Acclaimed pâtissier Eric Lanlard asked us to help him develop a YouTube channel from scratch. We populated it with high-quality videos, including collaborations with brands like P&O cruises and Silverspoon, that attracted over 38,000 subscribers in just 18 months.
The backstory
Eric Lanlard is a multi award-winning master pâtissier who has hosted two shows on Channel 4 (Baking Mad with Eric Lanlard and Glamour Puds), published eight cookbooks, and runs Cake Boy, his own cookery school and bakery. With an already impressive following of more than 25,000 on Facebook and more than 130,000 on Twitter, including celebrities like the Beckhams and Madonna, Eric decided to extend his online community reach to YouTube by building his own channel from scratch. He asked us to help him accomplish this with high-quality content that would live up to the expectations of his fans.
The insight
500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube each minute. So how do you create content that doesn’t get lost in the noise and attracts a dedicated fan base around it? We found that, in Eric’s case, the answer was to combine three of our secret ingredients:
Content strategy
Through social listening, we identified key search trends related to Eric’s expertise to understand what his audience was searching for online and match his content to their cravings (pun intended). We also tested how the time of publication affected how much engagement a video gets, and found that Monday afternoons were a particularly effective time for satisfying the baking appetite of Eric’s audience. Putting the two together, we concocted “Baking Mad Mondays,” a weekly series for his subscribers to enjoy a new recipe video, shot in his own home kitchen, every Monday.
Social strategy
To optimise the delivery and distribution of Eric’s videos, we drove targeted collaborations with other high-profile influencers such as Donal Skehan, Lean Machines, French Guy Cooking, and Sorted Food, with other YouTube channels like Jamie Oliver’s FoodTube, and with brands such as P&O cruises.
Moving image
The key to attracting and impressing his fans in this new platform was to create high-quality videos that are both fun and glamorous, reflecting Eric’s personality and the calibre of his recipes.
The creative
To produce baking content that is both elegant and exciting, we shot some of Eric’s videos in the YouTube studios, using techniques like high-resolution slow-motion to portray his beautiful ingredients as the heroes of his recipes, and Eric as the playful genius behind them.
Aside from weekly Baking Mad Monday videos, we produced cut-down versions of Eric’s hero video to be used as native Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook content. We also partnered with brands including P&O and Silverspoon to create branded content and deliver timely messages that helped all parties expand their reach online.
To help Eric forge a deeper relationship with his fans through video, we also delivered conversational content such as Q&A’s and behind the scenes content which offered Eric’s audience a unique insight into his life.
The evidence
As a YouTube certified agency, we were able to help Eric build a refined, entertaining, and informative YouTube channel from scratch that, in just 18 months, attracted millions of views and an engaged community of over 38,000 fans (who he now affectionately calls his “baking monsters”).
Some topline SEO ratings demonstrate the channel’s success in numbers:
Eric’s Raspberry Paris Brest video features 1st and 5th on Google search, his Salted Butter Caramel Jumbo Macarons video featured 1st on Google Search, and his Ham and Comté Cheese Muffin ranked 1st, 2nd and 4th on Google search.
Within the first month of being published, our branded content video in collaboration with Silverspoon, Eric’s Pain Au Chocolat recipe film, had 78,238 total minutes watched, a 3.3% engagement rate, 23,787 views, 628 likes, 27 shares, and 111 comments.
Perhaps most importantly, Eric’s YouTube channel was approved with high praises by his new YouTube fans
The magic
We helped Eric create a YouTube channel filled with high-quality content that reflects his personality and expertise. Eric’s channel is a platform for him to offer value to his audience, by sharing his passion and knowledge, while connecting with his expanding community of fans in a personal way, from his home kitchen.
We, in turn, also gained a lot of value in the process of thinking, making, distributing, and amplifying hours and hours of Eric’s videos. Want to learn some of our secrets to baking a successful channel? Get in touch with a distiller.