In case anyone is wondering why YouTube now has an audience that’s two-thirds the size of all broadcast TV combined, you may want to check out Ryan Trahan’s videos about his recent trip through Minnesota.
Trahan and his wife, fellow YouTuber and author Haley Pham, are travelling to all 50 states in 50 days to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
A new half-hour video is released each morning — the couple shoots all of the video themselves. Trahan has explained that two editors create the final video, which he approves from the road and is released a few days after the actual visit.
It appears each video has been topping more than a million views within 24 hours, and the earliest videos of the series are now topping five million views. That rivals top prime time shows on network TV.
The fundraiser reached its original goal of $1 million just days into the series. As of this weekend, the couple’s journey has raised nearly $7 million.
Though the roadtrip is ostensibly about finding the coolest Airbnb in America, it’s a lot more than that. It’s also a little bit game show, a little bit promotion for Trahan’s candy brand, and a lot of plain old clean fun.
(Spoilers ahead!)
The journey reached Minnesota on day 39, with the couple staying at a Duluth Airbnb. The Minnesota adventure, which continued into the following day’s video, reaches a pinnacle as several events unfold.
The game show aspect of the series is the “wheel of doom,” which goes off every time someone donates $50,000 or more. The “wheel of doom” went off twice while the couple was staying in Duluth, forcing them to spin twice for a penalty.
Adding to the drama, the fundraiser also reached $5 million while the couple was in Duluth. They had already announced that the threshold would trigger “the split,” forcing Trahan to find his own way to the next stop in Iowa as Pham drove down I-35.
This is where the magical part comes in: Trahan rides an electric bike, supplied by the leading donor to the series, to a Duluth coffee shop, where he tries to find a ride to Minneapolis as he raises money for St. Jude. A connection from a previous video hooks Trahan up with his brother, who drives him to the Mall of America.
At the mall, Trahan asks people for a ride to his next stop in Iowa and encounters a series of “no” answers. But one family, visiting from Tennessee, reconsiders and agrees to drive Trahan to his destination two hours away.
On the drive, Trahan learns that the kids in the family already enjoy his candy brand, and they share some that they had already bought before meeting him at the mall.
Why is this the most important part? Whether he’s asking for a ride, seeking donations, or buying candy, the people Trahan is interacting with are his viewers!
In an era when we’re concerned about spending too much time on social media, Trahan is turning social media back into real life.
Reaching their destination in northern Iowa, Trahan apologizes to the family for taking away from their time at the Mall of America. Left unsaid is that they got to experience an even cooler adventure: participating in a Ryan Trahan video!
Many companies, including Kwik Trip, have realized that they can also get into the videos by making a donation of $5,000 or more to get a “live read.”
All of this appears to be done extremely efficiently, by TV standards. Between the couple, their editors, and some support staff at St. Jude, it appears only a handful of people are involved. The final video looks nearly as professional as something you’d see on network TV and gets network numbers, with a tiny fraction of the expense.
Frankly, it’s a series that traditional linear TV could have easily done. But didn’t.
Why not?