EU Made Simple (EUMS) produces accessible and engaging videos aiming to demystify EU news and politics for everyone. Their core product is video tailored for YouTube and available in English, German, French, Greek, Italian, Romanian, Polish, and Bulgarian. During the Incubator, they focused on increasing revenue and creating a stronger connection with their viewers.
Turning viewers into active supporters
The team’s mission of driving European cooperation and representation translates into how they engage audiences in co-creating locally representative content: Modelling a federalised system, audience members translate and adapt content into their regional contexts. Contributors can follow a low-threshold, standardised production process and get a cut of the video revenue.
Guided by their IPI coach, EUMS realised they had already built an engaged audience, motivated to support a European community by helping EUMS grow. Taking this learning to the next step, they looked into reader revenue. The team launched a successful Patreon campaign with a practical setup: supporters could contribute to paying the rent of EUMS’s studio. Embedding IPI methodology for audience needs and engagement into the design, this initial campaign developed into a three-tier scheme offering supporters different perks – such as exclusive Discord access or voting on video topics.
Now counting 230 paying Patreon members, EUMS’s donation income has more than doubled since the start of the Incubator, complementing their other revenue streams of video sponsorships, consulting work and AdSense.
Introducing personal content formats to build community
When navigating this pivot to reader revenue, the EUMS team was aware that they needed to invest in audience loyalty to keep the donation model afloat. They approached this challenge by adding more personal content to their mix of formats: Drawing inspiration from Incubator peer WATIF TV, they are tapping into livestreams where the team meets their audience, discusses current topics, builds a human connection with them and strengthens community.
These events have been a significant driver for donations. And a welcome side effect: livestreaming has lower video production costs compared to the outlet’s usual edited, long-form YouTube content.
In the future, EUMS aims to create more premium content, profile audience segments to build local movements and volunteer networks, as well as develop their own donation platform to avoid cuts by large tech platforms. Their long-term goal is to cover all 24 EU languages, reaching citizens who are often left out of international and EU-level discussions.
“The training we received on audience engagement and feedback loops really paid off – learning how to define your audience, look for their struggles and motivations, and then see what keeps them engaged was fantastic. With a versatile channel like ours, we now apply this knowledge a lot when we target different segments for different content and activities,” – Paul Bekaert, Head of French Channel, EUMS.
The New Media Incubator is part of the Media Innovation Europe programme (MIE), made possible with the support of the European Union.
