YouTube Challenges have gotten quite popular over the years. It does appear as though every week, YouTube channels come up with different challenges to engage their users and ramp up engagement. It also seems to be working, if the numbers rolled out by advertising firms are anything to go by.
The turn to digital form of advertising is simply linked to the overwhelming popularity of the various digital platforms available. Customers and consumers increasingly have recourse to social media as the primary source of information about goods and services. Opinions regarding recent trends in global affairs, including the business sphere, is now primarily shaped by social media and has made it imperative for business owners to take advantage of advertising on the various digital platforms available.
Business owners have also gotten quite innovative in their use of the YouTube challenges to drive sales and increase traffic not only for their YouTube channels but also indirectly for their businesses as well. YouTube occupies a unique position in that it is one of the very few (actually is the first) to maximize the use of  audiovisual content to engage users.
Why Engage in YouTube Challenges?
One reason to develop your own YouTube challenge is that everyone is doing it. Secondly, and more importantly, it is working. Challenges are generally just used to increase engagements with a particular channel on YouTube. Owners come up with interesting challenges with the hope that it goes viral (Imagine Jennifer Hudson doing and posting one of your challenges and the amount of traffic it will generate for you). As a business owner, your interest may not necessarily be to gain followers but to make sales. However, it is possible to translate your followers into customers. When you hold such successful challenges and get people talking about your product or services, naturally, they will, in turn, become your customers. Visibility is the key to making massive sales and generating a considerable turnover.
Another reason to engage in challenges is that they are cheap to run. You do not need to worry about overhead costs or anything. It is less expensive and more cost-effective when considered against other options such as running an ad using the traditional means available. It is even way cheaper than running ads on the other social media platform. Even if you intend to grow your fanbase organically using a social media platform such as Facebook or Instagram, the results, relative to time, are still more favorable using YouTube challenges. In the event that your video goes viral and receives a lot of support from others, the number of followers you’ll gain within that short period will beat whatever projections you envisage using the organic means of gaining followership.
Furthermore, challenges are pretty easy to run. For most of them, you only need to have a very active imagination, a perfect sense of execution, and a team of no more than one person. In fact, it could be as simple as getting in front of a camera, or your smartphone, and making the video. After the video is made, there is little else needed from you in terms of editing. Even if you have to edit, any random friend or relative with the simplest knowledge of editing can help you achieve a good touch up of the videos and make them presentable. Sometimes, you may have challenges that would require some movements, and you would have to make videos on the go, those can still be effectively handled. They do not require any form of technical expertise. Even more so, it will allow you to collaborate with other YouTubers. The other party could contribute the technical skills needed while your job will then be to provide the ideas and the suggestions on execution.
Do they work?
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Talk is cheap. All of the benefits I have touted to come from running challenges on YouTube may just be talk except some evidence is provided to back up the claim. Well, firstly, it is on record that the return on investment from YouTube Challenges surpass that of traditional TV advertising.
Also, there is new data to show a direct link between online videos (including challenges) and offline sales. For instance, Google and a third-party research carried out from 2013 to 2016 in 8 European countries, involving 56 case studies, show that YouTube advertising gave a high return on investment in more than 80% of the cades considered. The research was carried out using several research mechanisms. It was also spread out across several entities in a bid to explain the connection between online media presence and actual offline sales.
Sally Dickerson, who is the Global Director of BrandScience, a leading marketing consultancy firm, is on record saying that online videos should be the preferable option for long term benefits.
There have also been specific surveys carried out to test the authenticity of the belief that YouTube video marketing presents more returns than the other modes of advertisement. For instance, in a survey carried out by Mars UK, a chocolate production company, in 2015 with radio and online video activity monitored to determine which provided optimum returns on sales, it was found that YouTube yielded more than double the Return on Investment when compared to television adverts.
When all of these are considered, it will lead to the conclusion that the touted benefits from making use of online video advertising, ergo YouTube challenges, is not a hoax. Perhaps you should give it a try.
YouTube Challenge Ideas That Can Inspire Your Business
1. The Accent challenge:
The idea behind the accent challenge is not entirely new. This challenge has been going on for years and across different social media platforms. The way it works, a person is given a sentence to read out in their accent. They may also try to mimic the accent of other places. Eventually, they are expected to record the attempt and post it on that particular social media platform.
The attraction with the accent challenge is that it gives room for a lot of people to participate. People from all over the world, even beyond your immediate vicinity, can participate fully in the challenge. It can also serve as a way to unite people from different locations world over and help to give insight into the unique cultures of different people in different places.
To make it work for your business, you could make a video of you describing your business, or talking about a particular aspect of your business, in your accent. You can then request users to make videos, discussing, in their accent, benefits of using your product or services, or what they intend to gain from using your product or service. In this way, you will be including even those who were previously unaware of your business.
2. The Karaoke Challenge:
Granted, this may work best if your business is, in some way, related to music. So, if you render musical services (a pianist, a backup singer, or you have a band), this challenge will work excellently for you and will be right up your alley too!
For this to work, you will need another person to join you in making the video. The person plays the song on their device, and you have to sing along, making sure that you are getting the lyrics correctly. Of course, the aim is to make the whole process fun, so it would hardly make sense for you to choose songs that you know the entire lyrics by heart. Get goofy in front of the camera, and let the audiences see the fun part of you. If the video does the job well, you will get the engagements that you expect, which will, in turn, translate to sales for you.
3. Say Anything;
This is perhaps, the easiest challenge of all and the most fun. The challenge usually involves a team of 2 or more people. The more the participants, the merrier it should get. For it to work, a person is expected just to say a word when it reaches their turn. The only rule is that the word must not have been repeated by someone else.
When it gets to the person’s turn, they are expected not to pause for more than a second or two. Anyone who defaults, or repeats a word already said, gets a punishment. It could be placing a tape on the person’s face, or any other one you can come up with. The person who has the least number of tapes is declared the winner.
For your business, you can decide that the words spoken at random should only be ones related to your business. For instance, if you sell dresses, you can decide that the terms to be mentioned would only refer to dresses. Through this means, you will be creating awareness for the business you own. Â
4. Speed Drawing:
Image from Youtube.com
This is another easy one and can be tailored to inspire your business. Here, a time is set, and participants, ranging from one or more persons, get to draw. At the end of the time set, the winner is usually the person with the best drawings.
The drawings usually have a theme. This could work to your advantage. You can decide to engage in the speed drawing challenge, and restrict it to your business area. The theme for your drawing can be related to your business, and you will, through that means, be introducing your business to your viewers.
5. 100 layer challenge:
This is a beautiful way to showcase your wares, a business person. Another attraction is the fact that you can do the challenge alone.
For the challenge to work, you only have to think of what you can put a hundred layers of. If you sell clothes or jewelry or any such accessory, this is just super for you. You can just make use of your products, letting your users know what you sell, and giving them a firsthand view of them.
6. Blindfolded Makeup Challenge:
Image from pinterest.co.kr
This is pretty straightforward and self-explanatory too. For the challenge to work, you will need a team of two people, one of whom will do the makeup. The ‘makeup artist’ is blindfolded and is required to put some makeup on the other party. When they are done, the blindfold is revealed to show the handwork. This is an enjoyable challenge to engage in, and it is easy to film too.
If you are a makeup artist, or if you sell makeup accessories, this challenge will work well for you. It could be a great way for you to show off your skills (I mean nothing screams competence than doing a fantastic job while blindfolded). It could also be a way to showcase and possibly sell makeup products.
The intention is that by the end of the challenge, your viewership, and by extension, your customers would have grown. Needless to say, before you start thinking of engaging in any challenge, you must be a regular YouTube user, with subscribers. You need to have garnered some following, even if not so much, before you think of starting a challenge. If this isn’t the case, you may want to start by opening a YouTube channel and garnering followers. It would work best if the channel is already dedicated to your business beforehand, or is connected in some way to your business so that your users/viewers are not at a loss when you begin the challenge. It will also be easier to get them to see the message you are trying to pass across this way. However, if you have a YouTube channel that is not solely dedicated to your business, you could still make use of it. The goal is to turn viewers into paying customers at the end of the challenge.
It will not be rosy, especially if you are trying out with challenges for the first time. You may have to try a couple of the challenges before you find one that will click. Hopefully, that will be sooner, rather than later.
Author’s Bio: Cheryl Hearts is a passionate journalist from Boston, Massachusetts. She decided to dedicate her life to writing because she thinks this way she can be the most useful for the community. After obtaining a Master’s degree in Journalism, Cheryl started running her own blog CherylHearts.com where she’s covering topics of great interest to society.
