YouTube Vs. Opera
What happens when ultra-niche content collides with Google’s video-search powerhouse?
“What we’ve realised is that pretty much all that we create... can exist in a digital format. That was the biggest key - just turning that idea on.
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As the music industry emerged from the global pandemic, Opera Rara - which specialises in lost and unknown operas - saw the need to raise its digital content game.
With 120 recordings in its back-catalogue, the company was sitting on a ton of content.
But with limited experience of social media marketing, and a sceptical attitude to digital content, it was barely exploiting this mountain of material.
Surprised to learn how well opera can perform on YouTube, the company tried to turn the platform to its advantage.
In just 18 months, Comms Director Zachary Vanderburg took Opera Rara into the YouTube Partner Programme, doubling the company’s audience.
Discover how this niche opera charity took on Google’s video-streaming powerhouse, and created a content hub with international reach.
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Zachary Vanderburg is the Development And Communications Director at Opera Rara.
An arts administrator and fundraising professional with more than a decade of experience, Zachary has led Opera Rara’s development in the digital arena.
He describes himself as a team-oriented and entrepreneurial leader who energises colleagues and audiences through artistry, productivity, and distinction.
A singer himself, Zachary is a fine tenor, and has a voice made for podcasting.
Zachary Vanderburg features on The Content Mavericks Club podcast, hosted by Creative Kin CEO Jason Caffrey
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When Niche Content Goes Global: how a UK music charity took on Google’s video-search powerhouse
[00:00:00] Introduction
[00:00:02] Zachary Vanderburg: So our first goal was let's get our subscriber rate up to a thousand. And then from there we needed to grow our content viewing hours to 4,000.
per year. Within just a few months, I would say within about four months or so, we reached that thousand mark on subscribers. And a part of that was it was actually quite, I would say easy because all that we did was we took all of the communication work we were doing anyway, and we just then incorporated YouTube.
[00:00:47] Jason Caffrey: Welcome to the Content Mavericks Club where you'll find actionable insights from content experts to help you hit your digital marketing goals.
I'm Jason Caffrey, CEO of podcast agency Creative Kin and my guest this episode has turned a small YouTube channel into what I think it's fair to say is a content marketing power hub for his organization.
Zachary Vanderberg is the communications director at Opera Rara, which records lost and unknown operas.
When YouTube was suggested to Zachary, he was both surprised and sceptical.
So I was keen to know what changed his mind, and how he built his channel.
[00:01:20] YouTube Vs Opera: The 'lost and forgotten' opera company that doubled its subscribers
[00:01:20] Zachary Vanderburg: It was a part of a larger digital strategy that we're in the beginning of.
So you're seeing us at the beginning of our YouTube channel, but also at the beginning of a digital strategy that started, I would say, about 18 months ago. It was something as we were coming out of the pandemic, going back into in person performances, going back to a more regular schedule of recordings, that
we thought, okay we've done some things digitally over the pandemic. How do we go into this next phase? And what can we learn from what has happened in the pandemic? And how can we actually reach a larger number of people? And what we realized was, most of our resources, most of everything that we create can exist in a digital format.
We're coming up to 55 years old. We have 50 years of recordings, around 120 recordings in total, around 60 full operas I it's a massive catalogue. But we've existed for such a long time in a physical space, and we just thought there's so much opportunity there. We looked to our distributor, who's Warner, and chatted with them about what are some of these opportunities?
How can we make more use of them? And they said, actually, you should look at YouTube. Opera tends to perform quite well on YouTube. And you already own the rights to all of your recordings. It's not like an opera house where you're not only getting the rights to in person performance at an opera house, you then have to think about rights to the digital aspect of that.
Whereas we own the rights to everything that's happening in the studio.
[00:03:06] Jason Caffrey: Which is a very happy, uncomplicated thing.
[00:03:10] Zachary Vanderburg: Exactly. We can just, upload content on YouTube. It's just one of our channels. And that's great for us. So I would say about a year ago we decided to launch into YouTube. The numbers at the time was, we had around, I would say around 750 subscribers and we were only having around a thousand hours per year of content being viewed. Our first goals was just, let's put more content on. Let's see how that works out, with the goal of becoming one of the partners. A YouTube partner.
[00:03:44] Jason Caffrey: A YouTube partner.
Yeah.
[00:03:46] Zachary Vanderburg: So our first goal was let's get our subscriber rate up to a thousand. And then from there we needed to grow our content viewing hours to 4,000.
per year. Within just a few months, I would say within about four months or so, we reached that thousand mark on subscribers. And a part of that was it was actually quite, I would say easy because all that we did was we took all of the communication work we were doing anyway, and we just then incorporated YouTube.
So we thought, where can we embed a video? If we embed a video on this email it gives someone who's reading our emails, a little bit of extra content in a different form than just words or audio. So we started just incorporating that more. We incorporated it more into our social media as well, and then things went on from there.
[00:04:33] Jason Caffrey: And so was this something that was happening before you went into the YouTube channel or. Did it happen the other way around?
[00:04:41] Zachary Vanderburg: Well, we've had a YouTube channel for about 10 years.
[00:04:45] Jason Caffrey: Okay.
[00:04:45] Zachary Vanderburg: So it just sat there. I think it's one of those things, especially with a small charity like ours. Up until recently, we only had three full time employees.
[00:04:54] Jason Caffrey: The capacity.
[00:04:56] Zachary Vanderburg: The capacity is, yeah, it's a huge question. And so we knew that when we were going into this. YouTube idea. We,
we had something already there. There were already followers there, but we weren't really doing anything with it. And we also just weren't convinced that it was worth us putting resource into it either, but then when, when our distribution partner said, you should look at this, we came up with a kind of easy strategy to build the channel out and some easy wins that were there at the very beginning. Just putting up all of our content. We generate a lot of content around all of our recording projects and we just weren't really doing anything with it other than immediate marketing.
So we'd use it for immediate marketing around the release of a recording and not necessarily thinking what's the longer term story of this and actually YouTube is the perfect place for that.
[00:05:52] Opera Rara's Recipe for Digital Success: Go long. Really long.
[00:05:52] Jason Caffrey:
So among the video material that you post onto YouTube, what is it that's getting the traction with your audience?
Because you've got a variety. Some of it is even full length recordings, actually but obviously shorter material and some interview material as well. So what's the spread when it comes to engagement?
[00:06:18] Zachary Vanderburg: I would say our top engagement is with our full opera recordings. This is quite Interesting because we're actually already on YouTube music.
So all of it's there. I think this goes into kind of that niche thing that if people are looking for opera Rara, because they like what we do, they view us as an expert for Bel Canto opera and kind of a go to place. Then they'll go to our YouTube channel because then they can see the full opera recording in the context of a full playlist that has all of that other material.
It has the single track videos. It has photo content interviews. It has clips from the studio. All of that stuff. So that's what performs best currently. I'd say right behind that is the in studio clips. this was one of our biggest wins.
So it'll be like an aria or a scene from an opera that our videographer will take while we're recording it in the studio. So it's not the same audio always as the final recording.
but I think. This is somewhere where we're trying to take people on a journey of operatic discovery. That's one of our marketing phrases, but it is actually core to our mission. And this is something that is key to that, where they hear the final recording. They love the final recording, but they don't get to see the whole process of it being made.
And this is a way for us to literally bring them into the studio with us.
[00:07:50] Jason Caffrey: When you were talking about that, the phrase that's popped into my head. I've just jotted it down as my next question is behind the scenes. And that's what you're offering on your YouTube channel that you just don't get that when you listen to the final recording.
[00:08:03] Zachary Vanderburg: You do get that if you're like, for instance, one of our supporters, if you're a patron who's invited into the studio, you get to sit there, you get to chat with the artists, you get to see what their warm up rituals are, what tea they like to drink, those kind of things.
[00:08:18] Jason Caffrey: Which by the way, is just a massive privilege, isn't it?
I've seen some of the you've been recording recently, haven't you? And there was a post that I saw. I was like, I would just love to spend half an hour in the room because it's just a wonderful space to be in.
[00:08:35] Zachary Vanderburg: You can on our YouTube channel. It's one of those things that's a no brainer as far as YouTube goes, We're able to create those experiences for people who don't live in the UK and actually a majority of our audience base not in person audience base, like people in seats at a theater, but audience base as in total reach, total people who we have contact with, they're international.
And because we are a recording label, charity, musicology organization, all of that wrapped into one thing, we have a lot of opportunities in the digital space, and especially on YouTube, to share that behind the scenes to, to bring them along on that journey and bring them into the studio with us.
[00:09:22] Jason Caffrey: Before we go any further, I think it would be helpful to our non-opera listeners to just explain that niche that you're in. You talked about Bel Canto.
[00:09:36] Zachary Vanderburg: Yeah. You know, You have your own little niche in the music world of opera.
We have a niche within that niche, which is that we find and restore operas from the 19th and early 20th centuries, typically Italian or French operas, and what we're most known for is Bel Canto. So this was period of opera composition that was happening in the 19th century.
And We'll find a manuscript from a composer. I think the best illustration of this was Mercadante's Il Proscritto, which literally was thought to be lost until the lockdown, when our artistic director just came across it in Naples in an online archive.
[00:10:23] Jason Caffrey: that is just amazing what happens when people have got the space to just go and explore.
[00:10:27] Zachary Vanderburg: Exactly. Yeah. It was one of those things that, you know what do all these creative minds do when they aren't on a plane all the time? So, I think that's probably one of our best examples that's recent, where we've actually found a manuscript that was thought to be lost. It was composed at a time for the composer where he was finding a new style. The opera didn't hit. It wasn't something that really took off.
And in Italy at the time, you have maybe in one city on one night, four new operas coming out at the same time. So the amount of material that was being created and then just forgotten is massive. So what we're doing is going back through and finding the pieces that we think, actually they could exist at this time.
People would want to hear them. And we restore them, we record them, we then also perform them in one live performance. And then part that we're talking about is promote. So it's a part of our mission is to promote the music. these operas and this operatic work to a larger audience, and actually say this should exist in our repertoire now - trying to speak to the larger houses and say, maybe think of this.
[00:11:43] Jason Caffrey: What I'm hearing is that it gives you a very clear purpose for the content that you produce. You've got a mission and the content that you are putting out is aligned with that, it serves that purpose. I know that you've been in Manchester a lot recently because you're recording a new work. Is it a Donizetti?
[00:12:03] Zachary Vanderburg: It's Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, which is a known opera for those opera fans out there. You probably know that opera, but this is the 1857 version that was taken from the composer's original manuscript, which for a very long time. Was held in a private collection and was not available.
[00:12:23] Behind the Scenes content: a digital strategy masterstroke
[00:12:23] Jason Caffrey: And so at this point, with that piece of work, when it comes to the content you are still in the prep phase, I'm assuming. What does it look like for opera when you have a new product? A new piece of work, and you're planning out the digital strategy to do the promotion job you talk about.
[00:12:45] Zachary Vanderburg: Yeah, it's integral to our communication strategy. So when we think about a piece, we then think of what are the hurdles to this piece? Is the composer known? Or are they not known? Do we have to create a case around this piece? So for instance, Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, people know this piece. So we as a company are known for the lost and forgotten, where no one knows what we're talking about. They've never heard of the opera before. So for instance, in the case of Simon Boccanegra, it was, how do we talk about the differences between the Simon Boccanegra everyone knows and loves, and this version?
And what are the main things that we're trying to get across to our audience. Also, how do we then communicate to new people who might come to us and create that entryway for them. So we start there. And then we think, okay, what events or what communication bits are we going to create around that?
So in the case of this one, we wanted to do a live from the rehearsal studio with the conductor Sir Mark Elder and with the musicologist, Roger Parker, just talking about the piece, creating that case of why we've chosen to do it. It's a quite expensive thing for us to do
[00:14:03] Jason Caffrey: Operas are just enormously expensive.
[00:14:03] Zachary Vanderburg: It's enormously expensive. Yes.
And for us to do an in studio recording is wildly expensive. It's one of the reasons that we're one of the few companies that still do it. It's one of our raison d'etre as its core to our mission to do in studio recordings.
So we had a live stream event that went out to all of our donors and supporters that we then edited and then put up on our YouTube channel. We then did some interview content with the singers. We did an interview with the musicologist, Roger Parker, and then we had in studio bits of arias and scenes from the opera as we were going through the recording process.
And that was there for our promotion of the actual performance itself in Manchester, which happened about a week and a half ago. So that kind of is all generated in the lead up to the performance as both just general content about the project and then also promotional material for the concert. And now we're in the process of creating a 'making of' documentary.
So that will incorporate all of the material that we collected. Some of the behind the scenes material, I think some of the fun bits were our Simon Boccanegra, the title role is Argentinian. So he created a video with us about him making his mate.
[00:15:34] Jason Caffrey: What's that?
[00:15:35] Zachary Vanderburg: It's an Argentinian tea. It's drunk in a type of gourd that's dried out. So he did a full video with us about how that plays into his process and in the YouTube recordings, you see him carrying this thing which is his mate. And so we thought, let's actually explain what that is and show the more human side.
And We're now in the process of creating more materials that will then be gradually put out and then the recording itself doesn't actually come out until March of next year. So it's quite a long process.
[00:16:11] Repurposing for Reach: Opera Rara's content wheel
[00:16:11] Jason Caffrey: I want to just explore with you how the video YouTube channel fits into the other channels that you are using.
So you talked about you've hit more than a thousand subscribers now, I'm sure.
[00:16:24] Zachary Vanderburg: Yeah, we're around a thousand six hundred. So we've actually pretty much doubled in one year. Which is great.
[00:16:31] Jason Caffrey: That's amazing growth. And in terms of hours of listener or viewing.
Yeah. What's that looking like now?
[00:16:36] Zachary Vanderburg: We're on track for around 6, 000 hours. We basically within nine months got into the YouTube Partner Programme. That was pretty much all coming from content we already had.
[00:16:48] Jason Caffrey: And so when I scouted some of the other opera world channels, I think it was Facebook
actually has got a very big following, is that right? Am I right on that one?
[00:17:00] Zachary Vanderburg: It does, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:17:01] Jason Caffrey: And so when you look at, for instance, the Facebook channel, how do you view that in comparison to the YouTube channel?
[00:17:11] Zachary Vanderburg: We do actually have quite a lot of engagement on our Facebook channel because of the demographic that we reach and that Facebook tends to be more for that demographic.
Our demographics skews mostly male and 55 and older. You find this a lot in opera in general, I think because we exist within that kind of niche of a niche where we're definitely there, as far as our demographics go on our channels, the main goal with the Facebook channel is general awareness of what we're doing. It is a bit of a community as well. Quite a few of our artists have very large followings on that channel. So for us to do something like a live stream with them on Facebook or cross posting on Facebook and tagging them, it's a great way for us to reach their groups, as well as them to reach us and our audience base.
We could put all of the content that we have on YouTube natively onto Facebook, but what we're doing is actually trying to push people to our YouTube channel. One of the main reasons behind that is that there is. some revenue generation that can happen on YouTube. We want to grow that channel. And we're now starting to collect data and seeing, okay, we have this YouTube channel.
[00:18:33] Jason Caffrey: I love data.
[00:18:34] Zachary Vanderburg: Yes. Yes. So I think whereas we started before it was, we have these channels. Facebook is quite large. Twitter is actually larger for us. Instagram is growing incredibly quickly.
So for some of these newer channels, it's easier for us to have a very direct goal in mind. I would say, whereas Facebook, it's something that's, we might not have a direct goal yet because we're still collecting data and seeing, okay this was our main way of contacting our audience base. But actually now we're using all of these other channels and we're trying to move people from Facebook to cross over on these other channels and engage with us in many different ways,
[00:19:17] Jason Caffrey: And how are you finding success with that? Because I think that for any organization is a real challenge. Not least because none of those platforms want their users to leave. So how are you finding that?
[00:19:31] Zachary Vanderburg: We are finding that quite a few people are coming to us on our other channels.
And then actually diversifying our voice, if you will, on these other channels, They find use. in coming to our other channels. They want to come to our other channels to see, okay, what does that story look like? Or what is this behind the scenes content on Instagram that's not on Facebook.
They want to come to these other places.
[00:19:57] Jason Caffrey: Because there's a differentiated offer.
[00:19:59] Zachary Vanderburg: Exactly.
[00:20:00] Balancing demographics: Serving older audiences vs. enticing younger followers
[00:20:00] Jason Caffrey: I love that. I absolutely love that. You talked about the audience for the niche opera. You skew male, you skew over 55. You reach that audience on Facebook and on YouTube. Does it look different on YouTube or Instagram? Are you reaching other demographics?
[00:20:19] Zachary Vanderburg: We are, yes. Instagram is definitely much younger. The type of person that we're reaching there is, I would say, probably those young opera-goers - the young singers, actually a lot of younger singers come to us because we work with a lot of the big artists and what we offer them is the chance for them to engage with those artists in a different way. And they get to see the behind the scenes of a full opera recording, which is quite rare in and of itself. YouTube, we do have a growing group. About 15 percent of our base on YouTube is in that 25 to 35 range. So we do have a growing group there. And I think this is probably where we have the most opportunity is that we can create materials for young singers who then can come to our channel, can learn something different that they might not see on a channel for a major opera house.
They can see what that whole process is of going into the studio, of creating a full opera recording. They can learn about rare operas that maybe they've only heard about in their history classes, and they get to engage with that more. And I think that's one of our key demographics.
[00:21:35] Jason Caffrey: Nice. I really like that.
What a resource for a student.
[00:21:39] Zachary Vanderburg: Exactly. Yeah.
[00:21:40] Jason Caffrey: To be able to just see that
[00:21:42] Zachary Vanderburg: yeah.
[00:21:42] Jason Caffrey: Whole process.
[00:21:43] Zachary Vanderburg: Yeah.
[00:21:44] Jason Caffrey: Brilliant.
[00:21:44] Zachary Vanderburg: And that's, what we're thinking about when we're entering a project. What are all the different communication bits? What are we going to create around this? How do we let people know what this thing is and teach them about it and create educational materials, but then also some more entertainment materials as well.
And then what are all of the applications? And what platforms is this best on? And then we go forward with that strategy.
[00:22:13] Jason Caffrey: What's the trajectory for Opera Rara's digital digital content strategy. Where's where's it going from here? It It sounds very much like is going to remain at the hub
[00:22:25] Zachary Vanderburg: It will be one of, the hubs. The real hub will be our website. That's the next step is reworking our website. I'm actually quite excited about it because I do feel that there's such a wealth of material there.
There's a lot of easy wins that we could have. And actually by having a website that does what we do on our communications channels, which is: here's this one little bit, but here's all of the other options that are out there. And to where maybe you're reading a blog post which we don't have a blog currently.
That's one of the things that we want with the new website. So we're starting to create that content now. Maybe you're coming across the blog post and then you see, oh cool, here's a suggested video down at the bottom. And then you go to that video and then that video takes you to this behind the scenes material.
And so again, it's this whole part of a journey of operatic discovery, which is again, it's one of our big marketing phrases, but we were really trying to create that digitally. Part of that website will be. an archive of all of our work.
[00:23:30] Jason Caffrey: You must have a vast amount of material.
[00:23:33] Zachary Vanderburg: A lot. Yes. Yes. So 120 ish recordings. Over 60 of them are full opera. What opera is known for is that we don't only restore these works and then record them at the best quality that we possibly can. We also will create a lot of material, a lot of learning material around that opera.
So we'll have one or two musicologists to write great scholarly articles that go into the performance brochure, goes into the booklet. They're these massive pieces of material. They're like 200 pages long. So all of that exists pretty much only in physical form.
And we're looking at ways that we can then make that available digitally as a part of an archive that is a benefit to some of our patrons and donors, but then also could be a resource of material for students.
All of that is building into this hub, if you will, that will probably be our website with all of these other channels that are intersecting with our website.
[00:24:47] Big Ambitions, Small Budget: Opera Rara's multi-channel Digital Strategy
[00:24:47] Jason Caffrey: You and I have had tentative conversations about a potential podcast.
[00:24:51] Zachary Vanderburg: Yeah.
[00:24:51] Jason Caffrey: And if that went ahead, where would that fit into that whole nebula that you've generated?
[00:24:58] Zachary Vanderburg: What we've talked about is it existing as like a conversation, if you will.
Again, it's behind the scenes material that probably would be with our musicologists. It's that kind of scholarly chat that people don't always get to be witness to. It could exist as a YouTube video.
So not just streamed on a podcast, but also as a live stream video or not even live stream or just an edited video form of that podcast. think there's a lot from that. We can take audio clips, we can take video clips, we can put it on social media. It becomes a part of our wider communication strategy.
[00:25:39] Jason Caffrey: So it sounds like, um, a building block on the YouTube strategy. It's almost a spinoff.
[00:25:46] Zachary Vanderburg: Yes, it's a spinoff, but I think it would also have its own voice. So it's becoming another channel for us. And we're just now in that period of thinking, okay, if we're going to invest in this channel, what does it accomplish that we're not already accomplishing?
And I think that's why, especially because we do have limited resource,
we are quite a small staff. We say we, punch above our weight people, I think they see the large recordings, they see everything that we do, they don't realize that it's actually just, I think now we're up to five full time staff. So for us to launch a new channel like a podcast is quite a big investment, not necessarily in money, but in time. But I think we do have an opportunity here within podcasting to diversify our channels, to diversify our content, create material that's taking people behind the scenes we can use that on other channels as it's part of full integration in all of our communications.
[00:26:52] Jason Caffrey: you said this phrase a few times, easy wins.
[00:26:55] Zachary Vanderburg: Yeah.
[00:26:55] Punch Above Your Weight: Mine your existing content for easy wins
[00:26:55] Jason Caffrey: So small performing arts charity looking to go into or grow its YouTube presence. What are the easy wins that you would point those people to?
[00:27:07] Zachary Vanderburg: Yeah.
I would say start with the material that you already have. So what have you already been creating?
What stories have you been telling in video form? And then get those on YouTube first. Come up with a strategy around that. So that you're not just randomly uploading a bunch of content onto YouTube. then come up with a timeline of gradually unloading that content and then integrate your YouTube channel into all of your other communications.
So you can have some pretty. easy wins when it comes to your other social media channels and that we're always searching for content. And I think especially for Operara, where we have usually two big projects every year, where we're we've created so much content around one project for one specific period of time, for instance, Simon Boccanegra, and now it's over, and now we have a long period of time before the recording comes out.
So I think as a, as a content creator, you're always thinking, okay well, what do I make? What do you already have? You can then create a reel that goes out on Instagram and Facebook and then link to the full recording that's on your YouTube channel. So that's, that I think is probably the number one biggest win.
Don't go into a YouTube strategy thinking I have to create everything. You probably already have quite a lot of material that's there that you can then edit, do a bit of work on, and then. Unload it onto YouTube strategically and then incorporate that channel into all of your other communications.
[00:28:47] Jason Caffrey: Was there ever a point you know, you talked about Warner saying, why don't you go and do YouTube? Were you surprised at that?
[00:28:53] Zachary Vanderburg: Yeah, 100%. Yeah.
[00:28:55] Jason Caffrey: And so maybe a suggestion that you thought, okay, we'll do this, but approached it with a degree of skepticism.
[00:29:04] Zachary Vanderburg: Yes.
I would say we, we approach or I myself, and maybe, maybe this is something in the sector as well, but I myself have approached a lot of digital things with quite a lot of skepticism.
[00:29:17] Jason Caffrey: Fair enough.
[00:29:17] Zachary Vanderburg: Yeah.
[00:29:18] Jason Caffrey: So did you take an approach where you're like, okay, we'll do this much, see what kind of response we'll get? and progress from there. How did you approach that first assessment phase that convinced you that, yeah, YouTube, actually, yes, we absolutely should be investing in this.
[00:29:36] Zachary Vanderburg: It was really our first marker as a part of the YouTube partner program.
So could we get to a thousand subscribers and how quickly would that happen? And we took a low risk strategy. We were sitting on a lot of content. So we just gradually started uploading that to YouTube. And at the same time we started optimizing what was already on YouTube.
So adding tagswhat we've realized is that pretty much all that we create and all that we do can exist in a digital format.
That was the biggest key of just like turning that idea on and then thinking, what do we do with that?, creating playlists, all of that stuff. And, It was pretty immediate that we were seeing quite a lot of growth with minimal effort.
[00:30:13] Jason Caffrey: Wonderful.
[00:30:14] Zachary Vanderburg: Yeah I don't think that's necessarily for every charity. Opera Rara is an interesting one in that And so now we're thinking about all the different content and for some charities or some small organizations, you might have to create a lot of content. So you might not be sitting on the amount of content that we are, or you might have licensing issues, or you might have other issues like that.
It might not be the channel for you, and it may be that it just is a part of it, but you have to remember YouTube is the second largest search engine, other than Google, who owns YouTube, I think some presence there is good.
[00:31:10] Jason Caffrey: There's a big discoverability bonus.
[00:31:13] Zachary Vanderburg: Yes. Yes. And I think SEO if you can embed videos from YouTube onto your website, that also helps.
So I think having some presence there is good. But I think we're an interesting case where we were just sitting on a lot of content. I mean, we're 55 years old, so just a lot of digital content that we had all the rights to, it was just an easy win for us. Yeah, I would say just give it a try and see what happens.
[00:31:40] Jason Caffrey: Zachary Vanderberg from Opera Rara, thank you so much for coming into the studio. It's been a pleasure speaking with you.
[00:31:46] Zachary Vanderburg: Yeah, it's been a pleasure. Thanks, Jason.
[00:31:51] Jason Caffrey: Speaking with Zachary has been really insightful because although clearly YouTube does work for niche businesses, I had definitely pitched in hold it as a mass market channel. Zachary's experience shows these two things are not mutually exclusive and like him, I'd found it difficult to imagine how full length opera recordings would perform well on that platform.
So I'm happy to have dispelled my assumptions there and Zachary's willingness to challenge his own skepticism and experiment with a new channel, that's perhaps the biggest lesson that I'll take away from this episode. So thank you to Zachary for sharing his experience, thank you for listening, I look forward to your company in the next edition of the Content Mavericks Club.
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TOPICS COVERED
[00:00:00] Introduction
[00:01:20] YouTube Vs Opera: The 'lost and forgotten' opera company that doubled its subscribers
[00:05:52] Opera Rara's Recipe for Digital Success: Go long. Really long.
[00:12:23] Behind the Scenes content: a digital strategy masterstroke
[00:16:11] Repurposing for Reach: Opera Rara's content wheel
[00:20:00] Balancing demographics: Serving older audiences vs. enticing younger followers
[00:24:47] Big Ambitions, Small Budget: Opera Rara's multi-channel Digital Strategy
[00:26:55] Punch Above Your Weight: Mine your existing content for easy wins
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