Within the final yr and a half, Crayola has grown their YouTube subscriber base by 400,000, and lately surpassed the a million subscriber milestone.
Crayola’s legacy of colourful self-expression seeded itself 120 years earlier than the primary YouTube video was posted. But the creativity icon’s YouTube content material technique is rooted in translating the magic present in its yellow and inexperienced crayon bins to the digital panorama.
As Matthew Liotti, Model Content material Supervisor at Crayola, put it, “We wish to remind folks we’re a 120-year-old model that’s nonetheless younger and related. We love to check and study—particularly with video. YouTube is the definitive residence of video. It’s the place the place Crayola can take the content material our model has at all times produced, and put a social-first, video-centric spin on it.”
Liotti and his staff craft activation content material for the legendary model throughout social channels. However he says YouTube is the one channel the place they completely publish video content material—making it the right place for the experimentation that has led to huge progress.
We sat down with Liotti to study extra about what it takes to construct and scale an efficient YouTube content material technique and are sharing key takeaways you should use to encourage your personal plans.
Why having a YouTube content material technique issues
First, let’s cowl why it’s necessary for manufacturers to domesticate a presence on YouTube. In keeping with a This autumn 2024 Sprout Social Pulse Survey, 72% of customers have YouTube accounts, and one other one-third plan to make use of the platform extra in 2025. The 2024 Social Media Content material Technique Report discovered that 32% of customers interact with manufacturers on the platform on a regular basis, whereas one other 47% interact at the very least as soon as per week.
Not solely are customers current and engaged on YouTube, they’re additionally prepared to purchase. The identical Pulse Survey discovered that 20% of customers will use YouTube Purchasing to make purchases in 2025. However that doesn’t imply it’s best to hard-sell your merchandise—even when they’re the celebrities of your movies.
As an alternative, carry your viewers on a journey together with your model, serving to them think about what’s potential together with your merchandise. The Crayola staff succeeds at this by spurring on their viewers’s creativity. As Liotti mentioned, “At Crayola, we wish to suppose outdoors the proverbial crayon field. We don’t must be prescriptive about use the product, however moderately encourage. Our content material is geared towards each kids and adults and helps our mission to assist mother and father and educators elevate creatively-alive children.”
YouTube metrics to measure success
When charting your YouTube content material technique, having the fitting key efficiency indicators in place results in extra significant evaluation, higher content material and a stronger impression.
“At Crayola, we at all times ask: ‘How can we inform if the juice is well worth the squeeze?’ We use key metrics, like viewership tendencies and subscribers, to find out what works and the way we will craft profitable content material maps,” Liotti defined. Viewership metrics like whole views and watch time zoom in on the movies with the best viewers engagement, whereas variety of subscribers illustrates how the channel is doing from a ten,000-foot view.
The Crayola staff additionally makes use of secondary metrics, like viewers breakdown, to find out if the fitting persons are watching their movies.
3 suggestions for crafting a scalable YouTube content material technique
YouTube could be an intimidating platform for a lot of groups. Its video-centricity requires extra finances, time and planning than mixed-media platforms. To create a constant channel and rising subscriber base, take a couple of pages from Crayola’s coloring ebook.
Construct collaborative planning rituals
At Crayola, many groups are concerned within the YouTube planning course of. Social, content material and activation staff members are primarily chargeable for a lot of the execution, nonetheless, digital, web site and platform advertising and marketing groups all help in planning.
“We attempt to plan as far upfront as potential—normally months forward—to align with different groups and advertising and marketing activations, like main product launches,” Liotti mentioned. He added that whereas the method of accumulating a lot suggestions from a number of stakeholders could be time-consuming, it in the end ends in a closing product that’s excessive impression and genuine to the Crayola model.
A superb instance of that is Crayola’s “Marketing campaign for Creativity,” the model’s advocacy initiative that reaches throughout social, PR, digital, and product and model advertising and marketing efforts and makes use of YouTube as a key channel.
We have been stunned to study that their huge pipeline of YouTube content material is primarily created in-house. Crayola has invested closely in rising their staff’s video capabilities. However they nonetheless work with company companions, a few of which have been collaborators for 30+ years.
The Crayola staff depends on Sprout’s social media calendar to maintain all of their companions—from businesses to different inner orgs—within the loop. The calendar, which could be sorted by channel, makes it simple to visualise the entire upcoming YouTube content material, whereas additionally giving their staff the instruments they should execute. Liotti referred to as the calendar and its cross-collaborative capabilities “massively necessary” for securing alignment.
Experiment with completely different codecs and options
The Content material Technique Report discovered that over half of customers are almost definitely to interact with long-form video when interacting with manufacturers on YouTube. Strikingly, short-form video (31-60 seconds) was the second hottest alternative.
Whereas the channel is well-known for its long-form content material, there’s an rising client urge for food for bite-sized video. The variability is a welcomed development for entrepreneurs who already produce short-form video on different platforms, and now cross-post on YouTube.
Crayola is among the many rising variety of manufacturers experimenting with YouTube Shorts. Their funding in short-form video on YouTube has garnered client and media consideration, resulting in Webby, Viddy, Social Artistic and Golden Marcomm award wins.
However they’re simply as targeted on different codecs. Liotti defined, “The important thing to profitable on YouTube is utilizing all obtainable content material varieties. We preserve a balanced portfolio throughout the YouTube platform—together with neighborhood posts, long-form, Shorts, 16:9 and vertical. It’s necessary to play with all obtainable functionalities to get your content material seen.”
Optimize for YouTube’s viewers and nuances
YouTube isn’t only a video sharing platform, it’s additionally a search engine—the second hottest for Gen Z, behind solely TikTok. Search performs a major position in discoverability on the community and informs how folks work together with content material.
It may be tempting to attempt to drive folks to your YouTube channel from different networks. However, the outcomes is perhaps lackluster. Pushing folks from one platform to a different can create a disorienting consumer expertise. As an alternative, optimizing your YouTube search engine marketing technique may also help you grasp the algorithm. As Liotti mentioned, “We don’t proactively push folks to YouTube that a lot. As an alternative, we get loads of site visitors there organically.”
It’s also possible to increase your discoverability by aligning your YouTube content material with micro content material tendencies. Liotti defined, “Aggressive analysis and social listening are integral components of our technique. We reply questions like ‘What are different manufacturers doing?’ and ‘Why is everybody speaking about slime?”
Liotti and his staff use Sprout’s AI-powered Listening know-how to trace conversations taking place round key matters, and assess Crayola’s share of voice. Through the use of social insights, they’re higher outfitted to create compelling, excessive performing content material.
Let your creativity come to life on YouTube
Liotti summed it up like this: “The extra you double down and decide to constructing a YouTube content material technique, the extra the algorithm favors you.”
Crayola’s YouTube success is a testomony to the ability of creativity, consistency and considerate technique. By embracing experimentation, optimizing for the platform’s distinctive nuances and staying attuned to viewers tendencies, they’ve grown their channel right into a thriving hub for inventive inspiration.
Whether or not you’re simply beginning out or seeking to scale, bear in mind to align your content material together with your model’s mission, leverage collaborative planning instruments and discover all of the codecs YouTube has to supply. With the fitting method, your model can create a long-lasting impression—and perhaps even hit that million-subscriber milestone.
On the lookout for extra learnings to form your content material technique this yr? Obtain The 2025 Sprout Social Index™.
