The Future of Franchises
As 1 billion views will attest — my toddler is not alone in being obsessed with the YouTube star, Ms. Rachel.
Blippi might be more familiar, as he’s crossed further into mainstream attention and has been picked up by streamers.
As someone who has spent a lot of time thinking about branding, and while at Netflix, thinking about how original franchises are made, I find it fascinating to see how these children’s brands are emerging organically through trial and error, as well as through the omnipresent feedback loop of the YouTube attention engine.
You can watch Ms. Rachel’s early videos and see the evolution of her content, going from music education to an emphasis on language learning. This resonated with parents, given Rachel’s personal story about having a child with delayed language learning despite her being a schoolteacher. You can also see how she settled on wearing the same outfit, transforming herself into her character and her brand.
Blippi also understood this. The bowtie, the glasses, the blue and orange — that defines the character. So much so that the original creator has controversially tried out an alternative actor.
Kids don’t care about production values.
Part of the reason this is happening with kids is that children don’t need the same level of polish and production that older age groups expect. However, I will argue that it’s set up to happen across all audiences.
It doesn’t mean that quality doesn’t matter. Ms. Rachel benefits from her music background and that of her Broadway musical composing husband — the music stands out compared to other YouTube channels.
The difference has more to do with the barrier to entry.
If you have ambitions to create the next Marvel Cinematic Universe — you’ll need more than a green screen, a laptop, and determination.
Kids YouTube shows us that the platform is fully capable of organically evolving the next franchise brands. What is lacking is the ability for more advanced productions, that require a team and a production budget, to launch on a platform with YouTube with the regularity necessary to win the algorithm game.
Kids’ YouTube shows us that the platform is fully capable of organically evolving the next franchise brands. What is lacking is the ability for more advanced productions, which require a team and a production budget, to launch on YouTube with the regularity necessary to win the algorithm game.
As I said on LinkedIn — YouTube needs to figure out the following:
