Case Study: YouTube Launches Cobra Kai as a Streaming Hit with Brand Knew

YouTube launches Cobra Kai with Brand Knew, driving 5.4M views in 24 hours

YouTube, seeking to establish its YouTube Premium service as a major player in original content, faced the challenge of launching "Cobra Kai," a spinoff of "The Karate Kid." They needed a social marketing campaign that would appeal to both dedicated fans and a new generation of viewers, overcoming skepticism from past mediocre remakes and a cast with insignificant social reach. YouTube engaged the vendor Brand Knew to craft the creative strategy for this launch.

Brand Knew developed a campaign centered on an empowering underdog narrative to bridge generational gaps. The solution included launching new dedicated social handles for the show, creating content across themed buckets of nostalgia and world-building, and executing breakthrough activation stunts like a viral prank video. The results were exceptional, making "Cobra Kai" one of the best-performing streaming series ever on social media. It became YouTube's most successful Original show, with the @CobraKaiSeries accounts cultivating the largest fan community of any YTO and drastically outperforming previous top-performing shows in impressions and mentions.

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