How to Find High-Performing Video Ideas for Your Brand: The Unicorn Content Strategy
In today’s noisy digital world, standing out online takes more than just showing up. It takes strategy, precision, and data-driven ideation. That’s where the Unicorn Content Strategy comes in.
If you’re looking to unlock high-performing video content for your brand, this method is your blueprint. It helps you uncover video topics, formats, and themes that have already gone viral so you’re not guessing what might work, you're modeling what has worked.
Let’s break down how you can use this strategy to find winning content ideas and start creating scroll-stopping videos.
First off - let’s define a “unicorn” 🦄
A unicorn is a video that drastically outperforms the average content on a person/brands profile. Think of a reel that has 500K views while the rest average 20K, or a TikTok that hits 2M likes while most sit under 100K.
Unicorns are your best indicators of what resonates. And by studying these, you reverse-engineer content that has already proven itself at scale.
Step 1: Get Clear on Your Brand Buckets
Before you start hunting for unicorns, clarify what kind of content you want to make:
Are you going for educational, entertaining, inspirational, or behind-the-scenes content?
Are you selling products? Building authority? Creating a movement?
Align your internal team or client on these “content buckets” so that everything you research maps directly to your goals. It’s also important to factor in what you will enjoy creating and can do consistently - if this doesn’t match up then your efforts are sure to fall short.
Step 2: Build Your Lookalike Profile Database
This is your research foundation. Create a database of 15–20 profiles that consistently produce strong content on the same platform you want to grow on.
For example:
If your focus is TikTok, your lookalike list should be TikTok-heavy.
Mix in a few cross-platform profiles to get broader trend inspiration.
Your list should include creators, brands, or niche pages with similar audiences / aesthetics / topics / themes.
Step 3: Go Hunting
Now it’s time to dig into those profiles and surface the top-performing posts. You’re looking for content that:
Has 5–10x more engagement than usual
Got viral reach, breakout views, or comment storms
Use These Tools:
Instagram: Use Inflact Profile Analyzer to find top Reels and posts.
TikTok: Use the search bar with keywords/hashtags and sort by “Most Liked.”
YouTube: Open a new incognito browser with no search history and go to YouTube (DO NOT SIGN IN). Begin searching for keywords related to your niche and analyzing search results - the ideal “unicorn” will be a video in which the views far out perform the profiles subscribers. Note the thumbnail, title, topic, script, and editing style
You can also use Google Trends (filter by YouTube search) or sort profile videos by “Most Popular.”
Twitter/X: Use Twemex or X/Twitter advanced search; https://x.com/search-advanced to find the most engaging tweets and threads.
Google Trends: Identify breakout topics or angles across platforms.
Step 4: Document & Remix
Use an ideation spreadsheet (like this one) to track your unicorn content.
For each piece of unicorn content you find, jot down:
Link to the post
Platform
Creator
Thumbnail screenshot (if applicable)
Your thesis of what made it perform
Video hook / title
How you can remix it for your brand
Don’t Copy, Adapt
The goal isn’t to copy and paste ideas. Instead, you’re identifying patterns:
What topics spark conversation?
What formats boost watch time?
What hooks grab attention in the first 3 seconds?
What thumbnail styles earn more attention?
How are videos edited?
Remix, reframe, and make it your own, while using performance-backed inspiration to inform your direction.
Why This Strategy Works
Too many brands waste time and money testing content from scratch. The Unicorn Content Strategy helps you shortcut the guessing game and focus on ideas with built-in momentum.
By building a system around idea generation, you’ll:
Stay inspired
Align content with proven success
Produce videos that actually perform
If you're trying to grow your brand with video, don’t start from zero. Start from what works. The Unicorn Content Strategy gives you a reliable engine for finding high-performing video ideas, so your content is less “hope it works” and more “watch this take off.”
Want help building your Unicorn database or sourcing your first batch of viral ideas? Reach out, we’ve built this process for dozens of brands and can help you start strong.
