YouTube Tells Us About Its Latest Trends
As an artist you’re also a multimedia content creator, so it pays to pay attention to any trends that are either on their way up or down. YouTube just released its latest Culture and Tends Report that outlines some of the changes currently seen on the platform. This report is primarily focused on Gen Z viewers and creators and the “Rise of the Personally-Relevant Pop Culture.”
YouTube said it conducted surveys in more than 10 countries and analyzed hundreds of trends to find what cuts through in pop culture today.
The Trends
In the first trend, YouTube “found that digital culture is now all about personally-relevant content. In fact, 65 percent of Gen Z (online 18-24 year olds) agree that content that’s personally relevant to them is more important than the content that lots of other people talk about.”
Interestingly, Individual viral videos are becoming increasingly less central to trends in a world where audiences and creators prioritize content that directly matters to them and their lives.
There were three new types of creativity spotted.
- Community Creativity where communities take niche passions and turn them into larger, shared experiences.
- Multi-format Creativity where more creators now post a wider range of content. Thanks to the rise of short-form video, creators can now tap into the latest trends while also maximizing the engagement and monetization offered by their long-form clips.
- Responsive Creativity centers on “emotional needs” formats, like “comfort creators”, vibe content and ASMR. In fact, 83% of Gen-Z has used YouTube to watch content that helps them relax.
The report shows several other trends, for instance:
- 61% of Gen-Z describes themselves as a big or super fan of something or someone.
- 63% of Gen-Z followed one or more meme accounts.
- 83% of Gen-Z watches some form of soothing content to help them relax.
The big takeaway? You might be doing this already, but if you’re not, you should be repurposing your long content into shorter clips that can be played across other social platforms. The short clips have been proven to boost engagement in the long-form version. The best part is that you don’t have to follow the latest trends of Gen-Z to take advantage of the benefits of that strategy.
