Let’s be honest: most brand channels on YouTube don’t fail quietly. They fail expensively. They fail despite months of planning, expensive gear, polished production, and enthusiastic internal Slack threads. And they fail for one big reason: they’re trying to win at the wrong game.

A few weeks ago, we sat down with Finn McKenty, creator of the Punk Rock MBA channel and strategist behind several wildly successful YouTube accounts. He’s worked with everyone from startups to household brands—and he’s seen firsthand why most company channels never really take off.

Spoiler alert: it’s not because their thumbnails are bad. Or because they’re working with tight budgets. It’s because they fundamentally misunderstand what YouTube actually is.

If you’re a brand wrestling with YouTube—or thinking about diving in—here’s what you need to hear.

First, Understand What YouTube Actually Is

One of the first things Finn said to us was simple, but transformational:

“YouTube is an entertainment platform.”

Not a marketing platform. Not a video hosting platform. Not a visual podcast or a product tour database. It’s not even social media in the traditional sense. YouTube is TV. It’s a recommendation-driven entertainment ecosystem that just so happens to have a search bar.

And once you understand that, you start to see why most brand content flops.

Think about how people actually use YouTube. They’re doing the dishes. They’re half-watching during lunch. They’re curled up on the sofa, scrolling the homepage looking for something—anything—that looks vaguely entertaining.

They are not searching for your latest feature update. Or your product roadmap. Or your Q4 highlights.

No one is sitting down to choose your explainer video over a 60-minute teardown of the NBA playoffs or an exposé on why fast fashion is imploding.

Even Finn Got It Wrong (At First)

If that’s hitting a little close to home, you’re in good company. Finn himself didn’t start out making hits. Before building a 700,000+ subscriber channel, he was producing dry business videos that barely scratched 150 views. Not because the ideas were bad. But because the packaging didn’t match the platform.

“I didn’t understand it,” Finn told us. “So I made that hard pivot—and it worked.”

That pivot? He moved from business to music. From product-first to passion-first. And he started talking about the topics people were already searching for, caring about, and watching.

Which brings us to the real lesson here: YouTube isn’t where you create demand. It’s where you meet it.

Why Most Brand Channels Fail

There are plenty of tactical missteps brands make—low retention, confusing titles, inconsistent publishing—but most of them stem from a single strategic flaw:

They make content about themselves.

There are two types of channels on YouTube: personality-driven channels and topic-driven channels. Most creators build personality-driven channels. The audience subscribes because they like you.

But brand channels don’t have that luxury. Your audience doesn’t care about your quarterly goals or your culture manifesto. At least, not yet. They care about topics. Problems. Ideas. Things that are already rattling around in their heads when they open the YouTube app.

So when brands push out videos with titles like:

• "Our CEO Shares Her Vision for the Future"

• "10 Years of Company Milestones"

• "How Our Product Helps You Work Better"

…they’re missing the point entirely. These are fine pieces of internal comms. They might even be decent for LinkedIn. But for YouTube? No chance.

So What Does Work?

Let’s be clear: you can absolutely make videos about your industry. You just can’t do it like a press release.

Finn put it well. “You need to find a way to package that such that it is accessible and entertaining to the YouTube audience.”

Instead of:

“5 Ways Our Product Can Improve Your Workflow”

Try:

“How Amazon Tricks You Into Working Harder (Without Realising It)”

Instead of:

“Our Company’s Journey from Garage to Global”

Try:

“Why Everyone’s Quitting Their Corporate Job (And What’s Coming Next)”

It’s not about clickbait. It’s about positioning. It's about leading with the curiosity gap, the emotional hook, the "I need to click this" moment—and then delivering on that promise with actual insight, not a pitch deck.

Frame It Through the Viewer’s Eyes

Here’s the brutal truth: even if you spend six figures on production, hire the best editors, and script every single second down to the micro-pause, your videos can still flop. Because YouTube doesn’t reward effort—it rewards engagement.

If your content doesn’t hook people, hold their attention, and deliver on their expectations, the algorithm won’t give it the time of day.

And that’s not because YouTube’s being mean. It’s because YouTube is working on behalf of the viewer. The audience is the product. And the algorithm is doing its very best to serve them what they want.

As Finn put it:

“They don’t make the content the audience wants to watch. They make the content they wish the audience would watch.”

Stop Lecturing. Start Entertaining.

This is where most brand marketers trip over themselves. They’re used to campaigns. Messaging pillars. Strategic narratives. All of which are useful—but not if they get in the way of actually making content people want to consume.

YouTube is a storytelling platform. It’s where people go to be informed, sure—but also to be entertained, surprised, and pulled into a journey. That means we need to stop thinking of videos as assets, and start thinking of them as episodes.

That doesn’t mean turning your brand into a meme account. It means asking:

• What topic is our audience already interested in?

• How do we package our expertise in a story worth telling?

• Where’s the human drama, the insight, the twist?

Because ultimately, YouTube viewers don’t want a lecture. They want a story. One that speaks to them, earns their attention, and delivers real value without droning on about brand values or product features.

A Quick Checklist for Fixing Your Brand Channel

If you’re in the middle of building a YouTube presence—or wondering why yours isn’t gaining traction—here’s a starting point.

✅ Ask yourself: Would I watch this if I didn’t work here?

✅ Lead with the topic, not your brand.

✅ Stop announcing things. Start exploring things.

✅ Use curiosity-driven titles that mirror trending formats (without being cheesy).

✅ Think in audience-first terms. What’s entertaining to them, not what’s important to you?

✅ Don’t assume interest. Earn it.

✅ Remember: every video is a chance to start a new relationship with a new viewer. Make it worth their time.

What Happens When You Get It Right

Let’s rewind to Finn one more time. After pivoting his content to match what the audience already cared about, his channel exploded.

“I think if I had to start again now, I could do it,” he said. “Because I understand how the platform works now.”

And that’s the point. YouTube isn’t a mystery. It’s not an unknowable algorithmic beast. It’s a media platform with clear rules of engagement. If you respect those rules—entertain first, pitch second, add value always—you’ll start to see results.

More than that, you’ll build an actual audience. One that watches, engages, shares, and even buys. Not because you paid to reach them. But because you gave them something worth their attention.

Want to Make YouTube Work for Your Brand?

That’s what we do. At Humble&Brag, we help brands grow channels that actually perform—without losing the plot on storytelling or brand integrity.

If this resonated, reach out. We’d love to help you stop shouting into the void and start building something that actually moves the needle.

Until then—remember: YouTube doesn’t reward effort. It rewards audience-first, well-packaged, consistently entertaining content. So make that your starting point.