How to name & thumbnail The ЯRetro Show?

Update:

Well you guys already got my grey matter whirring and it seems a central theme is making the thumbnail and/or title more focussed on one appealing element, losing the AI, whilst also making it less apparent it's a "show" as people may just want to just watch a "video" (until we hook them in mwahaha!). To that end, I've made these tweaks which we'll try out. You may see either on YT as A/B testing is performed:

• Rebrand just the title/thumb to this format: //TRS40

• This will become familiar to regulars, looks kinda cool and retro (like TRS80 computer perhaps) but doesn't turn people off who may not think they want to watch a whole "show". The Retro Show will remain in the video description, Playlist, and throughout the show itself, which should satisfy people searching for it.

• Each episode will change, so the next will be //TRS41 and so on, making them all unique not just "The Retro Show" again.

• Thumbnail will have both of us plus the most appealing visual item from that episode to add intrigue.

• Title will have a different appealing item from that episode to seal the deal.

Here's how that all plays out in the new Title & Thumbnail for this episode, and thanks so much for your input so far!

The Best 80s Movie Theory You'll Ever Hear + more flashback fun //TRS40

Update 2: It's already clearly outperforming the previous one:

I'll test some refinements to the font and background too:

Original post:

I'd really appreciate your input and advice as our most important viewers. The ЯRetro Show is a firm favourite of many, and it's delightful to see regular comments that humble us by relaying that the viewer thinks it's better than real TV (whatever that is), and pleading with us to never stop making it.

When I sit back and think about 20,000 - 30,000 people watching each episode, that's truly amazing. That would fill an arena for a concert. But one can't help also compare it to other videos, and almost every movie tie-in video I release gets over 100,000 views, sometimes a million. The ЯRetro Show is IMHO better than those, yet scores less.

I have always thought it's down to how we Title the videos, and how the thumbnail looks. Goodness knows I've tried some variations over these 40 episodes.

The problem of course is this:

How do you explain in around 70 characters, that this is a 25 minute TV show that's like a magazine but on YouTube, featuring 5 distinct segments, each celebrating the 80s & 90s, Today, from the latest retro community news, to vintage themed memes, faxes, retro unboxings, home brew classic projects, and nostalgic photos and stories.

When you feed that into ChatGPT you get things like, ""Blast from the Past! 80s & 90s Nostalgia Overload! Unbox the Past!". And indeed I use ChatGPT to inspire titles of some Retro Shows. But still they tend to flatline at 20-30K.

And when I focus the title on one or two elements from the show, it can perform a little better, but then it belies what the show really is.

This thumb did really well but we can't do the same thing every month or it gets mistaken for an old episode

Please take a look at past titles and thumbnails in our playlist and if you have a radical new idea, please let me know below. If something works out really well we'll have a little reward for you too. If you're a thumbnail designer we're also very interested in paying for radically new monthly thumbnails.

I have always felt there is a perfect way to advertise it all enticingly in a snappy title and thumbnail, that I just haven't thought of...

Thank you 🙏

Your friend in retro, Perifractic