Niko Omilana: formulaic YouTube advice is “turning creators into robots”

Formulaic YouTube advice is “trying to turn everyone into robots” and stripping creators of the personality that actually holds an audience, according to Niko Omilana.

Speaking at Adobe Creator Live London*, the YouTuber said long-term social media success is driven less by optimisation tactics and more by editing and individuality.

“If you’ve got a personality which people connect with, that’s what’s going to make people want to follow you – rather than following the algorithm,” he said.

Omilana, who has built an audience of more than 14.5 million followers through prank-led videos and political stunts – including a run in the 2021 London mayoral election – said much of the current advice circulating online encourages creators to prioritise repeatable formats over originality.

“I watch a video and I’ve seen this video a million times,” he said, referencing what he sees as a growing sameness across content. Instead, he argued that creators should focus on building a clear narrative within their videos, regardless of length or format.

“If you’ve got a good story in a video… something the viewer can follow, I think that’s the most important thing,” he said.

Editing, he added, remains the most critical – and often overlooked – part of that process.

“If I wasn’t a YouTuber, I would be an editor,” Omilana said. “The edit is actually the most important.”

While he now works with a team of around seven editors, he stressed that learning to edit independently is key to developing a distinct creative identity.

“When you edit yourself, you understand how the content is… then you can say to someone else, ‘this is exactly what I want’,” he said.

That shift – from solo creator to structured team – has also shaped how he approaches YouTube as a business.

After years of focusing on high-effort main channel videos, Omilana said he expanded into more consistent formats to build a sustainable audience, which in turn allowed him to grow a wider operation. That has since extended beyond content, including launching his sweets brand, Shades by Niko, in 2025.

“It’s very important to make videos regularly,” he said.

Beyond the platform

Looking ahead, Omilana suggested that the next step for top creators could extend beyond the platform altogether.

He pointed to YouTuber Markiplier’s recent film project as evidence that creators with large audiences can now move into longer-form formats and alternative distribution channels. The horror film “Iron Lung” was self-financed and opened to more than $20 million globally despite a limited theatrical run.

“If you build your audience big enough… why not get a video made in cinemas?” he said.

For those starting from scratch, his advice was to focus on building momentum within a specific niche.

“You can’t start with a 10 million-view video,” he said. “You’ve got to start with what’s going to get people’s attention from a smaller range.”

Above all, he returned to a single principle: give content the space to develop naturally.

“Let a video breathe,” he said.

*Disruptive storytelling in the Creator Economy, Adobe Creator Live London, 17 March 2026, London.

Join 2,000+ professionals tracking the creator economy. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.