Transcription
For years, all of the content ever uploaded to YouTube fit into just three categories: entertainment, education, or information. And whether you realized it or not, all of the content you've ever watched or searched for will have fit into one of these three. But lately, there's been a big shift and a brand new category of content is now exploding across the entire platform.
Now, before we talk about the new category, it's first really important you understand the difference between the traditional three. Now, educational videos are things like tutorials, explainers, deep dives, and how-to videos. You watch them to learn how to do things. Now, historically, this actually made up the vast majority of content on YouTube. This video you're watching right now is education, and so are people like Ali Abdal, Nisha, Ed Lawrence, Dr. Eric Berg. The list goes on.
Then we have entertainment and this is things like vlogs or challenges, drama and comedy. That kind of stuff. Think about people like Mr. Beast or Ryan Traan or Arak. Those kind of people. All of their videos are pure entertainment. You don't learn anything from them. You just enjoy them.
Then we have informational videos where these are literally just like news updates, analysis or reviews. Like the purpose of these videos is literally just to give you information. And since YouTube was actually first created, these three categories dominated the platform.
But over the last couple of years, a brand new hybrid category has popped up. And this is the key driver behind some of the biggest and fastest growing YouTubers on the planet. Now, here are some channels that I'm going to assume you've either watched or have seen somewhere on YouTube lately. People like Matt Armstrong, the crashed supercar restoration guy, or the Outdoor Boys, who is one of the fastest growing channels out there right now. Or even someone like Mark Robbert. Everyone knows this guy. 77 million subscribers. And these guys, too, YBS Young, one of my favorite channels. These guys are Australian and they focus on survival and challenges.
Now, all of these channels are clearly very different. Different niches, different styles, different cultures, different countries, but they've all had absolutely massive growth over the last few years, and they continue to grow at such an incredible rate. Yes, their content is good, and they've all probably now got huge production teams behind them, but fundamentally, they all share one simple thing in common. They're all part of this new hybrid content strategy.
So, what exactly is this new hybrid category? Well, in its simplest of terms, it's actually just a blend between education and entertainment. And it's officially called the edutainment category. Now, yes, I know edutainment is not a brand new or novel thing to the world. It's actually existed for a very, very long time, but its rise on YouTube is still pretty new and it's growing at an incredibly fast rate.
Now, to give you some examples, here's the most famous one of them all, The Outdoor Boys. Now, I'm guessing most of you will have probably heard of this guy or seen his videos popping up on your home feed now and then. Now, his growth over the last few years has been something so big he actually had to quit YouTube because he became way too famous. Like, just think about that. And a report from the Business Insider at the time said the channel had grown to over 15 million subscribers, gaining roughly 12 million subscribers in just 18 months, which is just genuinely insane. Like that growth for a YouTube channel is just unheard of.
But the reason Outdoor Boys is such a perfect example of this new hybrid category is because on the surface his videos look like just pure entertainment. You click because a man is out there camping in brutal conditions with his kids or he's out there surviving in the snow or building a shelter in the woods in the middle of nowhere. Now, his titles and thumbnails are always simple. They're visual and they're instantly clickable.
But once you actually get watching his videos, you realize they are doing something much, much deeper because you're not just watching a camping video. You're literally learning how to make a fire. You're learning how to stay warm. You're learning how to cook outdoors. You're learning how to survive through him. Like, you learn so many different things whilst you watch him. And that's the genius of it. He doesn't just sit down and say, "Oh, today I'm going to teach you five survival tips." Because that would just feel like a lesson. Like that's what like talking head videos like my channel does. Instead, he literally puts himself in a situation where those lessons become part of the story. So if he needs to stay warm, he shows you how to stay warm. If something goes wrong on his survival attempt, you see the solution that happens in real time.
Now what this means is that the education is not separate from the entertainment. The education is the entertainment. Like a traditional just educational video in the same niche as him might be something like how to build an igloo in minus 5°. Now that might be a useful video, but it's quite narrow. It's not very entertaining. But the Outdoor Boys basically turns that same information into a story like camping in Alaska's deepest snow with a dugout survival shelter. Now, suddenly that same lesson now has stakes. It has atmosphere, personality, and a reason for everyone to keep watching.
And then the second example I'm going to give you is this guy here, Matt Armstrong. Now, he's an English car restoration YouTuber who actually first started out by posting videos of himself riding his BMX bike back in the day. And then he moved on to fixing his old beat up cars in his garage. And then fast forward a few years, he now gets tens of millions of views per video and all he does is buy crash supercars and build them back up to perfect condition. Now, his growth has been meteoric, and he's now got just shy of 10 million subscribers across two channels.
Now, the reason Matt has grown so quickly is not only because you get to watch a crash supercar go from garbage to roadworthy, but you also get to see all of the behind the scenes of the mechanics and the engineering, too. Like, everything. Matt literally shows you every single part of the rebuild as he builds it. He literally explains everything he does to the finest of details. Now, I'm not even personally much of a car mechanics kind of guy, but even I finished every single video knowing something new about cars I didn't know before. And that's what makes his videos so captivating because you're being entertained at the same time as being educated. Like, it's literally impossible to click off his videos. Like this video here. I attempted to rebuild a wrecked Aston Martin in 24 hours. That's what makes his videos so powerful. You're not just watching a tutorial like how to replace a supercar engine. You're watching I bought a wrecked Aston Martin and rebuilt it in 24 hours. That is the hybrid category in its purest form. He's blended the pure entertainment of a 24-hour challenge to rebuild a supercar. And as part of that video, you as a viewer also learn how the car works, what went wrong, what it costs to fix, and what it takes to bring it back to life.
Now, another simple thing that all of these top YouTubers have in common is using background music. Now, using music in your videos can completely change how engaging it feels. The right music can make something feel more engaging, more dramatic, more emotional, more exciting. But without music, even like a good video can feel just a bit flat.
Now, personally, I use Epidemic Sound every time I use music in any of my videos. You can sign up for free, and it's easily one of the best soundtracking platforms out there for creators. Now, you have access to over 55,000 premium music tracks made by real artists and more than 250,000 sound effects, which makes it really, really easy to find something that fits the tone of your own video. And everything on their website is completely copyright free and safe for YouTube. So, you never have to worry about claims or anything like that.
Now, they've also added some really useful AI tools recently. One is called Assistant, which basically helps you find music for your own personal project by literally just describing the vibe you're going for. And then another really useful tool called Adapt, which basically automatically adjusts a track to fit the exact length of your video. So you don't have to go in there and manually cut all the music yourself. And then if I find a track I like, I always use a find similar feature to quickly discover other tracks with the same sort of vibe, which makes the whole process of finding music so much easier for me.
So, if you want to make your videos feel more polished and engaging, you can sign up for a free Epidemic Sound account using my link in the description and start upgrading your sound design today. Thanks again for Epidemic Sound for sponsoring this video.
Now, before I show you how to apply this new hybrid content strategy yourself, you first need to understand why this is actually working so well in the first place. Now, the main reason is simply because viewer behavior has changed. For years, YouTube was the place to go if you wanted to learn something. Like, if you wanted to fix your car or learn a new skill or understand finance or figure something out or research Bitcoin, you just searched it on YouTube.
But now, a lot of that basic educational demand is being eaten up by AI. Now, if someone has a specific question, they don't need to watch a 15-minute YouTube video anymore. You can literally just go to chat or Gemini or Claude and get the answer instantly. So traditional education on YouTube now has a bit of a problem because pure information alone is not enough and that's where this new hybrid content strategy has started to take control because yeah chat GBT can give you some great answers but it definitely can't give you the experience of watching a wrecked Batty Veyron come back to life and that's why these types of hybrid videos are working so well. Now, these big channels are no longer just giving people information, they're wrapping that information up inside of a story that's really worth watching.
All right, so how do normal people and small channels do this? Because obviously I know that most of you aren't going to be buying smashed up Lamborghinis or going to Alaska to do like survival camping videos. But look, the important thing to understand is that this strategy is not just about like expensive ideas or huge production sets. It's literally just about taking something useful and turning that useful thing into a real experience.
Now, the mistake a lot of small educational creators make is that they treat their videos solely as a lesson. They sit down and say, "Here are five tips or here's how to do this one thing." And that can still work. Like, my videos do still work, but it's much harder now because YouTube is completely flooded with information. So, if all your video does is give someone a basic answer that's probably already out there, that answer can now be found either by using chat GBT or by watching a bigger channels like mine.
So, the biggest shift small creators need to make is this. Instead of just asking, what can I teach people, you need to start asking, what can I experience, test, or document that would teach that same lesson, but in a more interesting and engaging way. For example, if you are in the fitness niche, the obvious video is how to get better at running, but the hybrid version of that would be something like I run a marathon in 30 days with no experience. That way, you're still teaching people how to get better at running, but now all of those lessons are actually attached to an entertaining journey.
And that same idea works in almost any niche. Like if you make finance content instead of just explaining like how to save money, you yourself could try living on a really small budget for a week and show what happens. Like this video here, the no spend week challenge. Or let's say you make productivity videos. Instead of just listing productivity hacks, test one system in your actual real life like this. I tried slow productivity for 30 days. Or even let's say you make business content. Instead of just giving people advice on how to start a business, you could build something or launch something yourself. Like this video here. I tried starting a drop shipping business with $100.
Now, all of these videos are so much more captivating because they have a real story and challenge behind them. Now, the easiest way to structure a video like this is to design in four parts. The mission, the problem, the process, the payoff. First, set up what you're trying to do. Then explain why it's difficult or interesting. Then show the process of you doing it because that's where the learning happens. And then finally, show the result. That is the simple version of the hybrid content formula.
But look, every great video idea needs a great thumbnail to go with it. You could have the best video in the world, but if you don't have a clickable thumbnail, it's never going to get views. So, give this video a watch here where I break down the real human psychology behind thumbnails and how to make them so good people can't resist clicking on them. I'll see you there.