The YouTube Crew
Challenge
YouTube's Growth Marketing faced a significant brand consistency issue while working with numerous global agency partners, each interpreting brand guidelines differently across channels and markets.
Approach
We proposed establishing a centralized creative studio to optimize global production, developing a tailored process for handling technical production and local market transcreation regardless of creative origin. This approach allowed us to process creative assets from various sources – whether developed by our team, YouTube's internal brand team, or other agency partners – and adapt them for global markets while maintaining strict brand consistency. The model was designed to be highly scalable, allowing for gradual team growth while dramatically increasing output capacity through process refinements and operational efficiencies.
The team
The team was known inside YouTube as “The Crew”. Along with account support, core creative, and motion design, a key component of the team was quality control – so we established a rigorous design workflow, along with dedicated production specialists, proofreading, and QA.
Beginning with a kickstart group of 6 dedicated staff members, quarter by quarter we added support to other products, channels, and audiences, as well as more capabilities, like an email development team and end-to-end program management.
Results
Part of what made the Crew so successful was our ability to build efficiency over time. Each quarter, our process got tighter and smarter, and we were able to increase our output significantly, far outpacing our personnel additions.
In four years, the Crew grew from 6 to more than 200 employees worldwide, including 50 creatives, handling more than 1,000 individual projects per year and delivering original and scaled creative for over 60 markets across in-product, performance media, email, and social channels.