The first two seasons of the hit YouTube series Let’s Target netted over 40 million viewers, thanks to a star-studded roster of talent and a talk show format built for distribution on YouTube and social media. After establishing the original series as one of the most influential brand series in its class, Target wanted to expand the impact and footprint of the Let’s Target franchise with a third season in 2021.
The primary goals for Season 3 were to take the core of what made Let’s Target a hit – intimate conversations and unexpected pairings of creators and celebrities – while expanding the show to new platforms like TikTok, doubling down on the show’s commitment to inclusive and representative talent, and leaning further into e-commerce and series shoppability.
Let’s Target is centered around the talent in the series, with a creative format and talent pairings that create space for authentic connections and intimate moments.
With a combined audience of 80 million followers, the talent for Season 3 was a highly diverse group of creators and celebrities, covering the full spectrum of cultural, ethnic, sexual orientation, gender identity, body types, and age backgrounds.
The cast represented a wide range of interests and talents – from late-night host Hasan Minhaj (Patriot Act, Daily Show) and celebrity chef David Chang (Momofuku) to gamer Preston Playz (10m subscribers on YouTube), actress Lana Condor (X-Men), celebrity hairstylist Brand Mondo, TikTok sensations Benito Skinner and Taylor Cassidy, leading beauty creators Jackie Aina and Shalom Blac, and more.
For the third season of Let’s Target, the six hero episodes lived on Target’s brand channels, tying strategically into some of the most popular verticals on YouTube: cooking, gardening, fashion, beauty, baking, and gaming. With the goal of expanding the show to new platforms, the YouTube series was extended with over 60 pieces of social content on brand and talent channels across Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. This social promotion included unique pieces of content built specifically for each platform, strategically leaning into specific platform trends, such as Duets and How-Tos on TikTok, to drive viewership to the rest of the series.
Lastly, we leaned further into shoppability with Season 3, with the episodes themselves shoppable for viewers, giving viewers the chance to purchase the most loved items from each episode with a variety of custom Let’s Target experiences on Target.com, featuring talent and products from the series.
Let’s Target Season 3 proved to be another massive hit on YouTube and on social. Across the 6 hero episodes and more than 60 pieces of social content, the series has been viewed 21 million times, with over 8 million views on YouTube alone, and 1.2 million unique engagements across social.
The overall engagement rate for the series was 6% (compared to benchmarks of 4%) with a 14% engagement rate on TikTok specifically. As the series’ first foray on TikTok, Season 3 reached over 20m followers on TikTok.
Across the episodes on the Target YouTube channel, we saw a 5% impressions click-through rate, outperforming 4% CTR as a benchmark for content living on creator channels, which routinely outperforms brand content on YouTube. Doubling down on inclusivity also proved successful with viewers, with relative retention peaking during moments of deeper personal connection between the guests, particularly around heartfelt discussions around diversity and identity.
In comparison to Season 2, Season 3 saw a 53% increase in YouTube viewership, a 59% increase in channel subscribers, an 8% increase in positive sentiment, and a 75% increase in click-through rate. The series grew Target’s YouTube channel by 3%, with over 20,000 net new subscribers to the channel coming directly from series content.
With over 60 million views across the first three seasons of Let’s Target, the show has established itself as one of the most influential, culturally relevant, and high-impact original series from a brand on YouTube and social media.
