The Tank Museum: Engaging the Gaming Community
The Tank Museum has operated a YouTube channel since 2009, and now earns over £160,000 per year through YouTube and Patreon. Find out about how it has engaged with social media platforms, influencers, and game developer World of Tanks to expand its digital native user base.
Learning from YouTube Influencers
The Tank Museum in Dorset features one of the largest collections of historical armoured vehicles in the world. It is also a pioneer in monetising digital content on third-party platforms. In 2017, it 2017 joined the YouTube partner program, which enabled it to generate revenue from adverts.
The channel engages directly with the video gaming community. For example, it has invited World of Tanks community contributors, in particular YouTube influencers and Twitch streamers with a large following, to appear on its videos.
A video in which influencer The Mighty Jingles talks about his favourite tanks in the museum has gained over 1.5 million views to date, and brought in over 5,300 new subscribers, 80% of whom are under 44.
By studying influencers’ business models, the museum has learnt not to rely on individual third-party platforms for revenue: its direct advertising revenue from YouTube is only £3,500 per year. So it uses diverse techniques for monetising digital content, including advertisement, memberships, merchandise and sponsorships.
Watch the below video for more advice from Nik Wyness, Head of Marketing and Engagement, about making the most of YouTube.
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The pandemic experience has highlighted the importance and value of online audiences. Thanks to modern technologies, we can now tell our stories and communicate our mission to a larger number of people than ever before. And by doing that, we’re also gaining the ability to earn revenue from those audiences, helping us to become more sustainable.
Nik Wyness, Head of Marketing and Engagement
TankFest 2020
In summer 2020, the museum was faced with the prospect of having to cancel TANKFEST, its biggest annual fundraiser and 20th anniversary show. So they collaborated with their sponsor, the video gaming company Wargames, and six international partner museums to put the event online and broadcast over three hours of pre-recorded and live content simultaneously on YouTube, Facebook and Twitch.
TANKFEST 2019 attracted about 25,000 in-person visitors. Engaging with a young, international video gamer comunnity, TANKFEST 2020 gained over one million views on YouTube, generating a total watch time of 890,00 hours—the equivalent of 101 years—and raising over £80,000 through donations and merchandising.
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A World of Tanks camouflage bundle, painted onto a tank at the museum
TANKFEST 2020: Online Monetisation
The online event was free to attend, but viewers were strongly encouraged to donate through PayPal, join the museum’s Patreon or Friends Scheme, or contribute by purchasing merchandise from their online shop.
Wargames created three different charity bundles that could be purchased in their World of Tanks game, with the proceeds going to the museum. Two of bundles included a digital replica of the iconic Tiger 131 tank, and the third included the TANKFEST 2018 camouflage.
The digital replicas of the Tiger 131 tank sold out in one day. An additional 400 were released the following week, and again they sold out immediately. Over £57,000 was raised from selling these bundles, with an additional £20,000 raised through donations and online shop sales.
A total of 10,807 comments were posted on the TANKFEST 2020 YouTube stream, and 2400 new channel subscribers were gained following the event.
The quality of the YouTube stream was praised repeatedly in participant feedback, and The Tank Museum did it all by themselves: no agents, no production companies or no consultants were involved, just their own team.
TANKFEST 2020: Participant Engagement
YouTube analytics revealed that the TankFest 2020 YouTube participants were significantly younger than the museum’s previous participants and visitors.
in-person visitors are under 34
regular YouTube viewers are under 44
of participants were under 44 in 2020
Top five participant locations
TankFest 2020 participants were also significantly more international:
United States 35%
United Kingdom 12%
Germany 5%
Canada 4%
Australia 3%
The museum also reached many new participants from the video gaming community, with over 10,000 World of Tanks players taking part in TankFest and 4,000 digital replicas of Tiger 131 and 6,000 camouflage bundles sold in the game.
The multi-channel social media approach (YouTube, Patreon, Instagram, Facebook and Twitch) created combined brand value, social value, and economic value for Tank Museum.
