Pascal Soetens and JM Nichanian, big brothers of YouTube -

Pierre-Antoine Leroux

  • Two months ago, Pascal Soetens landed on YouTube, accompanied by JM Nichanian.

  • Since then, the two videographers have chained the videos and exceeded the symbolic level of 100,000 subscribers.

  • "I wanted to show the other side of Pascal that people do not really know", explains the one who became known on the show

    Pascal, the big brother

    in 2006.

“Hi everyone, people!

This is how each of the videos posted on the Pascal and JM YouTube channel begins.

Behind this name hide Pascal Soetens, better known under the pseudonym of “Pascal, the big brother” and JM Nichanian, co-host on NRJ for eight years.

It is also thanks to the radio station that the two men met, during a hidden camera organized as part of a program.

The two met again (virtually) during a

live

hosted by JM on Instagram.

“Since then, we have remained in contact and we have talked about projects,” explains Pascal Soetens.

Two channels were created, one on YouTube and the other on Twitch.

"In my head, I said to myself that if we reached 30,000 subscribers in three months, we would continue", announces JM.

Objective largely achieved: in two months, 140,000 people have subscribed to their YouTube account.

Up to five shoots per day

It is in Pascal Soetens' sports hall, located in the Oise, that the filming equipment is installed.

Pascal and JM meet there, generally on weekends, to follow up the shootings, up to five a day.

"A good day of filming is more voices at the end and a migraine of 48 hours", jokes the former host of NRJ, for whom this channel represents a lot of investment.

"There is a whole communication strategy," he notes, which does not apply only to YouTube.

In addition to the editing of the videos, several sequences are cut to flood social networks.

Instagram, TikTok, each platform has its extract.

"If it's Pascal who is well put forward, whether he talks about his show or shows a gesture of self-defense, it's going to be a TikTok for Pascal," says JM.

If he twists my neck a bit, and I'm doing movies, it's going to be for me.

“With one extract per day posted on all platforms of one and the other, the two protagonists tick all the boxes to become masters in terms of virality.

Million target reached

Before launching, Pascal and JM have probably studied the current landscape of YouTube well since they are partly surfing the trend that is still proving its worth on the platform: reaction videos.

In their catalog, we find titles such as “We react to the worst clashes”, “to the worst stories of 2020” but especially to TV shows like

Cauchemar en cuisine

and

Super Nanny

, not to mention

Pascal, the big brother

.

Something to touch, or even exceed, the million views.

“We didn't invent the reaction videos but we try to spice them up.

If we react to

Cauchemar en cuisine

, the objective would be to have Philippe Etchebest or a character who was there with us.

We want to add something to differentiate ourselves from others in terms of concepts ”, comments JM.

If the shootings are difficult to set up at the moment because of the health crisis, the two men try to stand out with videos that are easy to set up in Pascal's gym, like the TikTok challenges they replicate or workouts they perform.

Pascal, the nice big brother

According to Pascal Soetens, this digital experience allows him to present a very different face from the one he displayed in

Pascal, the big brother

or

SOS: my family needs help

 later on NRJ12.

“The only thing I could show was the educational side.

At the time, I thought it was good, but over time, I wondered why people weren't showing another image of me, he says.

I wanted to show the other side of Pascal that people don't really know.

People have in mind the front of the TV which was part of the shows where I was only supposed to show that, but they don't know that I'm a jerk.

"

Even if it experienced the end of its heyday on TF1 in 2012, the show has enjoyed renewed interest on YouTube and Twitch, in part thanks to streamer Mahdi Ba who comments on the shows live.

A fertile ground which proves the effectiveness of the program, even fifteen years after its launch.

“I still get lots of messages on social networks where people ask me for help,” says Pascal Soetens.

If I am asked to redo the same

edited program

, I sign without problem.

I would respond with a well framed editorial side, much broader than what I was doing.

We wouldn't do just teenagers.

"

The box of old shows could also have planted a seed in the mind of the host for, why not, create new numbers for the Web.

"We are thinking about projects for the chain", slips Pascal Soetens.

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  • Twitch

  • By the Web

  • TikTok

  • Social networks

  • Youtube