Lighting up YouTube: How team5pm and Philips Hue made SEO shine

At team5pm, we specialize in helping brands stand out on social platforms using strategies built on data insights and creative storytelling. In 2024, our collaboration with Philips Hue tackled the challenge of positioning them as a leading authority and educational source in the smart lighting industry. Together, we reimagined how audiences discover smart lighting solutions.

This project not only exceeded its ambitious objectives but also earned us 3 nominations for the European Search Awards 2025. This recognition means the world to our team, as it highlights the innovation, dedication, and teamwork behind the campaign.

The challenge: Reclaiming visibility and inspiring action

Philips Hue needed to overcome two key challenges:

1. Reclaiming SEO presence: To position Philips Hue as the primary source of inspiration and learning for smart lighting. The goal was to rank for highly competitive keywords like “Philips Hue installation” and attract new customers by addressing their questions and concerns.
2. Boosting purchase intent: To respond to potential customers’ pain points, from installation worries to product use cases, using engaging and relatable content designed to inspire a preference for Philips Hue products.

Planned approach

Our thoughtful and systematic campaign was rooted in four core strategies:

1. Filling content gaps in the market

Our research revealed content gaps in the smart lighting sector. Third-party creators and rival brands dominated critical search terms, leaving Philips Hue lacking visibility. To address this, we created branded, educational content that stood out and gained trust.

2. SEO optimization at every step

From titles to tags, descriptions, and thumbnails, we ensured every piece of content was optimized for targeted keywords like “how to install Philips Hue.” This approach significantly improved how potential customers found our videos through organic search.

3. Designing audience-centric videos

We executed a multi-format strategy, producing longer videos that offered in-depth guidance alongside short, engaging videos crafted for quick consumption. This balance helped us reach a variety of viewers at different points in their buying process.

4. Paid ads to strengthen visibility

To create momentum for the launch of new videos, we used targeted YouTube ads to amplify early engagement. This boosted organic rankings by improving watch time and audience retention rates.

Bringing creativity and strategy together

The campaign, titled “Hue Het Werkt” (Hue—It Works), presented clear, user-friendly guidance on smart lighting solutions.

Creative highlights

We created 10 long-form videos, providing viewers with practical advice and inspiring use cases, such as “Installing Philips Hue: How to Get Started with Smart Lighting”. To complement these, we produced 20 short, vertical videos that included creative concepts like trending ASMR, product unboxings, and lifestyle applications of Philips Hue lighting.

SEO execution

SEO was central to every element of the campaign. Every title, description, and thumbnail was designed to be discoverable on Google and YouTube. We used carefully crafted scripts with naturally integrated keywords to ensure our content was equally valuable to algorithms and viewers.

One standout example was the long-form video “How to Set Up Your Philips Hue Bridge.” This video ranked in the top 3 for 97% of targeted keywords, driving 60% organic views directly from YouTube search over five months.

Overcoming challenges

We addressed challenges like:

• High competition: By targeting niche, long-tail keywords such as “Philips Hue accessories,” we carved out an audience Philips Hue had previously missed.
• Balancing formats: While short-form videos tend to dominate engagement metrics, our strategy achieved remarkable performance for long-form content, with an average view duration of 3:04 minutes, exceeding expectations.
• Achieving quick traction: Leveraging paid ads ensured instant reach, which in turn accelerated organic viewership through better algorithm engagement signals.

The outcomes: a bright success for Philips Hue

Keyword rankings & SEO results

The campaign not only achieved but exceeded expectations:

• 97% of keywords ranked in the top three positions, outperforming the goal of 50%. Crucial keywords like “install Philips Hue” became dominant in search results.
• In just five months, the videos achieved over 28,590 organic views through Google and YouTube Search.
• 31% of long-form video views came from organic search, surpassing our target of 25%.

Consumer impact

We also influenced customer decision-making:

• Brand preference improved by 19%, well beyond the original 15% goal.
• Purchase intent increased by 15%, exceeding the original 10% goal and helping convert first-time buyers more effectively.
• The content received an average viewer satisfaction rating of 7.5, surpassing benchmarks by 0.5 points.

Ad performance highlights

Paid campaigns were vital in maximizing the campaign’s reach:

• Long-form videos: Gathered 2,071,972 paid views with an average watch time of 2:54 minutes—an impressive indicator of deep engagement.
• Short-form videos: Reached 255,290 paid views, with several videos achieving exceptional view-through rates (such as an 18% performance on an ASMR unboxing video).

What recognition means to us

Being shortlisted for the European Search Awards 2025 is a great achievement for our team at team5pm. It underscores the power of what’s possible when strong SEO foundations meet engaging, audience-first video content.

“Achieving this recognition is a celebration of our team’s hard work and creativity,” said Stef van der Burg, Senior Strategist at team5pm. “We’re really proud of the three nominations we have. I think our case shows how effective SEO data research can help brands achieve their goals through video. It’s exciting to see that our video SEO approach continues to be so effective with our clients, and every year we improve our strategies and find even better ways to measure their impact.”

Achieving this recognition is a celebration of our team’s hard work and creativity,” said Stef van der Burg, Senior Strategist at team5pm. “We’re really proud of the three nominations we’ve received. It shows how effective SEO data research can help brands reach their goals with video. Our video SEO approach keeps delivering great results for our clients, and every year we improve our strategies and find better ways to measure their impact. This motivates us to keep making a difference.

About us

At team5pm, we specialize in combining data insights with creative execution to help brands thrive in a social-first world. Whether it’s long-form video strategies on YouTube, impactful TikTok campaigns, or platform-specific optimization, we ensure brands are seen, recognized, and remembered.

Want to grow your brand on social? Let’s work together to create something special.

Learn more: https://team5pm.com/
Follow us: https://www.linkedin.com/company/team5pm/