A Dundee YouTube star – whose videos showing him learning new skills have attracted a following of 2.7 million people – is fronting a new campaign for the social media site.
Mike Boyd films himself taking on the challenge of learning something new in a short space of time.
He picks a new one every month and shares the results on his YouTube channel.
Many of Mike’s videos have racked up millions of views and include everything from learning to solve puzzles to building a guitar and trying to get into Oxford University.
Mike is now featuring in YouTube’s Where Creativity Grows campaign, which is showcasing content creators in and around the areas where they come from.
He said: “I’ve connected with an enormous number of people in my local community because of what I do.
“It seems strange that people who live two streets down from me have never connected with me but then discover we have so much in common by watching a video of mine online.
“I guess that’s the power of reach. I’ve even made proper long-term friendships with people who I’ve met through filming one way or another and got on really well with.
“This ability to reach those who share a passion with you is extremely important to someone who is quite the introverted off-camera, like myself.”
He added: “I feel very honoured that YouTube have chosen me as part of this campaign.
“There are now thousands of channels larger than one million subscribers and the UK has lots of talented creators. It’s a privilege to be able to share what I do with the public.
“I was born in Dundee. I went to school here. I live here and my studio is here. I’m very proud of my city.
“I’m not sure how I feel about all of this. I’m very used to lots of people seeing my face on a video they clicked on.
“But this is different. People who have never heard of me and probably aren’t very interested in what I do will see this.
“Hopefully they can see that creators like me are small business just like cafes or carpenters.
“They contribute to the local economy just like everyone else. The thing different about our work is that it involves a camera.”
From next week, 14 of the platform’s top creators from all over the UK will be featured on billboards in their home towns and across the country.
The campaign captures how they have become creative success stories with a global reach – using the platform to build businesses spanning the worlds of music, sports, education, technology, and more.
