Defining Voice and Tone for Youtube’s Global Users

  • Business Context

    The Youtube brand team sought language research help to identify which voice and tone personas resonate with their global audience and why.

Research Questions

  • What are the positive and negative aspects of each writing style (persona)?

  • What are the pitfalls to keep in mind if the team crafts a composite persona?

  • If a user had to choose between the writing styles (personas) presented, which were their top choices and why?

  • How do persona preferences differ across language communities?

  • What are the pros and cons of each persona?

  • Are personas perceived differently than intended?

Personas Tested

  • Knowledgeable Guide

    Wants to be seen as welcoming, helpful, and dependable with a voice that always feels like you’re talking to someone familiar who is empathetic when there are problems and celebratory when appropriate.

  • Enthusiast

    Wants to be seen as encouraging exploration & engagement, sharing in the excitement of celebration moments with an upbeat tone and energy. This is someone who encourages creators to keep creating, gets viewers excited about what new things they can find.

  • Cool Companion

    Wants to be seen as someone who gets you, but not trying to be you. This persona speaks in a human and culturally relevant way with a confident attitude and effortlessly “cool” personality by being in tune with the way people currently speak.

  • Quirky Friend

    Wants to be seen as supportive with an unexpected twist. This persona is upbeat, a bit irreverent. It its quirky side to provide funny takes and moments of joy through confident attitude with short, punchy statements, and fun asides.

Methods

Using language mockups that embodied each persona, we conducted counterbalanced in-depth interviews with Youtube users across 8 global language communities.

  • Latin American Spanish (N=11)

    Brazilian Portuguese (N=11)

    isiZulu (N=10)

    Arabic (N=10)

    Hindi (N=11)

    Vietnamese (N=11)

    Bahasa Indonesian (N=11)

    Japanese (N=11)

CROSS-CULTURAL LINGUISTIC PREFERENCES

  • Clarity and Straighforwardness

    Participants appreciated messaging that was easy to understand and perceived as trustworthy. Emphasizing clarity without complexity resonated well, aligning with YouTube’s image as a reliable source of content.

  • Reliability

    Content that was seen as reliable and considerate drew positive feedback, highlighting the importance of authenticity and trust in YouTube messaging.

  • Enthusiasm

    Participants preferred an enthusiastic communication style that inspired confidence and encouraged them to follow their interests.

  • Balanced Formality

    Messages that reminded participants of a conversation with a friend resonated well, showcasing the importance of a personal and balanced approach in communication.

Most-Preferred Persona:

Enthusiast

  • 66/86 Participants across markets selected the Enthusiast as their preferred writing style (persona).

  • Those who preferred the Enthusiast described the writing style as friendly, approachable, informative and reliable.

  • Those participants who didn't prefer the Enthusiast writing style said it was confusing, impolite, robotic, salesy or too wordy.

Impact

  • The study proved instrumental in defining the final voice and tone language strategy guidelines for YouTube which are now experienced by 2.5 billion users, spanning 79 languages and every single YouTube team.