The Business of YouTube

A weekly strategic lens for senior leaders into how YouTube is reshaping the business of technology, sports, music, entertainment, and culture.

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To your favourite newsletter, The Business of YouTube, brought to you by Paola Marinone and Bengü Atamer, founders of BuzzMyVideos and previously at YouTube and Google. We are bringing our exclusive insights from 20 years of experience leading strategy at YouTube and Google.

Beyond the Fairway: How Good Good Built a Golf Media Empire

A bit of background;

The group began in Kansas City as casual friends, Garrett Clark, Stephen Castaneda, Matt Scharff, and Micah Morris, creating trick shot golf videos and challenges. With Clark’s GM Golf channel gaining traction for its humorous and energetic approach, more friends joined, adding personality and expertise to their productions. In 2020, amid the pandemic and golf’s resurgence, they formed Good Good Golf, combining talents to create a collaborative channel and brand.

The Good Good YouTube Playbook;

The chemistry among members, each bringing unique flair, allowed for authentic, relatable videos, further amplified by consistent weekly uploads and creative formats. Viral moments, such as Matt Scharff’s par-4 hole-in-one, helped the channel gain mass attention!

But to sum up, Good Good's success boils down to one central concept: they transformed golf from a passive sport into an active, high-stakes entertainment league.

Instead of just posting "rounds of golf" content; they create "must-see" sporting events, complete with recurring characters (the members), clear formats, high stakes video concepts!, and a consistent broadcast schedule.

Their YouTube channel has grown to be a new, relatable "tour" for the modern viewer.

1. Content Formats: "Gamify Everything"

• Regular "Matches": These are their bread-and-butter videos. They use creative, easy-to-understand formats like "Knockout Golf," "6 Man Scramble," or "2v2." These are their "regular season" games.

• High-Concept Challenges: These are special, one-off videos with a strong hook, often involving money or extreme conditions. Examples: "$1 vs $10,000 Golf Road Trip," "Thrift Shop Golf Challenge," "Fastest Person to Finish Golf Hole Wins $1000."

• Tentpole "Majors": These are their premium, multi-episode series that function like a playoff or championship. Examples: "The Good Good Major UK," "Good Good Cup Arkansas," "$40,000 Good Good Major Tournament." These are filmed with higher production and feel like a cinematic event.

Actionable Takeaways:

• Create recurring, branded formats. Invent a unique challenge (like "Knockout Golf") and make it a regular series so fans know what to expect and can anticipate its return.

• Build "Tentpole Events." Plan your year around 2-3 major "tournaments" or "championships" that have a higher prize pool, better production, and a multi-part structure to build hype and maximize watch time.

2. Video Titles: Clarity, Stakes, and Hype

Analysis: Their titles are a masterclass in curiosity and clarity. They almost always include:

1. The Recurring Format Titles → Creates Familiarity: "Knockout Golf," "6 Man Scramble," "2 Man Good Good Cup."

2. The Stakes Titles → Creates Hype & Stickiness: "$5,000 MATCH," "$1 vs $10,000," "We Played Our PGA Tour Course."

3. The Emotion (Hype) Words in Titles→ Taps into Human Psyche: "INSANE," "CRAZY," "EPIC," "IMPOSSIBLE," "COURSE RECORD."

4. Urgency/Key Moment Phrasing of Titles → Taps into Curiosity: "First to Break the glass wins," "They did the Impossible."

They use ALL CAPS strategically to make the key concept (the format or the stake) pop.

Actionable Takeaways:

• Lead with the hook, not the episode number. Notice their series titles are "$1 vs $10,000 Golf Road Trip | Ep 4," not "Ep 4 of our road trip." The compelling concept comes first.

• Always define the stakes. "Winner Gets $1,000," "Loser Buys Dinner," or "World Record Attempt." This gives the viewer a reason to care about the outcome from the very first click.

• Use strong, emotional adjectives. Words like "Ultimate," "Intense," "Craziest," and "Unbelievable" set the tone before the video even plays.

3. Thumbnail Visual Strategy: The "Event Poster"

Analysis: Good Good's thumbnails are meticulously designed "event posters" that tell a complete story.

• Design: Extremely bright, high-saturation, and high-contrast. The sky is always blue, the grass is always green. This makes them stand out on the feed.

  

• Faces & Emotion: They always feature the members' faces, showing high emotion (celebrating, yelling, looking stressed). This builds a parasocial connection with the "players."

• Text: The text is huge, bold, and often has a thick border (a "stroke") to be readable on any device. It reiterates the title's core hook: "KNOCKOUT GOLF," "MAJOR," "$5,000 MATCH."

  

• Contextual Cues: They use red arrows, circles, and scorecards to add a layer of "live sports broadcast" data and guide the viewer's eye.

  

Actionable Takeaways:

• Treat every thumbnail as a movie poster. It should convey Who (your players/personalities), What (the challenge), and Why (the emotion/stakes).

4. Video Length & Upload Frequency

Analysis:

• Length: Good Good is not afraid of long-form content. Their main videos are regularly 40+ minutes, with many "Major" episodes exceeding 1.5 or even 2-3 hours. This indicates they are targeting high-retention watch time. They are "lean-back" content, designed to be watched like a TV show or a live sports match.

• Frequency: a highly consistent schedule of 2-3 long-form videos per week. This reliability builds anticipation and viewing habits.

5. Playlist Strategy: The "Binge Model"

Analysis: Playlists are central to their "tentpole" strategy.

• Function: This encourages binge-watching. Once a viewer finishes Episode 1 of the "$1 vs $10,000 Golf Road Trip," the playlist auto-feeds them Episode 2, drastically increasing total session watch time.

• Organization: They are organized by "Season" or "Event," making it easy for new fans to get hooked on a complete, self-contained story.

6. Shorts Strategy: Audience Growth & Funnel

• Content: Their Shorts are not just clips from their long-form videos. They are purpose-filmed vertical content. They consist of quick challenges, Q&As ("This Good Good member did WHAT?"), trick shots, and funny behind-the-scenes moments.

  

• Titles: Often formatted as questions ("Did this count?") or bold statements ("The Wurst Bounce you could ever get") to drive engagement and curiosity.

  

• Frequency: The number of Shorts suggests a high-frequency (likely daily) upload schedule.

Actionable Takeaways:

• Use Shorts for discovery, not just as trailers. Film quick, native-vertical content that introduces your personalities and the "vibe" of your sport.

• Format Shorts as questions or "quick-hit" challenges. This is perfect for "Can he make this shot?", "Guess the player," or "Fastest time trial."

• Use Shorts to introduce the "players." This format is perfect for building up the individual personalities on your team.

Community

Key to Good Good’s rise is its focus on a sense of community, connecting with fans via meetups, social media, and interactive content. Their approach helped make golf appealing to younger, more diverse audiences, demonstrating that golf can be fun, inclusive, and modern. The group’s willingness to involve fans and adapt based on feedback fueled enduring loyalty.

The Business & Success of the Good Good Golf

Their entrepreneurial success is further marked by exclusive merchandise drops (quickly selling out), sponsored tournaments, and PGA Tour partnerships. Good Good’s presence extends to Instagram, TikTok, and podcasts, creating a multi-platform community and broadening reach.

Want to discuss how to shape your strategy, talk to us.

Watch the latest episode of The Business of YouTube podcast, featuring Sebastien Audoux from X Luna Corp.

When Traditional Media Meets Digital Media (ahead of time): Sébastien Audoux

🚨 New masterclass: YouTube Shorts for Sport

After our last successfull Masterclass, we are doubling down.

A new YouTube Shorts Masterclass for Sport is now available.

When: November 13th at 8 am PT, 11 am ET, 4 pm GMT

All registered participants will receive the On Demand Video and the YouTube Shorts for Sport Playbook.

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-youtube-shorts-playbook-for-sport-how-to-grow-new-audiences-tickets-1905004743469?aff=PM

You can also be a beta tester (free of charge) for the new feature we have integrated into FullScore to create Shorts from Long form videos. 

Do you want to test our short form clipping tool? Join the waiting list!

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