YouTube Drifting Content Opportunity Analysis™ Q4 2022

Content Opportunity Methodology

1. Measure & Categorize: Sample a large number of social posts to find ones that are significantly outperforming the average.
2. Identify Top Themes: Identify the themes that are resonating most with the audience by sorting the themes by their aggregated performance metrics.
3. Identify a Benchmark: Identify content themes that are performing above and under an average benchmark for the industry based on views & engagements.
4. Identify Opportunities: Look at the data and find the content themes that are resonating with the audience based on a set of top creators.

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The Drifting industry generated 503M video views on YouTube between January to September 2022. August 2022 saw the highest video views at 127M and February 2022 saw the lowest video views at 31M.

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YouTube Content Bucket Definitions

• Drift Car History: Short-form content highlighting the history of a popular drift car and its unique moderations.
• Abandoned Drift Cars: Visiting abandoned tuner shops to view a large collection of drift cars and showcase the decay the cars have experienced. 
• Street Drifting: Footage of personal before and after moments drifting on city streets; incorporated with epic shots from multiple angles of the drifting.
• Race Compilations: Drifting event races are compiled into a video so viewers can see a more condensed version of the event.
• Entertaining Shorts: Short-form content that shares the most intense moments of drifting events (fun facts about drifting, or relatable drifting humour). 
• Building a Drift Car: Showcasing the nitty gritty details of the chosen modifications and all the steps taken during the building or modifying a drift car. 
• Testing Drift Cars: Taking a newly built or purchased car for a test ride on the streets or on a race track.
• Race Highlights: Showcasing only the top most interesting moments from a drifting event.
• Race Live Stream: Live streamed race with commentary and highlights.
• Drift Battle: Cinematic shots of two drift racers battling it out on the streets or a race track and showcasing the candid moments before and after the battle.
• Drift Car Review: Giving viewers a tour of a drift car while explaining the history, specs, and car parts of the car model chosen. 
• Athlete Race Vlogs: Athletes share their personal moments while going through each race’s practices, qualifiers, different challenges, and achievements.
• Buying a Drift Car: Bringing viewers along to purchase a new drift car while sharing personal thoughts and experiences. 
• Interviews with Drifters: Athletes and drifting YouTubers are interviewed to talk about the industry, cars, and their thoughts, feelings, and future goals. 

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Content buckets in the Drifting space on YouTube include:

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Content Opportunities:

1. Drift Car History

Historical Context: Short-form content highlighting the history of a popular drift car and its unique moderations. 

Tactics to Implement:

• Captions: Bold and easy-to-read captions are used throughout the video making the content easily digestible.
• YouTube Shorts: Viewership for YouTube Shorts have increased by 135% as the platform has been actively promoting videos of this nature. 
• Attention Grabbing: The creator begins with a hook using celebrity Sung Kang from Fast & Furious and continues the entire video at a rapid pace; quickly taking an audience’s attention and keeping it.

‍Top Format:

• Video Duration: 0:52 & 0:49 seconds
• # of Hashtags: 2 & 2

1.4M  Views

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615K Views

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2. Abandoned Drift Cars

Forgotten Treasures: Visiting abandoned tuner shops to view a large collection of drift cars and showcase the decay the cars have experienced. 

Tactics to Implement:

• Big Collection: Showcasing a large array of vintage and unique drift cars piques the interest of drift enthusiasts. 
• Restoration Dreams: Seeing unique and rare car parts stimulate creative ideas for car modifiers and provides a sense of happiness to see an old car come back to life. 

Top Format:

• Video Duration: 29 minutes 
• # of Hashtags: 2

1.3M  Views

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620K Views

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3. Street Drifting

Recreational Drifting Sessions: Footage of before and after moments drifting on city streets; incorporated with epic shots from multiple angles of the drifting.

Tactics to Implement:

• POV: Viewers get to experience what it’s like to be a drift racer; elevating the intensity and excitement. 
• Multiple Angles: Combining close-up drifting drone shots, POV shots, and panoramic shots against a cinematic backdrop. 
• Breaking the Rules: Both videos incorporate an element of rebelliousness as the first video has an encounter with the police and the second video swiftly avoids an encounter with the police at 2:43.

Top Format:

• Video Duration: 1.5 minutes & 2.5 minutes
• # of Hashtags: 3 & 2

1.3M  Views

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779K Views

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4. Race Compilations

Top Race Action Only: Drifting event races are compiled into a video so viewers can see a more condensed version of the event.

Tactics to Implement:

• Top Moments: Condensing all the event’s races into one video to allow viewers to see only watch the athletes without breaks or distractions. 
• Time Stamps: As shown in the video below's comment section, viewers are looking for time stamps. Including video chapters with time stamps of where each different athlete’s race starts would boost viewer morale. 

Top Format:

• Video Duration: 49 & 51 minutes
• # of Hashtags: 3 & 1

1.2M  Views

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736K Views

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Outliers:

These videos were omitted from their content buckets as ‘viral’ outliers for exceeding 3x the views and engagements of their respective benchmarks.

Drift Battle

Tactics: Showcasing personal moments of the racer’s life before the drift battle and utilizing alternating camera angles of the drift battle. 

3.4M Views

Building a Drift Car

Tactics: Condensing an entire car build into one video through sped-up time lapses of all the car parts installed.

3.2M Views

Street Drifting

Tactics: A well thought out storyboard combined with tasteful cinematic shots and tactful editing provides the viewer with a video that radiates the effortless cool of drifting.

1.8M Views

Entertaining Shorts

Tactics: Compiling a large array of relatable drifting content into one easy to digest video. 

1.8M Views

Drift Car Review

Tactics: Showcasing a popularized pop culture drift car through high quality close up shots while reviewing all the details of the car.

1.4M Views

Athlete Race Vlogs

Tactics: The creator shares the entire journey to a racing event while sharing his personal thoughts and combining them with cinematic shots. 

1.3M Views