Podcasts have been keeping me sane in this time of uncertainty. One of my recent podcast discoveries has been the Colin and Samir podcast, wherein the duo, Colin and Samir, who have themselves been creating content on YouTube for years now, breakdown the latest trends in content creation space. In one of their recent episodes, they talk about the disticntion of idea based creators and relationship based creators, and that got me thinking about how I can structure my content to get the best of both worlds. Here’s a breakdown of the two common types of creators on YouTube.
Idea Based Creator
An idea based creator, as the name suggests, relies on the idea behind the content. The idea is the ‘hero’ of the content and it is the idea that bring in the views. The most popular idea based creators on YouTube are MrBeast, Dude Perfect, Good Mythical Morning.
MrBeast is run by Jimmy Donaldson, who comes up with the most insane and irreplaceable video ideas, like giving away a million dollars to random people on the street!
And so with Dude Perfect, wherein the makers of the video perform amazing trick shots.
Good Mythical Morning belongs to Rhett and Link, who bring in creative concepts, like altering food items like tacos and burgers and putting their own spin on it. In fact Good Mythical Morning has started another channel called Mythical Kitchen, which incorporates the quirky food ideas.
One of the benefits of being an idea based creator is that the weight of the video is usually carried by the idea and hence relieves the creator from shouldering the responsibility to entertain and therefore retain an audience. The ideas are what help bring in views in huge numbers, for instance most of MrBeast’s videos get over 10 million views!
Relationship Based Creator
A relationship based creator is the usually the opposite of an idea based creator. Relationship based creators like to form strong bonds with their viewers through exposing their vulnerabilities, quirky sense of humour, grit or just sharing their life as it happens. Vloggers are the most common type of relationship based creators.
Colin and Samir state that the power of relationship based creators is that they can create a show about nothing, a lot like Seinfeld. Seinfeld was the antidote to the ususal 90s sitcoms. It was almost like Jerry, the protagonist of the show, was ‘vlogging’ a day in his life and sharing it with his viewers.
The interetsing fact about most relationship based creators is that their content starts with an idea! So they start with an idea and then slowly start forming a deep connection with their viewers. Some of the most popular relationship based creators on YouTube are Emma Chamberlain, Casey Neistat and Peter McKinnon.
Emma make relatable content for American teens and won the Streamy Award in 2018 for the Creator on the rise. Emma has infact started selling her own coffee brand, Chamberlain coffee!
Casey Neistat is my favourite vlogger of all time! He brought amazing editing, sound design and stories to his vlogs. He started his career in New York City as a film-maker and rose to fame within the YouTube space in 2016 with his daily vlogs. I was glued to his vlogs and followed them DAILY. That’s the power of making relationship based content. You tend to form a bond with viewers all around the world! He isn’t uploading on YouTube anymore, but I do like to go back and watch some of his old vlogs because they’re just that good!
Peter McKinnon is another favourite creator who started off by making photoshop and lightroom tutorials on YouTube and is now one of the best vloggers on the platform. His style of editing and the production quality of his videos are top notch. He too, like Casey, has managed to form a deep connection with his viewers through his impeccable vlogs.
Relationship based creators have the super power of not relying on ideas to get the views. They can simply be talking to a camera for 20 minutes straight and their ardent viewers will listen! These creators can create their own lifestyle based merchandise like start a clothing line, start selling coffee or beauty products. They also have the advantage of working with huge lifestyle brands. They are basically internet celebrities.
I like the perks of being a relationship based creator, but I don’t see myself sharing my life with thousands or even millions of people on the internet. I am leaning more towards becoming an idea based creator because it will bring in more views and will not require me to be the centre of attention, which in my opinion is a sweet spot.