That’s why our idea was this: instead of giving a truckload of money to some famous YouTuber for them to talk for 2 minutes about our brand, let’s create our own YouTuber. Which is just about as easy as saying, “let’s write a best-seller” or “let’s make a viral video.” Even so, we forged ahead.

We chose a charismatic character from our webseries, the clumsy waiter Marcelão, to become a real YouTuber with weekly postings. He would make videos typical of the format: sitting in front of his webcam, talking about his everyday life, the 10 things he hates the most, the differences between waiters with different zodiac signs, and so on.

In the webseries, he mentions quickly at one point that he’s posting videos online, lending more credibility to this blend between fiction and real life.

We started out the story with an “accidentally” leaked security camera footage from a bar. The video showed Marcelão unintentionally causing multiple accidents, and it was publicized organically, outside of Antarctica’s channel. A week later, Marcelão put out his first video – now with the support of paid media – trying to explain himself. The video was a hit, and racked up over 2 million views. The character decided that he’d taken a liking to his hobby and started making weekly videos, just like any other professional YouTuber.

The average per episode was 1.3 million views. That might not seem like much at first, but considering that the channel posted videos continually, it’s an impressive figure. By way of comparison, Oprah, Rihanna, and Ellen DeGeneres don’t get those kinds of numbers.

A 97% approval rating. Also a rare commodity – not even Jimmy Kimmel’s videos get that ratio.

What’s more, the episodes also had a rate of full retention that was 323% higher than the average for the market.