How Trial & Error's finale flips the script on HK creator monetisation

Hong Kong YouTube channel Trial & Error (試當真) has bid farewell to audience with a Squid Game-inspired reality show, “Cuttlefish Game”, featuring 100 celebrities from various channels competing in five intense challenges for a chance to win a grand prize.

Founded in 2020 by local artists Neo Yau, Hui Yin, and So Chi Ho, Trial & Error has amassed over 640,000 YouTube subscribers with its signature short skits, movie parodies, variety games, and mockumentaries.

Beyond its 100 star-studded participants, a standout feature of the show was its collaboration with fan relationship management platform Stanly. Together, they fused the Squid Game-style competition with a Vickrey auction, where the highest bidder wins but pays the second-highest price. The auction was supported by 100 artists who donated signed jerseys, adding a unique layer of fan engagement and exclusivity.

By capturing every fan action, bid, and reaction in real time, the auction model proved the concept of a "fan-powered commerce infrastructure" that converts social energy into direct creator revenue, said a Stanly spokesperson to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE.

This model also closes the loop between culture and commerce, according to the spokesperson. For marketers, it's a shift from passive sponsorship to active participation in real-time cultural moments. For creators, it redefines "going viral" by turning fan interaction into a direct revenue stream, building economies rather than just audiences. Ultimately, it lays the foundation for a new creator economy built on community-funded growth.

The initiative generated substantial online buzz, according to media intelligence company CARMA, which reported that the auction itself garnered over 210 mentions, while the reality show garnered over 3.7 million views on YouTube. Meanwhile, the channel's closure—framed as a bittersweet "last day" event—sparked a wider conversation, resulting in a total of 2,600 social media mentions reflecting on the difficult choices and sacrifices inherent in creative work.

Industry reactions

Commenting on the bold auction move, Vin Ng, general manager at EchoMaker, said it exemplifies high-level community engagement, as Trial & Error didn’t rely on a broad, passive audience consuming free content; instead, the channel activated a dedicated community eager to support its vision. He added:

This move validates the principle that monetising a small, highly engaged community is more sustainable than monetising a large, transient audience.

More importantly, the auction cleverly activates the fan economy across the entire lineup of 100 artists, allowing fans to participate, celebrate, and generate a second wave of engagement online, according to Jeffrey Hau, co-founder and CEO of Prizm Group. 

This auction model is revolutionary—rather than selling the video itself, which remains free, it monetised cultural significance, emotional resonance, and community belonging, representing a higher form of value that brands cannot replicate, said Iris Yeung, co-founder and CEO of Connector Club, an AI-powered platform connector content creators and brands in Asia. She added: 

This isn’t “just content” anymore — it’s a movement showing that passion and fandom can sustain a healthy commercial loop.

On the other hand, Kevin Shui, CMO at Starry, viewed the auction primarily as a cost-recovery tactic necessitated by the programme's lack of commercial sponsorship and placement advertising in this high-production-value endeavour, as well as the ban on YouTube partner earnings due to the parody nature and use of copyrighted Squid Game music.

While the channel tried to monetise from fans of the celebrities and KOLs, the monetisation power of participating KOLs varied a lot, Shui said. “To be successful, it required more than leveraging the publicity and fame of the KOLs, but additional ecommerce and digital marketing tactics.”

What can creators learn from this one-time tactic?

While this auction served to recoup costs and amplify buzz, industry experts MARKETING-INTERACTIVE spoke to agreed that such a high-stakes initiative is a one-off, non-renewable tactic.

The value of collectibles comes from their emotional meaning and unique context—if repeated, they lose their scarcity, said Prizm Group’s Hau. “So I’d see it as a great one-time activation tied to a strong story or milestone, rather than a formula to repeat regularly.”

While many YouTubers today create merchandise, it often lacks true collectible value, according to Hau. What Trial & Error accomplished was turning props and costumes into items that fans genuinely treasure. He added, “This bold experiment tested whether a strong fan economy could fund content production, moving away from reliance on commercial endorsements. Such freedom opens up new creative possibilities for creators.”

Indeed, this auction tactic demonstrates a viable blueprint for sustainable creator businesses built on intellectual property (IP) and community engagement, according to EchoMaker’s Ng. 

Successful creators are shifting from a transactional dynamic where they provide content for view, to a partnership model where the community helps build the brand or project together, Ng said. “By giving followers a platform to contribute through auctions, voting, or co-creation, creators build an unbreakable bond of loyalty that translates directly into business sustainability.”

YouTube creators must learn that their most committed followers (super fans) are their most valuable and resilient revenue stream. The lesson is about strategically nurturing and segmenting this core base.

With monetisation through content and viewership becoming increasingly difficult, creators need to adopt a stronger business mindset, balancing costs with output while developing sustainable revenue streams beyond YouTube and advertising, according to Starry’s Shui. He added: 

To be sustainable, the channels and creators need to build their own fandom economy well, producing authentic content, experiences and products that their fans are willing to pay for.

While Trial & Error's YouTube channel has concluded, other creators can begin by strengthening their base and core, progressively building toward a pinnacle of value that sustains their creator business through YouTube ad revenue, followed by memberships or Patreon, then brand collaborations, and ultimately high-value and explosive initiatives such as major crowdfunding, flagship auctions, and ticketed events, which Trial & Error executed successfully, according to Connector Club's Iris Yeung.

Building sustainable creator economies

In the current Hong Kong content landscape, where traditional ad revenue and sponsorship channels can be volatile, Hong Kong creators need to prioritise deep, resilient community engagement over broad reach, said EchoMaker's Vin Ng. 

“Creators need to build subscription or membership models that offer true value—not just early access, but a sense of belonging and influence,” he added. 

By prioritising community engagement, creators can develop businesses that are fundamentally financed by a global, trusted community, making them less vulnerable to localised advertising fluctuations or platform policy changes. “This is the ultimate goal of long-term sustainability for creators,” Ng said. 

The key is to turn creators’ audiences into a community, not just passive viewers, according to Prizm Group’s Hau. While it’s becoming tougher to rely solely on ad revenue or sponsorships, creators can build their own “fan economy” by creating genuine emotional connections through limited editions, workshops, and offline experiences, he suggested.

Moreover, collaboration among creators is both key and inevitable, while mastering the balance between authentic content and commercial opportunities remains crucial, said Starry’s Shui.

Speaking from a broader perspective, Connector Club's Iris Yeung stressed that content creation must be viewed as a legitimate profession rather than a matter of luck before the industry's true value can be fully realised. "When creators can manage their partnerships proactively and understand their true performance, and brands can transparently find the right creators, the entire ecosystem becomes stronger," she added. 

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