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Renaissance and window of opportunity. How the war affected Ukrainian YouTube

Daria Bulatnikova

Head of Influencer Marketing

provid

After the start of a full-scale invasion, our information context has changed radically. In particular, Ukrainian YouTube has changed. It became a window of opportunity for both Ukrainian content authors and marketers and brands. Daria Bulatnikova, Head of Influencer Marketing at provid, spoke about the main trends on the platform and what prospects it opens up.

Predictions: a new stage in the development of Ukrainian YouTube

I’m often asked to make predictions about how marketing will evolve. It’s a thankless task. Expert predictions are usually forgettable because they’re dull. Most of the time, they look like this: “What’s happening now will continue with some transformations.”

Only rare “shots in the dark” are remembered. It works like an astrological forecast. Truly sensational transformations occur either due to the emergence of a brilliant innovation that’s almost impossible to predict or under the influence of a radical change in the environment, such as war.

In 2021, at one of the industry events, I predicted a new stage in the development of Ukrainian YouTube. The forecast wasn’t pulled out of thin air:

Instagram, with its perfect picture, was overloaded — with filters, formats, features, and a huge number of similar bloggers. TikTok still had the label of “an incomprehensible app for young audiences” with strange content, despite high installation rates and the amount of time spent on the platform. I categorically disagree with this stereotype.

Therefore, YouTube became the perfect platform for content that seemed somewhat out of place on other social media platforms (such as tech reviews, car content, comedy shows, etc.) and a good alternative to television.

Origins and Language Chronicles

In my observations, Ukrainian YouTube began to develop about 10 years ago. The content created by creators was quite typical for the region: beauty and fashion videos, daily life vlogs, tech and car reviews, let’s plays, comedy videos. Ideas were often borrowed from colleagues from Western countries.

The lion’s share of the content was in Russian because the authors mostly used it in everyday life. Additionally, during industry events or interviews, you could hear another reason: Russian-language content garnered more views. This allowed reaching an audience not only in Ukraine but also in neighboring countries.

Russian bloggers came to Ukraine for festivals and concerts, befriended Ukrainian “colleagues.” Ukrainians, in turn, were quite willing to move to Russia. The motivation was simple: this market allowed earning more. For some time, IvanGay, YanGo, and Sergiy Halber lived in Russia.

Our bloggers collaborated with Russian brands, media personalities, and celebrities. Oleksiy Durnyev invited Russian comedians as guests, Anton Ptushkin starred in Nastya Ivleeva’s videos, Ramina interviewed Russian heroes, Natasha Shelyagina co-hosted Wylsacom’s channel, and so on.

Ukrainian content existed, but its share was very small. In an interview with the print version of Intercity Onboard Magazine, the author of the Geek Journal channel, Tyler Anderson, said that despite the unpopularity of Ukrainian-language content, he considered it crucial to continue creating it. They even had a community of Ukrainian-speaking bloggers who supported each other and this common goal.

“In 2018, Tyler’s videos averaged 10,000–15,000 views. Now this figure is 120,000–140,000.”

Videos by Vitalik Gordiienko from the “Film Squad” channel in 2018 had very unstable views: from 1,500 to 60,000. Today, his videos gain 400,000–600,000 views. One of the wonderful examples of Ukrainian-language content was Jerry Heil, who started her creative path with covers on YouTube.

Change of Focus

In the years 2018–2022, the focus of popularity shifted. Previously, YouTube focused on interest in specific personalities, expertise (in areas like automobiles, movies, pop culture, computer games, etc.), and was more authentic. Now, money has come to YouTube, as it happened in the West.

“Influencers who gained popularity on other platforms (often TV) turned their attention to YouTube and launched new formats: interviews, comedy shows, etc.”

Usually, behind the scenes of these shows, there is a whole team that helps create content. Such projects have already become a full-fledged business. If previously the entire process (from script to editing and cover design) could be handled by one person, now channel creators delegated these tasks to separate professionals with salaries. Therefore, each episode must have one or several advertisers whose money compensates for direct expenses. To earn more money, you need more views. Therefore, formats that would “appeal” to the audience had to be thought out. Channels had to balance between popularity and their own interests and enthusiasm.

It was at this point that I predicted that these mentioned projects would partially bring back interest to YouTube and stimulate the development of new projects and blogs. I thought that the popularity of humor and stand-up would increase, a category of “true crime” would appear, there would be more channels with movie reviews, and booktubers would increase. But then the war began — and the landscape changed rapidly.

I don’t want you to get the wrong impression that I’m condemning anyone mentioned here. The war forced all of us, including myself, to grow up, reflect on our past, and take responsibility for our actions. I just tried to retell the chronicle of events from my point of view.

What changed in 2022?

The war forced all of us to grow up, reflect on our past, and take responsibility for our actions. With the beginning of full-scale Ukrainian invasion, Ukrainians who previously consumed a lot of Russian content on YouTube began to seek not only an alternative among compatriot bloggers but also content in Ukrainian.

Following Russians who either pretended that there was no war or continued to broadcast imperial narratives became unacceptable for most people. Many Ukrainian bloggers who created content in Russian gradually switched to Ukrainian. Besides linguistic changes, we observe such trends:

Increase in the number of channels

“Until February 2022, many Ukrainian-speaking creators existed in the so-called blind zone.”

The number of views under their videos rarely exceeded a few thousand, and the videos themselves had no advertising. You could say that the content was created out of passion, despite the fact that this hobby did not bring significant earnings (because monetization in Ukraine is quite insignificant).

For example, Vlad Storitel’s videos barely reached 5,000 views a year ago, and now the figures have doubled or tripled. It is also necessary to take into account that his content is not aimed at a mass audience. The author dissects common mistakes in scripts, archetypes, and storytelling in popular movies and TV shows. Natella Kirs, who reviews news from pop culture, used to gather (with rare exceptions) about 20,000–30,000 views until February, now it’s hundreds of thousands.

In addition to experienced creators, many new channels have appeared on the platform. Firstly, at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukrainians felt the need to do something: to create content in Ukrainian, express support for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and cheer up fellow citizens. Secondly, some of them realized that in the information space, due to the rejection of Russian content, a vacuum had formed, and there was a wide window of opportunity. Thus, Polina with the channel “I Want to Play — Do You Want to Go,” “Palaie,” “Rozmova,” HAINICHAKIYO, “Prolyt,” Luiza Milovanova, and others quickly gained popularity.

Change in the themes of blogs

Over the past few years, several popular themes have been noticed in the trends of Ukrainian YouTube:

interviews — projects by Anatoly Anatolich, Masha Yefrosinina, Ramina Eskhakzai, Anna Olytska, etc.; comedy formats — “Lions in a Jeep,” Oleksiy Durnyev, “Space Veterans,” “Chotkyi Paca,” “Selrada,” “Gorobyna,” etc.; travel projects — Anton Ptushkin, “Vuzol and Manko,” “One Right,” Masha Sebova, etc.; car themes — Infocar; shows — “Toronto Television” and the emergence of podcast formats like “Eboat.” With the change in context, there is an increase in interest in a wider range of content, such as: book reviews, “true crime,” the history of Ukraine and the world, reviews of trends from Reddit, language learning, and music, etc.

“The main upheaval and growth point for many bloggers was the theme of hatred and contempt for Russians, reflection on the influence of Russia and its culture on Ukrainian reality.”

Some popular bloggers shifted their focus to the mentioned content. There was also a rapid growth of new or previously not very popular channels thanks to such videos. This is easily explained: in the first months of the war, Ukrainians felt a lot of negative emotions towards the enemy, and they needed somewhere to vent them. Such channels became a real relief.

Mocking Russians had a certain therapeutic effect and provided short-term relief. Now we observe a gradual refusal of some authors to review news and Russian content. The authors themselves explain this by fatigue: it is very difficult to constantly immerse oneself in the hostile information space. This negatively affected their mental health.

Authenticity is returning

And personally, this cannot but please me. I also love watching professionally made and produced shows on YouTube from time to time, but as a fan of the platform with an 11-year history, I value so-called classic bloggers above all. These are people who are passionate about their ideas, have a clear understanding of their mission and benefits, and do everything themselves.

“It was probably especially difficult for newcomers to write scripts, learn how to shoot, edit, create cover designs, write sound, delve into analytics, and do many other small tasks necessary to release a video. However, such versatility allows for more flexibility, responsiveness, and publishing content more frequently.”

For example, the author of the MAG Stories channel posts videos every day. Of course, enthusiasm alone won’t get you far. So most bloggers ask the audience to support the channel through sponsorship subscriptions on YouTube or through Patreon, but only if subscribers have money left after donations to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

What to do on YouTube

With the right strategy, YouTube can perform a whole range of tasks and be more effective than other platforms. Integrations into blogger content are usually more expensive compared to TikTok and Instagram, and the production process is longer. If for Instagram, it is sometimes enough to take a good photo with text or record a story, then for YouTube, you need to write a script, shoot, edit, prepare for release, etc.

But unlike other platforms, YouTube has several important advantages:

The ability to leave a link that will not disappear after a certain time. This means that even the audience that watches the video in a few years out of interest can visit the brand’s website and make a purchase. A longer lifespan for content. In general, a standard YouTube video can gather views over 7–10 days. But if the video’s theme is universal (for example, a review of a certain car model or the history of the Zaporizhzhia Sich), the audience will continue to watch the video for years thanks to searching for a specific topic or the recommendation system of individual users. The ability to parse the audience that watched the video with your integration and target your own videos to them. This will increase brand and product recognition through remarketing and combining advertising accounts. The difference in storytelling format on YouTube compared to videos on other social networks. This makes product storytelling more organic and integrated into the main content compared to formats on other platforms.

Of course, YouTube is not a panacea and is not suitable for all campaigns and brands. You need to analyze the target audience of the brand and the way they consume information. Start with a strategy. And if you understand that YouTube is one of the platforms where your audience can be seen, boldly look for bloggers who match your theme and test.

Conclusions

Despite prejudices, YouTube is certainly bigger and more diverse than it seems. Often you can find more authenticity, passion, and enthusiasm there. And the community (small or large) highly values ​​this. Moreover, except for big content creators, the platform is not yet overcrowded. Brands can stand out and try to work with influencers who have almost never had advertising collaborations. And if you’ve always dreamed of creating your own YouTube, don’t hesitate. Jump into this window of opportunity.

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