Imagine if a 30-second video could take your brand from obscurity to front-page fame. In a crowded digital landscape, standing out is increasingly difficult—yet some brands are using YouTube Shorts to do just that.
This article explores how 5 brands harnessed the power of successful YouTube Shorts to create massive viral campaigns, with the playbooks you can use to build your own Shorts following.
Case Study 1: Nike
As an undisputed leader of sportswear, Nike has used YouTube Shorts to promote its #JustDoIt or #WinningIsn’tForEveryone branding.
Often these Shorts feature real athletes and influencers, like Christiano Ronaldo or Jessica Silva, describing how they pushed themselves to overcome physical and emotional obstacles. With emphasis on high-energy, motivational content, these shorts are perfectly tailored to resonate with Nike’s fitness-focused audience.
Though Nike doesn’t usually make Shorts-exclusive campaigns, the company uses Shorts as a valuable tool to broadcast their wider campaigns. Tapping into each athlete’s personal fanbase is a superb way to maximize reach, with top Shorts attaining nearly a million views.
Case Study 2: Food52
As one of the country’s leading food and cookware sites, Food52 understands that the way to their customers’ hearts is through their stomachs. That approach is reflected in their YouTube Shorts, which share recipes and top kitchen hacks to engage their audience.
Along with being neat and simple, Food52’s Shorts encourage user engagement. YouTube users frequently ask questions about quantities, substitutions, or alternative methods that are often answered by other users, creating a sense of community between dedicated foodies.
Most of these Shorts attain a few thousand views, but the top performers eclipse one million. It’s a great deal for Food52—who essentially starts the conversation and then gets to sit back and watch—and a marketing masterclass for building an engaged community.
Case Study 3: MrBeast
Few people understand the workings of YouTube better than MrBeast, who with 314 million subscribers is the most highly-followed personality on the platform.
While full-length videos are his bread and butter, MrBeast uses YouTube Shorts to promote his regular videos and philanthropic collaborations—including his #TeamSeas initiative, which aims to reduce plastic pollution. Likewise, most of MrBeast’s Shorts follow the theme and structure of his main videos, featuring extreme feats in exchange for cash prizes or valuable giveaways.
In other words? It’s the same idea, just in a bite-sized format.
As 2022’s most highly-paid YouTuber, it’s safe to say MrBeast knows what he’s doing. His top Shorts crack one billion (yes, with a B) views.
Case Study 4: Gymshark
Gymshark has effectively used YouTube Shorts to expand its fitness-related content, often featuring workout tips and fitness influencers wearing Gymshark apparel. Like Nike, Gymshark has leveraged the virality of popular figures to promote its content, but Gymshark often features younger micro-influencers rather than top-tier athletes, and prefers using humor over Nike’s motivation-centric content.
In one popular series of clips, Gymshark hosted a “Guess the secret bodybuilder” game, in which micro-influencers tried to pick a “secret bodybuilder” from a lineup of ordinary-looking people. As these Shorts were actually clips from a longer video, they ultimately brought attention to Gymshark’s other content.
The most popular “Guess the Secret Bodybuilder” Short drew 5.4 million views, far above Gymshark’s usual view count of 10-20k.
Case Study 5: Liquid Death
Liquid Death’s branding has become legendary in marketing circles for marketing normal water with the “extreme” motifs you’d expect from an alcohol brand. That brilliance extends to some of the best YouTube Shorts marketing examples.
One such example featuring the “Pulled Over Sober Club”—drivers whom police stopped on suspicion of holding beers when they were actually holding cans of Liquid Death—further solidifies the company’s brand image. By invoking a sense of “badassery” while retaining a humorous note, this Short contains the two emotions responsible for its elevated market position.
With its top Shorts attaining over 100k views, Liquid Death continues to show it’s one of the most imaginative brands on the market. How else could anyone turn cans of water into a brand worth $1.4 billion?
Key Elements of Successful YouTube Shorts
So what do these viral YouTube Shorts examples have in common?
Synergy
Perhaps most importantly, most YouTube Shorts success stories involve an element of synergy. Unlike Instagram or TikTok, even reasonably successful Shorts can struggle to net more than ten or twenty thousand views. Following Nike’s example by partnering with influencers or celebrities can propel Shorts as far as possible by engaging their own fan base.
Concise
Because of their format, the best YouTube Shorts examples are concise. They have one finely tuned message or story, which they push until it hits the target. Clutter and complexity are not your friends here. (If Food52 can distill their complex recipes into thirty-second clips, anyone can.)
Engagement
To appeal to YouTube’s algorithms and maximize reach you’ll need engagement in the mix. Some of MrBeast’s most shared giveaways offer viewers cash or phones in exchange for hitting “subscribe.” Not all brands use such obvious bribery, but they all encourage interaction from and among their followers!
Marketer’s Takeaways
- Although YouTube Shorts rarely attain the views of longer videos, they play a key role in boosting brand visibility. Most successful Shorts are not standalone posts but rather support for more widespread campaigns.
- Synergy is key! Because YouTube is an ecosystem of different content creators, partnering with famous personalities or other brands can boost reach beyond what it would normally be.
- As with all social media content, Shorts won’t go viral unless there’s some incentive to engage.
Although YouTube Shorts don’t always get the attention of Instagram Reels or TikTok videos, they are a crucial tool that marketers should consider when crafting campaigns. Try them and see for yourself!
Ready to take your brand visibility to the next level? Start creating impactful YouTube Shorts today with the help of Media Shower’s AI-powered content platform. Try it for free!