In the olden days there was just one type of YouTube. That was landscape clips that lasted less than 15-minutes. You can still see the sediment of this period if you go searching for it.
The 15-year-old Bullseye episode that’s split into two 14-minute parts. That’s from then.
Now, there’s many ways to watch how to skin a metaphorical cat.
One of the glorious things about Ofcom is they don’t just publish reports they also publish selective data that goes into them.
So, here it is. I’ve read the 154,000 lines of data that went into the video on demand survey to unearth some absolute gems.
We know that video is significant in the media landscape.
We know that YouTube is the most popular social media channel in the UK and used by 43.6 million people. That’s 94 per cent of all internet users.
But how are we using it?
What length of YouTube clips do we watch… and why does it matter?
Traditional short-form video still tops the charts on YouTube. That’s clips less than 15-minutes. Ofcom research shows that 57 per cent of the UK population have watched this length of clip in the last 12-months.
What’s interesting are the YouTube Shorts data. Shorts is the vertical platform to challenge TikTok and Reels. Here, the data skews strongly to a younger demographic. Seventy per cent of 13-to-17-year-olds watch this platform.
As we get older, the traditional short-form content performs strongly. More than half of 18 to 50-year-olds will watch this.
Live streams are measurable but are not really cutting through to much more than a tenth of people. They perform best with 13 to 17-year-olds.
What’s also interesting is the longer-form content. Again, almost half the population watch clips longer than 15-minutes long. Full length films and full TV programmes perform less strongly. Around a fifth of people up to the age of 64 will watch this kind of content.
What can public sector communicators take from this? Well, maybe its worth looking at cross-posting Reels or TikTok content to Shorts would be one lesson.
But it would be a mistake to think that 15-minutes of someone dull lecturing you is the answer.
What types of genre perform well on YouTube in the UK?
The real detail in the Ofcom study can be found in the type of content we are watching on YouTube in general.
From the breakdown, music has regained the top spot but how-to guides are the most profitable type of content for public sector communicators. The new recycling bin launch can best be communicated through a ‘how to’ film.
Here, you may not always be looking at what the organisation wants to tell people this week. There may also be value in finding content that people want and making that. A chat with customer services or the webteam may show the less glamorous areas where an explainer can work.
As ever, the question ‘who is your audience?’ is vital.
By knowing the age of the audience you can better frame content.
The ‘how to’ route offering timely practical help is a powerful and underused tool in the comms toolbox.