YouTube Recap 2025
Turning Year-End Highlights Into Creator Statements
#YouTubeRecap
Overview: When Data Meets Aesthetic, You Get Recap Season
To celebrate the rollout of 2025’s YouTube Recap experience, we activated a creator campaign that turned Recap cards into customized, personality-driven content. Creators were among the first to receive early access to their personal Recap and were asked to turn those insights into short-form video content that reflected their unique year on YouTube. The result was a mix of humor, personal storytelling, fashion, and deeply online energy—all posted across Reels and TikTok.
Challenge: Turning a Static Feature Into Scrollable Content
The Recap experience is fun and interactive in the app, but bringing that same excitement to TikTok and Instagram audiences required a shift in framing. The challenge was to keep the Recap core intact while encouraging creators to make it personal, expressive, and shareable—without making it feel like an ad or explainer.
Solution: Creators Defined Their 2025 Vibe, Their Way
We partnered with 15 creators, each asked to fill in the blank about their recap. They filled it in with answers like “In My Girlboss Era,” “Emotionally Unavailable,” or “Chronically Online”—then built content around how their Recap stats supported that vibe.
Creators were encouraged to:
Highlight their three core traits and YouTube Personality badge
Share their watch history evolution or top-watched channels with context and commentary
Recreate or respond to content styles from their favorite creators
Keep the tone playful, personal, and true to their audience
All videos were edited in vertical format, posted on the platform best suited for each creator, and included proper disclosures and campaign tags.
In addition to organic reach, content from four creators was selected for paid media, helping extend the campaign beyond feeds and into targeted placements that drove awareness for the YouTube Recap experience.
Unfiltered, In My Girlboss Era, and Confused
How Recap Became Content
Across the board, creators used their Recap traits, top-watched channels, and personalities as jumping-off points for original short-form content. Some leaned into outfit reveals or voiceovers to match their Recap themes, while others used edits, green screen reactions, or storytelling formats to show how their year on YouTube shaped their identity. The mix of formats and interpretations made the campaign feel diverse, expressive, and true to the platform's culture.
Recap Season Became Creator Season
The 2025 YouTube Recap campaign turned a data feature into a content prompt, letting creators reflect, remix, and reframe their YouTube year through their own lens. With a flexible structure, a clear aesthetic, and additional amplification through paid, this campaign helped Recap content feel personal, not prepackaged.
Engineering Social
Engineering Social
DRIVING SOCIAL CONVERSATION AND SENTIMENT IN WAYS THAT WORK.
Sulfur helps clients create authentic content to fit the touchpoints of today's connected world 🌎. We do this by engaging influencers to drive awareness, amplify reach, and gain insights + data 📈 to optimize and scale future growth and performance.