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The success story.

HBM Machines gave me a free hand: a completely empty YouTube channel and a list of the creators and influencers they worked with. Nothing else — no format, no rhythm, no audience. What we built there together grew within 24 months into one of the most popular YouTube channels of any Dutch company.

Carte blanche Interim & content strategy Format development & direction Started: summer 2024
125,000+subscribers — built from zero
Silver Play Buttonawarded to the channel by YouTube
24 monthsfirst series online in October 2024
1,000+ likeson episodes — unheard of for a brand channel

Number two in the Netherlands.

Of all Dutch-language retail and webshop channels on YouTube, only one ranks higher. No media brand, no influencer — company channels. And the gap to the leader is smaller than the gap to number three.

Coolblue 150,000 HBM Machines 130,000 Parkside DIY Nederland 99,100 Kamera Express 57,400 IKEA Nederland 52,400 GAMMA 40,800 bol 38,300 HEMA 31,100 Jumbo Supermarkten 30,300 Praxis 29,400

Scope: Dutch-language YouTube channels of retailers and webshops active in the Netherlands. International, English-language brand channels of Dutch companies (such as Booking.com and Rituals Global) fall outside it — even when they are larger. Measured 5 August 2026; YouTube shows subscriber counts rounded to three digits.

From ‘MasterMilo on Tour’, on the HBM Machines channel.

01 · The craft

Most formats flop.

Not for lack of budget — for lack of a formula. Which character carries the series? Which adventure suits him? And why do you watch the next episode?

As a director and producer I've been building formats for years. On ‘Milo on Tour’ we tinkered for months until the formula was right — for all three sides at once. Episodes sometimes pull more than a thousand likes; for a brand channel that's unheard of. No trick. Craft.

  • A win for the creator: tapping a new audience on a new channel
  • A win for the brand: watch time in the world of HBM
  • A win for the viewer: simply good television on the internet
02 · The playing field

Fun & games in the world of engineering

In ‘Milo versus Richard’, YouTuber MasterMilo and racing driver Richard Verschoor take each other on in a world full of technical ingenuity.

I wrote it from a single image: two little boys playing cowboys. That joke really is in there — cowboy music under the series, and in the title sequence a classic showdown where they draw not a revolver but a drill.

HBM gave me room for concept work, and it was exactly that trust that made it possible to build a series with care — the one that gave the channel a successful start.

  • Several formats side by side, one recognisable playing field
  • Every series its own promise, so viewers know what they're coming for
  • The brand shows up in the doing, not in the message

The trailer for ‘Milo VS Richard’, on the HBM Machines channel.

From ‘Robin op stage’ with Robin Roggeband (Hersenlooz), on the HBM Machines channel.

03 · The second format

Different character, different programme.

Robin Roggeband — known online as Hersenlooz — is not a second Milo. Different energy, different audience, so a different format: in ‘Robin op stage’ he works alongside the people doing the real job, from a rally workshop to tractor pulling with nine thousand horsepower.

That's the difference between hiring an influencer and building a programme. You don't put anyone in a format that doesn't suit them — you build the format around them.

  • Each character gets its own story form
  • The format follows the creator, not the other way round
  • That's how the channel keeps growing without milking one formula dry
04 · The audience

From viewers to an audience

A channel is only a channel when people stay in for it — or head out the door for it. ToolFest is the proof: an event of its own that the brand's fans actually turn up to.

That's the difference between reach and a following. Reach goes the moment you stop paying. An audience stays.

  • An event of its own that feeds the channel, and the other way round
  • Viewers who meet each other — and the brand — in real life
  • Proof that there's a community, not just a counter

ToolFest 2026: the recap of the brand's own event, on the HBM Machines channel.

From an empty channel to 130,071.

The channel's subscriber growth, day by day — with the four moments that changed the direction of the line.

50K 100K 14 OCT 2024 First series online: ‘Milo VS Richard’ 1 SEP 2025 ‘Milo on Tour’ — the hit series 23 MAR 2026 100,000 reached 130,071 4 Aug 2026

Traced from the real channel data (YouTube Studio, 1 January 2024 – 4 August 2026).

You don't build a channel in one season.

For the first few months almost no one watches. That isn't a sign it doesn't work — that's how it goes. A format has to settle, an audience has to be earned, and the numbers from the early days say little about where you end up.

The difference is in what happens then. HBM kept faith in the strategy and carried on while hardly anyone was watching. That takes perseverance — from the team that keeps delivering every week, and from a board that stays patient while there's still little to celebrate.

We started in the summer of 2024 with nothing. The first series went online in October 2024; the next season is running now. That's a more honest answer to “how fast do we see results?” than any growth promise.

A spike you buy. An audience you build.

Do you want an audience that follows you?