Trailer video for MeMeow YouTube Channel

Trailer video for MeMeow YouTube Channel

meMeow is a product of 3-month long individual project as part of the Online Channel Creation & Management course at SUSS. We were tasked to produce the business plan, design, produce and manage a YouTube channel.

Overview

“meMeow” is primarily, though passively, targeted at cat companions. However, unless trained to do so, cats are not capable of accessing YouTube on their own so instead “meMeow” targeted actively at cat owners who need help providing the mental stimulation that cats need regularly, especially busy cat owners. Many pet owners face behavioural issues on a daily basis such as hyperactivity and destructive behaviours. These issues are typically resolved by adding exercises or activities where their cat companions could drain out their prey drive and at least be mentally stimulated through eye-stalking or even just sounds of prey.

Personal Reflection

The entire project has given me a deeper insight and appreciation of content creation and management, particularly on YouTube. Research and planning played an important in the whole process in order to understand the audience and to determine the success of the channel. I have spent the most time trying to design the meMeow brand too as I found that having the right branding keywords helped serve as guiding principles in content creation such as designing the personality of the channel that I’d like meMeow to portray so that it would stand out from existing competitor channels even though there are only a handful of them.

Key Challenges

• Identifying the key differentiator from competitors. Cats have dominated social media in so many ways from Grumpy cat to rainbow Nyan cat that it would be challenging to stand out against competitors. However, there are not many cat game videos online and many of them have garnered over 20 million views possibly because there were not many similar videos, to begin with, and also because the videos may have been set to be looped for the cats all over the world.
• Sourcing for the right audio. It was tough looking for the right tone, however, knowing the right keywords helped a lot. When I found the best piece, it was not for free so I had to settle for the next best. I then realised that this method of sourcing for good quality audios that to match the meMeow brand may not be sustainable long term.
• Dealing with content rights. I may have used or gotten inspired by others works but most of the animated content is done by me so I was not sure whether I need to attribute highly modified works in the videos properly. I have also learnt only after uploading the videos that I should include the attribution within the videos. In conclusion, I have found that the easiest way to get past potential issues with content rights is to design the entire content, from vector to sound.

Key Takeaways / discoveries

• I have never considered starting a YouTube channel but after this project, I may consider continuing publishing content to meMeow’s channel. I may at least publish content for my cats and as an excuse to hone my animation skills on Adobe After Effects that I hope other viewers, cats and humans alike, would appreciate.
• YouTube videos are portrayed on different platforms, especially TV. I had incorporated end-screens in my video in a way that I can embed YouTube’s end screens neatly onto the video’s layout. However, I found out that when played on TV, YouTube does not display cards so I had to re-animate the end screens to consider how it might look without a card.