Giving Zoella a run for her mummy
Channel Mum is the UK’s first mums’ YouTube network. In this post, Clem Hancox, Co-Founder and Director of Channel Mum, exclusively talks us through the growing popularity of mums vlogging and the top 15 UK mum channels to date.
Channel Mum launched last month as the UK’s first mums’ YouTube network. The number of Multi Channel Networks – or MCNs – has swelled in recent years, with big, global players such as Fullscreen, Stylehaul and Maker Studios rushing to signup swathes of YouTube content creators into their networks.
But with 85% of babies in the UK now being born to millennials, and millennials spending 48% more time watching video online than the average population, we feel there’s a real need within the mum ‘category’ to nurture new creators; bring together existing talent; and to connect these creators with both mums and brands looking for great content. And the signs are that mums are rising to the opportunity of producing great content!
Today, we’re releasing our January Vlog 15 – a monthly roundup of the top 15 UK channels for mums. Unlike most YouTube indexes, which only factor in views or subscribers, the Vlog 15 combines a range of data points to produce two scores: one for reach of the creators’ content, and the second for engagement.
The top 15 UK mum channels in January clocked nearly 11 million views between them, showing the sheer scale of the mum community on YouTube. It’s fair to say that the biggest creators can take credit for the majority of these views, with the top three – comprising YouTube stalwarts Sprinkle of Chatter, Anna Saccone and Bubz – generating 88% of the total views.
But looking beyond scale, what’s really interesting in January’s roundup is the diverse range of subjects covered within the Vlog 15. This month, new entries include a family crafts channel, a vlogger documenting her experiences as a surrogate mum and a young mum who took to YouTube to share the news that her baby would be receiving a life-changing operation.
Whilst daily vlogs about general family life continue to – and will always – have huge appeal for mums, this month we’re seeing that more niche or specialist content for parents is starting to find its place on YouTube. The UK family content category is clearly maturing, and it’s doing so relatively quickly.
For brands, this represents a big opportunity to tap into the interests of the many different types of mums and their audiences that are starting to establish themselves within the family content arena on the platform. It’s no longer about an amorphous group of mums – content can be tailored and targeted to reach the right audiences.
We’re also seeing a clear trend of bloggers crossing over into vlogging. Many have tried to make what is not necessarily the easiest leap from writing to presenting – some more successfully than others – and the majority of creators in our top 15 are bloggers as well, showing that social influence on this scale is very rarely limited to just one platform and YouTube shouldn’t be looked at in isolation from the rest of the social landscape.
Our research shows that the birth of a child is the biggest single trigger for Brits under 35 to post videos more frequently, with young parents being the most prolific ‘creators’ of online videos. So the growth of content creation and vlogging among mums looks set to continue at a rapid pace, giving brands an unparalleled opportunity to engage with their audiences.