Google tasked us with conceiving a groundbreaking new project for the Google Russia YouTube channel to address some of the unmet educational needs of 18- to 34-year-olds who make up 60% of its audience in the country. Upon closer look, we discovered a subject that many young Russians were failing: Adulthood.

We were most surprised to learn what they DIDN’T know. Our research revealed that only 2% consider themselves financially literate. 70% don’t know how to choose a career path or job. 58% only learned about contraception from peers or through personal experience.

It became clear: young Russians were struggling with “adulting” and largely unprepared to make informed, responsible decisions that could heavily impact their future economic health and personal wellbeing. The information and knowledge they needed wasn’t always taught at home or school, readily available in textbooks, or reliably and factually obtained through peers.

We gave young Russians the education on adulting that they weren’t getting elsewhere, with School of Life. We turned our educational content into a lifeline in a judgment-free zone. Our instructors were exactly the right fit to appeal to this audience and offer lessons that would authentically connect and fill a gaping need in these young lives.

Topics included careers, household issues, social media and the internet, finance, health, education, psychology & relationships – even controversial, sensitive topics like cyberbullying, online blackmail, active consent and contraception. The live-streaming format allowed viewers to interact in real time.

School of Life showcased YouTube’s educational value to everyone facing the challenges of “adulting”—including the awkward questions. By serving up the most requested content on our target’s “need to know” issues and delivering it via youth-friendly experts, we helped millions of young Russians deal with the stress and anxiety of impending responsibility and independence.

We recruited a diverse and wide-ranging ‘faculty’ of 35 influential and youth-friendly corporate leaders, musicians, doctors, trending subject matter experts and educators, each of whom had strong online profiles and sizeable social followings to deliver the content in an approachable, friendly manner that would appeal to our younger audience.

We then leveraged the content through bloggers, media partners, corporate partners and government agencies to reach an audience far wider than the YouTube audience alone.

A tailored social media campaign on Twitter and VK drove awareness one week prior to launch of the School of Life channel.

Every night for a week, School of Life livestreamed our experts’ lessons on adulting on YouTube Russia — 33 in all — with opportunities for viewers to ask direct questions. We created the new design and graphics for the channel, including teaser videos, content playlists and quizzes for viewers to test their new knowledge.

We arranged exclusives with top journalists around a full range of hot button adulthood issues that our content addressed–echoed by our research.

Media and corporate partners provided speakers as instructors, published articles on the lessons, and promoted School of Life in their databases and press outreach.

Once launched, we also convinced VK, Russia’s largest youth-focused social media platform (normally a YouTube competitor) to carry our content as well, dramatically increasing its exposure and availability.

School of Life has achieved a total reach of 23M+, and the content’s popularity continues to soar.

In week one, the livestreamed lessons drew 35K+ organic views on YouTube. Without paid promotion, Vk.com, Russia’s largest youth-focused social media platform, carried the content, generating 2.5M+ more views. Rosobrnadzor, the Russian government’s education agency, also now offers the lessons. Views now exceed 3M+ and have earned 4.3K+ engagements.

Keyword searches of hot topics, like careers, are driving views by as much as 20% organically. Length of average viewing time on YouTube has increased over five times.

60+ publications with a combined readership of 18.6 million have run stories.

Five media partners, 10 popular bloggers and 18 corporate partners have amplified the content with hundreds of social media posts. Overall social media outreach has reached 4.7M young Russians and earned 7.9K engagements.

Finally, youth have a needed ally on their journey to adulthood.