The Real Reason 5 Minute Crafts Is So Successful
5-Minute Crafts is one of the biggest YouTube channels out there, with over 70 million subscribers (via Social Blade). The brand is owned by a digital studio, TheSoul Publishing, which also produces channels such as Bright Side and 123 Go!
Despite YouTube's ever-changing algorithm (which HubSpot explains well, as it serves up relevant and personalized videos to users), 5-Minute Crafts has continued to thrive, with tons of followers on its social media platforms and a good amount of videos created and shared each week.
However, some of these "crafts" are strange, such as using a fake arm to cheat on tests and wrapping your toilet in gold foil. So instead of leading to comments about this all being helpful and creative, many viewers are just heading to the comment section and discussing how ridiculous these so-called crafts are. So how is this company so successful?
Viewers can't stop watching 5-Minute Crafts whether they like it or not
Vice was able to discuss this very thing with Jeremy Rosen, who used to run 5-Minute Crafts' YouTube account. Their secret to success seems to be, throw out as much content as possible and hopefully some of it will stick. He explained, "They're very cognizant of their return on investment. They basically try to produce as much as they can at as low of a cost as they can. They experiment and fail constantly, and they do it at scale. They run a lot of ideas out, and when they find something that hits, they follow that formula."
More specifically, Vice and Rosen discussed the weird and sort of pointless hacks, like the gold foil-wrapped toilet, which is just one example of the kinds of videos that are shared through Reddit's appropriately titled subreddit DiWHY. Perhaps the real success is in the absurdity of it all. If people are talking about it, they're watching it.
Rosen explained, "I don't think weirdness used to be part of the strategy. The way that they work is that they'll build on any success." Adding, "They're not clickbait in the sense of there's a bait and switch, it's not to deceive you." But when it comes right down to it, it they are getting views, that's all that matters, and they are really good at doing it!
So, the out-of-the-box and silly ideas may not lead to actual crafts, but they do provide entertainment for millions of people who continue to watch and subscribe.