The Tank Museum recently reached one million subscribers on YouTube, but there hasn’t been a full video uploaded since 5 September… So what’s going on?
The good news is that normal service will be resumed shortly, as The Tank Museum’s Head of Marketing Nik Wyness explains:
“We have a small team and have been producing videos to a relentless schedule since 2016. It can be challenging to keep this up, particularly when working around the operation of a busy museum.
“Traditionally, autumn is the time when every part of The Tank Museum takes a step back to review the past and plan the future – and that’s what we’ve been doing.”
In telling the story of the tank, the majority of the vehicles in the Museum collection have been covered, so if the channel is to stay healthy it needs to evolve.
“YouTube has changed a lot since 2016. Audience expectations are higher, and there is now a lot more competition for attention, so it is important that the output is the best it can be.”
In 2016, the average Museum video was around 8 minutes long, but YouTube has since favoured creators that make longer videos. Today, an average Tank Museum video is 22 minutes long.
“Longer videos are better for audiences, but also take much more time to produce. As production time goes up, it is even more important that the videos we make are widely watched and enjoyed.”
Precisely because of this, the team has spent the last few weeks reviewing its previous output to learn what worked well – and what didn’t – to improve overall practice.
“We’ve spent a lot of time reviewing our production process, from how we develop ideas and structure our scripts to how we shoot and edit them more efficiently. The entire team has learnt a huge amount. We’re bursting with ideas and excited to get going again.”
Uploads are expected to resume in early December, with several videos that will focus on the stories behind some of the more unusual vehicles in the collection and examining the approaches to Soviet and German tank design in World War Two.
“We thank our subscribers, viewers and supporters for their patience, and look forward to seeing how they react to the videos we will be releasing over the coming year”, added Nik.
