British gamer Joseph Garrett's Stampylonghead YouTube channel has 2.3m subscribers and 845m total views, fuelled by an audience of children tuning in to the Minecraft videos he hosts as a virtual cat named Stampy. In February alone, the channel generated 159.3m views - 50m more than One Direction.
Now Garrett is spinning off a second YouTube channel in partnership with multi-channel network Maker Studios. 'We're setting up a new channel with Maker that's going to be purely educational,' he told the MIPTV television industry conference in Cannes.
'I think Minecraft is an amazing platform. One, the fact that it is a open sandbox to do whatever you want in it, and two, everyone's playing it, and if you're not playing it, your kids are playing it. If you take their engagement and put it into a more productive space like education or the arts, they're going to be involved in that, they're going to be engaged.'
During his on-stage interview at MIPTV, Garrett said that the Stampylonghead channel was 'a complete accident' since his original aim was to become a games journalist.
'I did video production at university, and I worked very hard on YouTube for a few years doing gaming critique, gaming reviews. For fun I started recording what are called 'Let's Plays', where you're playing and recording at the same time,' he said.
'That blew up, and I immediately realised that kids were watching, so I immediately cut out all the swearing, made it family-friendly, made it bigger and brighter, and now that's what I'm doing as a career. Completely by accident!'
Garrett records, edits and uploads his videos himself, with Maker Studios handling business issues. 'In terms of content production, it's just me. It's the classic image of YouTuber in bedroom with microphone,' he said.
Garrett also gave an insight into why his channel has become so popular, suggesting that his habit of uploading at least one new Minecraft video every day ensures his young audience know they can regularly come back to find new things to watch.
'You can't have a gap, because people wander very easily,' he said. 'Scheduling is crucial. I've never announced a schedule, I've never advertised anything, but they know if they go to my channel at this time each day, there's going to be a new video up... If it's not, my inbox fills up with a lot of children letting me know!'
Garrett also suggested that for many children, the Stampy character has become 'involved in their life more, for me, than a kids' television presenter would be: they're messaging me, they're sending me pictures. You become more of a friend to them.'
Besides launching the second education channel, Garrett suggested that the Stampy character can 'live in other spaces and other medias' rather than just within Minecraft, the game that itself is hugely popular with children. But despite his bouncy persona when in character, Garrett said that in real life, he's not quite so outgoing.
'I'm a very big introvert, I'm very shy. I'm getting better now, but growing up I loved the idea of telling jokes, but not in front of people, when people are there,' he said. 'By using this media I can be at home in my bedroom behind a microphone in my safe area, but have millions of people watch it.'
* Disney's Maker Studios deal is a real game-changer
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