MrBeast: Building a YouTube Empire

Name: MrBeast: Building a YouTube Empire (English version)
SKU: 523103

Elberse, Anita; Band, Oliver

Product #:523103

Supplier:Harvard Business School

Discipline:General Management

Setting:2022

Details:Case (PDF) • 23 pages • 2023-03-25

Subjects:

Marketing Strategy Sales and marketing Leadership and managing people Management

Your Price:

$11.64

Purchase this material with a free Educator Account and enjoy more benefits:

Free Educator Copy
Free Teaching Notes
Build your coursepack
Discounted academic price

Wednesday November 16, 2022 was a historic day in the ascent of Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, to the top echelon of YouTube creators. That day he became the YouTuber with the most subscribers ever-a total of 112 million. The meteoric rise of the 24-year-old Donaldson, long "obsessed with figuring out how to make videos go viral," as he put it, had not only made him one of the entertainment world's most popular creators, but also enabled him to launch a variety of other businesses. Donaldson's businesses now generated more than $100 million a year. He had also emerged as a formidable force in philanthropy. How big could MrBeast's presence on YouTube become? Did he have the right strategy for further growth on YouTube-while sustaining the ever-increasing levels of spending-and with his other businesses? And would MrBeast's unique approach to philanthropy stand the test of time?

Learning Objectives

To understand effective growth strategies for individual creators, especially those active on platforms such as YouTube. To assess how individual content creators can create and capture value from their digital presence and personal brands. To analyze the economics of highly successful channels on YouTube, and in particular the balance between revenues from advertising and brand partnerships on the one hand and the costs of content creation on the other. To assess the drivers of virality in digital-content settings, and best practices in viral content development, from ideation to pre-production, production, and post-production. To evaluate the potential for - and value of - philanthropic efforts in this context.