The Art of Dangling A Carrot

The undercover player format is quickly becoming a mainstay on the Mitchell Pehkle YouTube channel and for good reason too… This format racks up views! 600k, 500k, 1.6m, 1.1m, and the latest edition has gotten over 100k within the first 3 days!

Typically, long-form content on Mitch’s channel has nowhere near the reach of these videos, so what enables these in particular to be so successful? As with any YouTube content, success starts with the title and thumbnail.

Title & thumbnail

Why is this title and thumbnail so effective? The carrot on a stick. Whether or not you are a lacrosse fan, you know that a D1 player playing against high schoolers will be exciting. But what enables this format to perform so well on YouTube is the element of mystery. How the D1 player will perform is just the initial hook, viewers stick around because they don’t know what will happen next... Do they get caught? Do they make it to the end of practice? Or does the mission blow up before it even begins???

What’s Next?

The undercover format isn’t going anywhere. The challenge now is keeping it fresh! Viewers love the surprise, slow build-up, and finally the reveal. The key will be dangling a new carrot each time with each new iteration. Whether it’s a twist in the format, a different setting, or a new personality to fool the crowd, we’ll be back with an even better video next time!

Watch the latest version here: