So how do you find and nurture your truly loyal audience, especially if you have the task of appealing to such an emotional segment as sports fans? To do this, Lava Media and MEIZU turned to the capabilities of YouTube.

The football history of Lava Media and MEIZU began when MEIZU became the general sponsor of the Krasnodar football club, and videos shot by the agency with the team’s players were shown on the Match TV channel. Lava Media and MEIZU began preparing to recruit an army of new fans of the brand with the launch of the YouTube channel “Football with MEIZU.”

The goal is to acquire a loyal audience of football fans and become an alternative media covering the country's main football event. According to the established KPIs, it was planned to reach 50 thousand subscribers by the end of the year, but this task was completed by August. A year later, the number of project subscribers amounted to 87 thousand people.

Let’s define the core principles of an effective YouTube strategy for brands, focusing on how a cohesive branded media strategy drives sustainable corporate YouTube channel growth within the football broadcast niche.

Rule #1 - Nativeness in the name

To avoid annoying users with intrusive advertising, do not forget about nativeness and make your channel truly useful for the audience. Name and describe it so that subscribers don’t get the feeling that they are about to be sold something. The main benefit for subscribers is information on an interesting topic, so announce it right away. If the company strives to continue to work on brand awareness, mention the brand itself in the name of the channel and sell honestly and beautifully. In the end, a gadget as a gift for winning a competitive activation on the channel is also a benefit for the user. It is this exact approach that made turning a brand into a media company a reality.

Rule #2 - Media presence of the presenter

A blog is a blog, so choosing a charismatic host is half the battle. In the case of Lava Media and MEIZU, the choice fell on Vladimir Stognienko, a famous sports commentator and TV presenter with fans among all age categories. By the way, the company notes that it was his figure that attracted the first pool of subscribers. To attract an additional audience, it is worth inviting famous guests. Media personalities such as L’One, Vasily Utkin, and Burly Nick came to the “Football with MEIZU” studio. Interesting fact: guests from the football field delighted the audience more. Hence another piece of advice: focus on your audience; endless scaling doesn’t always work for you.

Bringing Vladimir on board was the primary catalyst for successful community building on YouTube for brands. We recognized that achieving YouTube for B2B brand awareness is an uphill battle for organic growth, but leveraging a high-profile host made this transition significantly more accessible.

Rule #3 - Submission

Don’t forget that digital formats are valuable for their proximity to the audience, so the presentation must match. For example, for the YouTube channel at Lava Media, stylists developed a new image of TV presenter Vladimir Stognienko: a formal suit was replaced with a casual one, and a fresh and biting language replaced the conservative television speech. It is also worth remembering about the location, decorations, lighting: they should be lighter and friendlier for a positive perception by the audience. Any graphic design, be it splash screens or rating tables, must correspond to the YouTube audience.

Rule #4 - No politics!

The author of the program must express his professional opinion, without being guided by any guidelines or subjective preferences “from above.” The channel host’s responses to user comments under the video are also an important point that will increase audience engagement.

Rule #5 - Flexibility

It's important to listen to your audience. During the development of the MEIZU channel, the main pool of subscribers “men 25–35” by December 2017 changed to the audience “men 18–30”. Therefore, it was decided to add a new presenter of a suitable age category - Denis Alkhazov. The new tandem of presenters was received positively by subscribers.

When developing a branded content series, it is crucial to understand the need for constant adaptation. Professional YouTube production for businesses isn't just about following a pre-set content plan; it’s about successfully pivoting based on audience sentiment, emerging trends, and viral hype.

Rule #6 - Experiments

In a competitive environment, it is important to be open to experimentation. Therefore, MEIZU, at the request of a changed audience, offered to return the TV program “Planet Football” in the format of a YouTube section. Thus, “3rd half away” and “3rd half away” were added to the main playlist. Cities of the World Cup,” where presenters travel throughout the country and the world.

Rule #7 — Gifts & Product placement

The presenter often appears on camera with a MEIZU smartphone and reads news from its screen. Don’t forget about competitions: large prizes for activity - for example, an interesting question to the presenter, a correct bet - and consolation gifts for subscribing. At the same time, this will increase the number of channel subscribers.

Rule #8 - Efficiency

If you want to be a media outlet, especially a digital media outlet, you have to react quickly: quickly collect and post information at lightning speed. In the case of video, work is carried out at an even higher speed than with text or static visual content. For example, for MEIZU it was decided to rush to Manchester for a prompt comment from Alexander Zinchenko, and then quickly edit the material right on the spot and release it on YouTube.

Rule #9 - Promotion

No matter how great the content is, YouTube is a highly competitive environment that dictates its own rules, so you shouldn’t forget about promotion. And here the approach must be individual. For the promotional channel, Lava Media used seeding on social networks, pre-roll campaigns, collaborations with thematic channels and PR through the name of the presenter on information resources. There systematically appear news about Vladimir Stognienko’s channel, his trips, and comments.

Rule #10 - Burn!

To capture the attention of a loyal audience, today many brands turn to bloggers. However, it is clear that simply being featured by an opinion leader is not enough. In addition, the love of influencers is fickle: today an influencer is loyal to your brand’s product, and tomorrow – to a competitor’s product.

Conclusion: Scaling Your Brand’s Influence

Building a media-level presence on the platform requires more than just uploading content; it demands a partner that functions as both a high-end YouTube content production studio and a strategic corporate YouTube marketing agency. By prioritizing high-retention video marketing and professional enterprise YouTube channel management, we ensure that your channel doesn’t just attract views, but delivers a measurable YouTube ROI for brands.

If you are ready to leverage YouTube as a lead generation tool for business, Lava Media has the expertise to turn your vision into a reality.

Ready to dominate your niche? Explore our YouTube video production services and let’s start building your brand’s legacy today.

See it in action: Check out another one of our success stories where we helped a network of 20 bicycle shops become industry leaders, reaching over 26 million views and growing to 114,000 subscribers: Watch the Bicycle Blog Case Study.

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