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Using ‘Hero, Hub, Help’ To Improve Your Communications Strategy

In a noisy world, how do you grab consumers’ attention and keep it? YouTube’s ‘Hero, Hub, Help’ strategy is a rigorous way to tackle the daunting task of content marketing. As a marketing agency in London, we know all about noise and all about how competitive the marketing playing field is. Getting it right using this method means the results you are aiming for become so much more achievable.

The Triple H’s approach provides a framework for planning, creating and promoting content. It can be applied to any form of content marketing, including video. Video remains a major part of digital consumption: Sandvine’s 2024 Global Internet Phenomena Report found that video accounted for 38% of downstream internet traffic across fixed and mobile networks. Meanwhile, Wyzowl’s 2026 State of Video Marketing report found that 91% of businesses use video as a marketing tool.

Creating a viral video used to be the holy grail of content strategy. It’s still highly desirable, but it’s no longer enough. These days, successful brands think like publishers, producing a steady stream of interesting and useful content. This content is split into three categories to form a pipeline from mass engagement to close targeting. It’s an approach that can be adapted to suit any campaign, whether your objective is sales or subscribers.

Content For All Seasons

  • Hero: Grab people’s attention. Engage potential customers with moments of great creativity that amplify your brand message. This is campaign-driven, so it happens a couple of times a year. Think product launches or seasonal storytelling. Effective campaign activation helps bring these moments to life.
  • Hub: Keep them coming back for more. Content that people value and want to actively receive. This is episodic, building an ongoing relationship with your audience. Designed to be pushed out to warm prospects. Staggered throughout the year. This is where always-on marketing can help maintain regular engagement.
  • Help: Answer their questions. Content based on the subjects people are searching for. Think how-to or tutorial videos. Pulling the customer in with content that’s relevant at any time of year. Search engine optimisation helps ensure this content can be discovered.

Brands that do it beautifully

Red Bull

  • Hero: Red Bull wowed the world with Felix Baumgartner’s leap from the edge of space.
  • Hub: Then they gave viewers the chance to learn more about the man behind the parachute.
  • Help: Finally, they presented the stats from the jump in this smart CGI video.

Volvo

How to make ‘Hero, Hub, Help’ work for you

When using the ‘Triple H’ approach, the first step is to decide whether you will create your own content, collaborate with a third party or curate existing content. Next, create a catalogue of Help and Hub content before launching your first Hero campaign. Reaching a large audience works best when you have follow-up content to sustain the relationship. Then plan your content calendar: a consistent programming schedule featuring all three forms of content. This approach also supports balancing always-on and campaign marketing, so major campaigns and ongoing communications work together.

Each type of content has specific requirements, but YouTube offers some guidelines that apply to any videos you produce:

  • Develop highly shareable show formats.
  • Collaborate with other YouTube channels to find new viewers.
  • Converse with your audience! People tend to subscribe to people, not brands.
  • Make each video comprehensible to a first-time viewer, even if it’s part of a series.
  • Develop a consistent voice, format and schedule.
  • Give your audience unique ways to participate in the content.

Though ‘Hero, Hub, Help’ was developed for YouTube, it’s a solid framework for building a content strategy that works across all of your communications platforms. Over time, it can be expanded to include paid, earned, shared and owned media as required. The beauty of Triple H lies in its simplicity.

For help in developing your own content strategy, please get in touch with us here at Hub at info@hubagency.co.uk.