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This vid we made for CeraVe's YouTube got ~5M views in 48 hrs. If you're a marketing leader focused on YouTube...watch this: https://lnkd.in/eBRimn-b Seriously... watch ^ Okay, so to summarize... We obsess over just 2 metrics: #1: Swipe Rate — how well the hook stops the scroll #2: Retention — how well the video holds attention over time Our benchmark: 80%+ on both. This video performed so well because it nailed both, especially the hook! A great hook has 2 parts: 1) Verbal: "If you get a skin tag, it might look like you can just rip it off yourself... don't." This creates a curiosity gap that makes viewers want to keep watching, which boosts retention. 2) Visual: The skin tag being ripped off. The verbal hook sparks the question. The visual hook makes it impossible to ignore. When both work together, viewers stop scrolling and stick around long enough for the algorithm to keep pushing the video to larger audiences.

The enterprise & startup marketing teams crushing video are actually wayyy leaner than you'd think: Typically... 1) A strong creative lead who owns strategy, messaging, and direction 2) Offshore video editors to scale the execution 3) Producer who handles ops, social media, posting, etc. 4) On screen talent (if applicale) As the video engine behind Fortune 500s, startups, & creators, I've seen what makes this strategy work and what makes it fail miserably. Let's start with what makes it fail miserably: Offshoring video editing without a strong creative director / leadership team. A lot of teams think they can hire a few editors, hand them footage, and instantly scale content. That's usually when quality drops, deadlines slip, and everyone concludes that "offshore talent doesn't work." The reality is the opposite. One of our longest-standing staffing clients is a major media company. We've worked together since 2022. Since then, they've: → Expanded from 1 channel to 3 channels → Doubled their subscriber base → Saved over $570,000 in production costs But those results didn't happen because they hired overseas editors. They happened because they paired great editors with great creative leadership. YOU NEED BOTH TO TRULY SCALE. Their in-house creative lead owns strategy, content direction, and feedback. Our editors operate as a true extension of their team, handling post-production at scale while maintaining quality and consistency. So TLDR: If you have a creative lead in-house, scaling video with offshore editors can be a huge success. If you don't have a strong creative lead in-house, hire one—or partner with an agency that specializes in the type of content you're trying to produce. NOTE: If you go the agency route, make sure incentives are aligned with the business outcome you're actually trying to achieve.

Top enterprise & startup marketing teams are scaling video output without adding 10× the headcount. How? By hiring overseas video editors. As the video engine behind Fortune 500 brands, startups, creators, and celebrities, we've seen what makes this strategy work and what makes it fail miserably. Let's start with what makes it fail miserably: No creative director / leadership team. Many teams assume they can hire a few overseas editors, hand off footage, and magically scale content. That's usually when quality drops, deadlines slip, and everyone concludes that "overseas talent doesn't work." The reality is the opposite. One of our longest-standing staffing clients is a major media company. We've worked together since 2022. Since then, they've: → Expanded from 1 channel to 3 channels → Doubled their subscriber base → Saved over $570,000 in production costs But those results didn't happen because they hired overseas editors. They happened because they paired great editors with great creative leadership. Their in-house creative lead owns strategy, content direction, and feedback. Our editors operate as a true extension of their team, handling post-production at scale while maintaining quality and consistency. So TLDR: If you have a creative lead in-house, scaling video with offshore editors can be a huge success. Our top 1% editors have years of experience editing videos for... - Enterprises like L'Oreal, HubSpot, & Shopify - Startups like Sam Altman's World & Replit - Creators like Tim Ferriss, Naval Ravikant, and Ali Abdaal - Celebrities like Hasan Minaj and Will Smith - And your favorite podcasts like My First Million and All In Head to smartnonsense.com to get started.

We built a YouTube channel for CeraVe that hit 150M+ views in under 6 months. Soon, the smartest enterprise companies will start doing this too... When CeraVe came to us, their challenge was simple: reach a new generation of skincare consumers on YouTube. But instead of pouring more money into ads or influencer campaigns, we created The Daily Derm—an owned media channel designed to compound brand equity over time. Every view, subscriber, and video is a permanent asset, not spend that disappears when a campaign ends. Why this matters for enterprise brands: Most teams "rent" attention—paying for impressions that vanish when the campaign stops. Owned media flips that equation: 1) Cost-efficient reach: - 100M views for $300K–$500K vs. $500K–$3M via paid/influencer channels 2) Evergreen ROI: - content continues driving awareness and trust long after posting 3) Audience ownership: - build a loyal following that you fully control It’s only a matter of time before more enterprise brands start building their own media (especially as AI erodes trust in everything else!)

Top enterprise & startup marketing teams are scaling video output without adding 10× the headcount. How? By hiring overseas video editors. As the video engine behind Fortune 500 brands, startups, creators, and celebrities, we've seen what makes this strategy work and what makes it fail miserably. Let's start with what makes it fail miserably: No creative director / leadership team. Many teams assume they can hire a few overseas editors, hand off footage, and magically scale content. That's usually when quality drops, deadlines slip, and everyone concludes that "overseas talent doesn't work." The reality is the opposite. One of our longest-standing staffing clients is a major media company. We've worked together since 2022. Since then, they've: → Expanded from 1 channel to 3 channels → Doubled their subscriber base → Saved over $570,000 in production costs But those results didn't happen because they hired overseas editors. They happened because they paired great editors with great creative leadership. Their in-house creative lead owns strategy, content direction, and feedback. Our editors operate as a true extension of their team, handling post-production at scale while maintaining quality and consistency. So TLDR: If you have a creative lead in-house, scaling video with offshore editors can be a huge success. I put together a short case study digging deeper into this. Say hi & I'll send it over 👋

This is Paddy Galloway – MrBeast's & Red Bull’s YouTube guy. We paid him $700 to be told… we were being really dumb! So it’s 2022. We’ve got 1,000 subscribers & 10,000 views. (Yikes) We hop on this call praying Paddy will hand us his secret YouTube sauce. 30 seconds in, Paddy goes: "You have all three — personality, proof, and a bizarrely interesting life. You're just being really dumb about it." OUCH. But he was right. 250+ videos. Zero throughline. Wrong titles. Wrong thumbnails. Awful hooks. 3 years later, we’ve driven 4 BILLION lifetime views—and now help Fortune 500’s grow their YouTube channels. So WTF did Paddy teach us? Well let me tell you: 1. The "50% Rule" We were spending 100% of our time on the fun part — shooting, editing, storytelling. Turns out, 50% of a video's performance is decided by the click — title and thumbnail. We were optimizing the half nobody sees first. 2. The intro is 30% of the job Our videos were losing 45-55% of viewers in the first 30 seconds. Paddy's rule: the intro deserves 30-40% of your total filming and editing effort. It has "outsized returns" on the rest of the video. (For Shorts, we now target an 80%+ swipe rate.) 3. Stop copying outliers I wanted to be Casey Neistat. BIG MISTAKE. Paddy: "Stop copying Casey Neistat. He succeeded in spite of his habits, not because of them." Reverse-engineering outliers is how you build a strategy that only works if you're already famous. 4. Pick a lane only you can own We were jumping from David Sacks to Oculus to alligators. Zero throughline. Zero consistency. You can't compete on "interesting." You can only compete on "uniquely yours." 5. Big swings > small consistency Once you've found your lane, swing big a few times a year to pull in new viewers. The weekly stuff feeds the algorithm. The swings build the brand. 6. Target Browse, not Search Search traffic rarely creates returning viewers. Optimize titles for the Browse and Suggested feeds — write interesting sentences, not keyword stuffing — and you'll build a loyal audience instead of a one-and-done one. 7. Pick the right north star Views > subscribers. Subscriber counts are vanity. Active viewership is the actual game. 8. Instant delivery The best videos deliver on the title's promise within the first few seconds. If your hook makes them wait, they leave. 9. Hire for YouTube aptitude (the hardest one) The real reason we got on the call with Paddy? We wanted to hire ANOTHER Paddy. Turns out — that's hard. Like really hard. His playbook for finding Paddy 2.0: - Hire people who already "get" YouTube — even if they're young or have zero traditional experience. - Look for "students of YouTube" who are already running their own small channels or active in the creator community on X. - The right producer is analytical and proactive — they show up with data-backed ideas for titles, thumbnails, and retention.