Why Virgin Media O2 Collaborated With The Sidemen

The Sidemen are one of the UK’s most popular YouTube groups with over 20 million subscribers and growing. 

Best known for their hugely popular 'Sidemen Sunday' videos, the group has grown into a cultural powerhouse, collaborating with creators including Mr Beast and, most recently, hosting YouTube's first official live stream of a FIFA World Cup match, complete with their own creator-led commentary alongside BBC coverage 

Virgin Media O2 is a brand quick to capitalise on the Sidemen’s popularity, teaming up with the group in one of their ‘Hide and Seek’ videos, while promoting its Satellite offerings.

The social first activation, organised by VCCP Social Club, sees groups of creators look for former Sidemen member, KSI, using only Satellite devices powered by O2 to navigate, communicate, and receive clues in areas beyond traditional mobile coverage – bringing its ‘O2. Now In Space’ campaign to life.

We sat down with Richard Bown, head of advertising and campaigns at VMO2, and David Feldman, ECD at VCCP Social Club, to discuss the reasons for the collaboration, the approach to creator-first work, and how VMO2 plans to show up in culture.

Tell us about the work - how did it come about, what was the initial brief?

David Feldman: O2 had launched a satellite into space, but we wanted to show what it meant for people on the ground. Would enough people care? That was the burning question and so a brief to create a tech product demo that would get people talking, at scale, was born. 

Richard Bown: In addition to the product/proposition challenge, there were two strong media-led insights that drove this idea forward for us at VMO2. Number one: there are well-documented audience shifts taking place in the AV market. Linear TV, although still powerful and by no means ‘dead’, is driving the most frequency in the older audiences.

We’ve been looking to other AV channels to re-balance our AV audience profile. SVOD and YouTube are a big part of this strategic shift - we know YouTube is working well for us. Secondly, although YouTube is working hard for us, we know we’re not making the best use of the full ecosystem. Therefore, a brief was born to look at a YouTube first creative idea, one that would live across everything YouTube has to offer, from bumpers, to shorts, 30 second connected TV spots and, of course, creators.

Why decide to partner with the Sidemen on this project?

DF: The Sidemen are one of the biggest YouTube collectives on the planet. This was a big launch and it was important to go big or go home.

RB: What Dave said…! The Sidemen are one of the biggest creator collectives on the planet for a very good reason. They make top-tier content and this has resulted in their enormous audience size. We were keen to tap into not just their audience but also their creative expertise.

And what was the reasoning behind going down the path of this new creator-first approach?

DF: O2 would normally use YouTube as a media spot for the advertising. The whispered truth is people, particularly a Gen-Z audience, don’t go to YouTube for advertising. So why force it when we could work with the most entertaining creators on the platform to create something that people would go out of their way to watch. 

RB: We wanted to do more than just have the product ’appear’ in front of this audience via traditional advertising. We wanted the product to be embedded in the content and to feel like a natural part of the narrative. The idea being that with a more authentic integration, we’d generate higher dwell times and engagement. 

What specifically makes it new, and not just a bigger version of influencer marketing?

DF: The natural integration of the O2 Satellite is the crucial part. Put simply, without it, the Sidemen and 20 YouTubers could not have completed the challenge and made the video. It’s also important to add, this wasn’t just one long video. It was an entire ecosystem that allowed us to create different length videos, influencer collab videos, paid adverts and organic videos on YouTube Shorts, Meta and TikTok.

RB: Exactly, at the heart of it all the product was integral to the story but (at least for us) doesn’t feel intrusive or too forced. We gave the teams the product, detail as to how it worked, a few dos and don’ts and then let them create the entertainment they are so rightly known for. And, as Dave says, we then made sure to utiilse the footage to ensure we are showing up in the full YouTube media ‘ecosystem’.

Tell us about the logistics of the campaign - were there any unexpected technical challenges that actually shaped the final creative?

DF: The filming took place in a dead-zone area where you can’t get a traditional phone signal, but with the O2 Satellite only just launching, it wasn’t clear what that area was until quite late on, which meant we couldn’t plan too far ahead. Because of the Sidemen’s schedule, the content was shot in the week and edited over the weekend so it could drop on the Sunday; an adrenaline fuelled rush.

How did you balance clarity of the product benefit with the chaos and unpredictability of the video’s hide-and-seek format?

DF: It’s organised chaos. We think about story beats and while we can’t script the actual reactions and where KSI ends up hiding and the Sideman ends up seeking, we can brief them in detail about how to use the O2 Satellite enabled phone and ideally what not to say. We have a more scripted branded narrative section in the video where Josh from the Sidemen explains why everyone has the blue O2 Satellite phones and how it allows them to use maps, WhatsApp, voice notes and picture messages to hunt down KSI and win £20,000. 

RB: When you sign up for these collaborations you have to trust your partners to deliver the content that their audiences want to watch. For me, it’s about setting out the guardrails and then just sitting back and watching them work. We have a few red lines but we can’t impede on the creative too much as it will be obvious and turn viewers off, and none of us want that.

The Sidemen have a very established format and tone - how did you ensure to integrate your messaging without disrupting what fans love about their content?

DF: Knowledge. Trust. Creativity. In that order. We spent a lot of time getting into the weeds of what makes a successful Sideman video, a successful Sidemen video. This gains their respect from the get-go, because they feel instantly reassured we’re not here to bastardise their creativity. But it also makes sure we as a creative social agency are writing a Sidemen idea, not a brand-first advertising version of a Sidemen idea. The onus and responsibility is on us to pitch ideas, story beats, scripts, suggest the right amount of branding (like the blue O2 Satellite phone cases), and offer practical filming and production solutions that we know they would buy into and get excited about, without ever putting their content and brand values at risk.   

Why was YouTube - and specifically a Sidemen Sunday - seen as the right cultural moment for this launch?

DF: YouTube has been an area of focus for us for some time. We’ve known audiences treat YouTube content like TV, but as a brand and an agency, investing in quality longer form, entertaining YouTube content takes time and is a huge undertaking. Behaving like a media buyer with an editorial approach, where we and O2 offer creative storylines and natural integrations of our brand and product to established creator channels and show formats, like Sidemen Sunday, feels smart. On the specifics of Sidemen Sundays, their content always centered around a big challenge, often in the outdoors, often with other YouTube stars. All the ingredients we could ask for. 

RB: To be honest, the stars aligned. We had done a creative sprint with our YouTube team and the idea of creating a ‘Hunted’ style format had been one of our lead ideas to help showcase the O2 Satellite proposition. We naturally were looking at groups like the Sidemen to front this and it just so happened that they run a similar format, which allowed us to collaborate quickly and cost effectively.

Is this a one-off stunt, or part of a longer-term shift in how O2 shows up in culture?

DF: YouTube is a bit of an Aladdin's Cave in terms of what it can offer, but it takes real planning and commitment to get it right... and trust from the client. In principle shooting one longer piece of content with established creators and formats that audiences already love makes sense. But then clipping the best moments into shorter pieces of content that we distribute across Shorts, TikTok and Instagram and use as paid ads, is really efficient but crucially allows the singular creative idea to shine, make sense as a piece of communication and creep into cultural conversation. 

RB: Working with creators is certainly part of our wider strategy and we do a lot already in this space. Creators are a channel, like any other, and it’s important we have a balanced channel mix to ensure we are reaching our audiences.

Finally, as brands continue to collaborate with creators in their ecosystems, do you think we’ll see brands giving up more and more control in the name of authenticity?

DF: I don’t think it’s about brands giving up creative control. It’s about respecting the roles both parties can play. Top tier YouTube creators are thinking about their channels in the same way as traditional channels, like a Channel 4 or Sky Atlantic. Creating advertising and branded content that is created for a creators’ channel with a unique audience, specific style and type of idea, pushes brands and agencies to be more entertaining, which is a win win for everyone.   

RB: I honestly don’t feel like I’m ‘giving up control’. We recognise this is a different process and we have as much control as we would expect. We are not just paying for access to their audience but for their expertise in developing top-tier entertainment. It would feel wrong to have too much influence in that process and audiences are not stupid and would simply switch off.