MrBeast really knows his craft. While examining his latest Youtube thumbnail, I came across a thread written by Jay Alto, who shares analyses on Twitter specifically about Youtube thumbnails. So let’s examine together, in 5 points, why the thumbnail of MrBeast’s latest video, “I Built Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory!”, is such a strong piece of work;
CURIOSITY
The strategy of inviting people inside by focusing on the factory’s exterior and its entrance gate — in other words, sparking curiosity and creating the urge to click the video.
COLORS
MrBeast has always been someone who uses colors very well. Here, the harmony and vibrancy between the factory’s colors and MrBeast’s clothes — standing out against the gray building and the blue sky — are among the most important factors driving up the video’s click-through rate.
APPEAL
When MrBeast puts something in a video title, people now open that video believing 100% that he has actually done it. If the man filmed a video in front of a green screen claiming to be in space, 90% of viewers might believe it was real. The elements that make this project stand out the most could be;
- Charlie’s chocolate factory
- The fact that they rebuilt this factory
- Having 10 contestants
- Seeing the factory through golden chocolate tickets
- And the winner taking home half a million dollars.
But including all of these in the thumbnail wouldn’t work — it would be too confusing. And yet;
When you examine the image above, you’ll understand what MrBeast needs to lead with for his audience: the factory, the factory’s boss, the participants (contestants), shots of the factory and cheerful, vivid colors.
TITLE
Now, the title is a crucial subject, and here — despite giving $500,000 to the winner — MrBeast set the title as “I Built Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory”. A video titled “I’m giving away half a million dollars” would get plenty of views too, right? But MrBeast doesn’t care. As I said before, users see a MrBeast title and assume he’s done it, and if the title says “I built the factory”, building that factory already implies a serious budget and production. Besides, MrBeast giving away money no longer feels novel to people — the man hands out money non-stop. So he may be using the factory element as the hook, while keeping watch time sky-high by making people curious until the very end about who wins the money.
STYLE
And finally, “The Selfie” style — proven in countless thumbnails and used by many Youtube content creators. We could describe it as a character in the foreground reacting with over-the-top expressions to the visuals in the background. Since more than 250 million people clicked this video, you can decide for yourself whether this thumbnail worked.
