Businesses in the north west of England can harness its “positive creative energy” in order to grow their brands online.
That was the message from YouTube’s head of content for brands for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Lucy Banks.
The comments follow an event at Liverpool’s Creative Kitchen, which saw Banks speak to north west businesses on how developing their own channel can help maximise their brand.
Banks, a former University of Liverpool graduate, said the creative energy of the north west region was one of the reasons it was chosen to host the event.
She told BusinessLive: “There are always people here who’ve got that sense of can-do attitude, self-starters, loads of great ideas and that’s the stuff that really chimes with YouTube.
“We see lots of hotspots of great ideas in the region and lots of creativity happening here.”
Big businesses, including Matalan, registered to attend the event this week, alongside smaller creative and marketing companies, said Banks.
She stressed: “It could be your first day as a brand and you can create a channel and you’ve got as much chance as creating a strong channel as anybody else.
“Often what you find is those more traditional, big corporate businesses fail to have the authentic and personal approach.”
She continued: “YouTube is lots and lots of communities of interest, so groups of people who connect around a shared passion, and it’s almost like an anthropological look at the world.
“For example, dads are a huge community on YouTube and they’re not represented by the baby magazines.
“If you want to do well on YouTube, think about what you stand for as a brand, what people really care about and find that place to connect.”
Banks also spoke about how YouTube can be used as a marketing platform for businesses.
“YouTube is by far the most viewed platform for 18-34 year olds”, she said.
“YouTube is also the second largest search engine after Google, so people are coming to the platform to look for stuff.
“For instance, if you’re a dad, we would know if you’re a dad and you’re in the market for a car seat.
“This gives brands the ability to develop much more effective advertising rather than just spamming everybody.”
The event was the first of its kind in the regions, Banks said, but “it’s important for us not to be London centric”.
“One of the things we’ve been thinking about is how can we take some of the training and inspiration from the London space and take that around the country a lot more.
“Because, whether you’re in Liverpool or Oldham or Hull, you can get online; anybody with a phone, an internet connection and an idea can make content.”
It was the meritocratic and democratic founding principles of YouTube that drew Banks away from publishing company Bauer in 2015, she said.
“I was drawn to work here out of frustration with the traditional world of publishing, where there’s a commissioning editor who decides what is in fashion if you’re Grazia or what the best film if it’s Empire magazine.
“I loved working at those amazing content brands but the idea that a small group of people who decide what is pop culture is the antithesis of popular culture actually being determined by the people and created by the people.
“YouTube is a completely open platform, so you remove those normal rules of how you have to behave in order to grow an audience.
“The establishment rules do not apply which I found really exciting.”
Banks said the story of women and YouTube is a “really exciting” one, with female watch time on entrepreneurial content more than doubling year on year in the Ƶ, and a burgeoning female entrepreneurial community developing in Dubai.
“There are lots of stereotypes easily exposed as myths, such as the role of women in Dubai.
“We have a huge platform over there which has lots of very strong, very cool women growing their channels and creating content on their own terms.”
