly on YouTube.
KPIs
In the world of pure entertainment, the most important metrics are tied to retention, such as Average View Duration and Average View Percentage.
Content Structure
Most successful videos are structured as follows:
- the hyped intro: the first minute is the most critical; this is where most people drop
- the crazy progression: minutes one through three is where you progress the story enough to entice the viewers to keep watching
- the 3rd-minute re-engagement: this is where you pique the viewers’ interest in such a way that they think, “only MrBeast could do something like this.”
- back-half content: the second half of the video. If you get people to watch the first half of a video they’ll be more invested and there’s a high chance they’ll watch it until the end, almost like on autopilot.
Wow Factor
Jimmy cites the “wow factor” as a non-measurable ingredient of virality. A big part of the “wow factor” is differentiating video production from anything any other YouTuber could do.
Creativity over Budget
MrBeast is known for very generous giveaways. The example given in this case is giving away $20,000 vs. a year’s supply of Doritos (worth less than $2,000). Which one sounds more interesting? His takeaway is that “creativity saves money.”
Cheat Codes
Consultants are like video game cheat codes: if you need to make something, go talk to the people who did it before you. Their lessons could save you a ton of work.
Audience of One
The goal of new video productions is to be exciting to an audience of one: MrBeast himself. I use this rule in the context of copywriting: when creating copy for a landing page or email sequence, think of a specific person you’re writing it for. Your message will come across as more relatable and powerful by your ICP.
YouTube vs. NFL
Jimmy cites the CEO of a sponsored video saying that YouTube video have a longer tail than NFL commercials that create a spike and then disappear. YouTube videos have a longer shelf-life that can be extended by new uploads.
