By Sam Bradley • July 19, 2024 •
Ivy Liu
Marketers are paying close attention to YouTube’s recent lurch to long-form.
In the case of Revolut, a U.K. based challenger bank, that’s playing into its focus on creators that base themselves on the Google-owned platform.
“YouTube is typically the main focus,” said Fiona Davies, Revolut’s head of growth for the U.K., Ireland, and the Nordics, when asked about the company’s creator strategy. “When we’re thinking about talent, we’re thinking first and foremost about their YouTube following. It’s one of the key criteria.”
In part, that’s because of the number of creators willing to make longer video content for the platform — Davies said that personal finance content lends itself to longer running times — as well as the fact that YouTube users will actually watch it.
The number of videos over 20 minutes long that creators are uploading to YouTube each month increased from 1.3 million in July 2022 to 8.5 million in June 2024, according to data from Tubular Labs. That’s a consequence of the platform’s algorithms prioritizing longer videos, and of more viewers watching YouTube content from connected TVs in their living room. U.S. viewers spent more TV time with YouTube than with any other media company or broadcaster between May 2023 and 2024, according to Nielsen.
“It’s the platform where brands can win when it comes to cultural, longer form resonance,” said Dan Turner, group editorial director at social agency We Are Social. He added that consumers are “pushing into the deeper, more niche elements of popular topics.”
This isn’t just about four-hour-long Star Wars hotel reviews. Revolut is partnering with both “micro-influencer” personal finance creators highlighting its products — content that doesn’t map easily to shorter runtimes — and British creators such as YouTuber Will Lenney, known as WillNE, and rapper Chunkz, a member of YouTube creator group Beta Squad. Each both boast millions of subscribers.
With the latter set, it’s inserting promotional segments made with each creator into relevant content. For example, a recent video made with British creator Chunkz showed him trying the most expensive restaurant in London; the 23-minute long piece featured a 60 second section lampshading a feature that allows diners to split bills more easily.
Now firmly established as a finance brand, Revolut’s marketing team is keen to promote its utility as a destination for current accounts and everyday banking, rather than just “the travel card that maybe we were once considered,” Davies said.
Davies said that consumers are more likely to reconsider their banking provider around major life moments, such as “when customers are getting their first job, or their first paycheck, or getting married, getting divorced or buying a house for the first time.”
And when they’re looking for advice, they’re more likely to go to YouTube than to the personal finance pages of a broadsheet. Accordingly, the brand’s creator program aims to ensure that “we’re front of mind and the top choice” for customers thinking of switching their bank. Last quarter, Revolut staged 24 influencer activations in the second quarter of the year, though a spokesperson declined to share how much it had spent on those partnerships.
Many of the influencers it works with, such as personal finance creator Gustav Erikson, discuss topics like bank account and card features, investment products or fees for card usage abroad — the latter a key angle for Revolut and its challenger bank peers. Davies said that as well as keeping an eye on a creator’s audience, the team prioritizes creators with a connection to the personal finance realm.
“At the end of the day, we want people to be passionate about the product,” she said.
In contrast, despite TikTok also drawing in Revolut’s younger target demographics, Davies said it’s only a minor channel for the brand’s paid media mix or its creator approach, without sharing precise budget details.
“TikTok is one we have not cracked,” she said. Although the platform’s made moves to encourage more long-form content, she’s skeptical its user base wants to watch in-depth personal finance discussions. “When it comes to the content… and the attention span on TikTok, the topic [of personal finance] makes it a little bit of a challenge there,” she explained.
Revolut recently signaled it’s set to begin stepping up its marketing operation. The company promoted Antoine Le Nel, previously its vp of growth, to become its first chief marketing officer, and put Davies into the hotseat as head of growth in three markets.
That reshuffle means Davies is holding back from changing its creator strategy in response to the demand for longer-form content. The company’s marketing team is monitoring the performance of long-form content, before deciding whether to alter its strategy to exploit the upswing.
“The appetite is really strong to keep testing and learning. We’re still learning how to best utilize these channels,” she said.
She said the company expects to grow its small internal marketing team in the U.K., Nordics and Ireland — currently eight strong — albeit cautiously. “We want to keep our teams really lean,” Davies said, adding that hiring plans will pan out market by market. “We have plans to hire a couple more people in the Nordics. From there, we’ll see how we can grow the U.K. team and make sure our marketer in Ireland isn’t out there by herself.”
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