Matthew And Stephanie Patrick Add Fourth Channel To ‘Theorist’ Portfolio For Food Investigations

Theorist Media, a YouTube empire and brand consultancy spawned by the launch of the massively successful Game Theorists channel in 2010 — which delves into hidden gaming secrets with host Matthew Patrick — is launching today its fourth-ever YouTube vertical dedicated to all things food.

The Food Theorists channel, blending food science with psychology, physiology, and conspiracy, has been in the works for two years, the company says. And it arrives today after several teases on social media — given its audience’s proclivity for digital Easter eggs. The Food Theorists, which has already amassed 80,000 subscribers, joins Theorist’s three existing channels: The Game Theorists (12 million subscribers, 50 million monthly views), a movie-dedicated Film Theorists channel launched in 2015 (8.7 million subscribers, 30 million monthly views), and a hub for live broadcasts titled GTLive (2.2 million subscribers, 8 million monthly views).

“Since the beginning of these channels, being a ‘Theorist’ has always just been about overthinking your favorite things,” Patrick said in a statement. “Our current channels rely on people watching a specific movie or playing a specific video game, but food science doesn’t require any prior knowledge to enjoy — it just requires that you’ve eaten something at some point. We feel like for the first time ever, we can bring the idea of theorizing about your favorite topics to a much bigger audience.”

Stephanie Patrick, Theorist’s COO and Matthew’s wife, added that the company is constantly thinking about category expansions — including sports, music, and conspiracies theory-centric channels — but ultimately ruled out these options in favor of food. That’s because music and sports are particularly litigious industries, she said, making them hard to monetize or access footage for videos. And YouTube has also increasingly sought to crack down on conspiracy theory-related content in recent months — which was another leading prospect.

“Food is a massive and always-growing category,” she said. “We’ve had amazing role models in the food space to watch and learn from for years, including close friends of ours like Rosanna Pansino, collaborators like Binging With Babish, and channels we just admire like You Suck At Cooking and Alton Brown. We’re hoping that what we bring to the table is a different value proposition from any of them, but also works in a complementary way so that we can contribute to the web of great food channels already out there.”

Launch episodes will attempt to answer questions like ‘how to optimize your fast food fry order’ (one of the inaugural vlogs, pictured below, is titled Never Order McDonald’s Medium Fries). The channel will also feature food science experiments (such as how many licks it actually takes to reach the center of a Tootsie Pop), as well as science-based menu hacks, conspiracies around food branding, and consumer awareness about long-held industry secrets.

In launching Food Theorists, Stephanie noted that the team applied learnings from the successful launch of its Film Theorists offshoot. Key among these practices, she said, is: defining where the channel can go and what is creatively out of bounds; launching with at least three to five episodes; calls to action that drive for people to watch another video before they subscribe; and monitoring success not necessarily based on obvious metrics like views and subscribers but rather on impression CTR (CTR stands for click through rate, and measures how often viewers watched a video after the thumbnail appeared on YouTube) and the depth of the comment thread.

In addition to its growing family of YouTube channels, Theorist Media also advises brands and creators on online strategy.