There are endless variations of automotive reels and TikToks – from car edits to race days, how-to guides for mods, and a range of other high-value content that your fellow revheads are sure to love. That said, sometimes even the most high-profile car content creators can sit there looking at their rides and wondering what to make next. It’s okay if you need a little inspiration. That’s what this list is for.
Here are some novel video concepts for appreciating automotives, documenting your driving skills, and most importantly – showcasing your video talents as a content creator that’ll be sure to up your follower count and have your audience coming back for more and more.
The easiest suggestion for car video content is the ‘slice of life’ angle, also often known as vlog-style content. This can be as easy as taking a few clips of B-roll or setting up a tripod the next time you plan to work on your car or go out for a leisurely cruise. In doing so, you might end up catching something totally unexpected – and totally watchable. And thanks to the advanced editing software that’s available nowadays, you can easily remove audio from video in post-production, so you don’t have to worry about things like wind disturbance or other sources of external noise while you’re filming casually.
The important thing is to make sure your ‘slice of life’ content is authentic, because otherwise it defeats the purpose. Whether you’re test-driving a new EV, getting your hands greasy doing an oil change, or going to a local car meet, people want to see what’s happening in your world. So make sure your vlogs aren’t overly edited to really let your audience feel like they’re on the journey with you – whatever you’re doing or wherever you may be.
The best content creators are those who can provide value. Granted, the concept of ‘value’ is largely subjective, in that it’s based on your estimations of what your target audience would deem to be valuable. For car enthusiasts, you can expect they’d want to look at two things: impressive cars and impressive car owners. So if you have any special skills – as a driver, mechanic, or as a share of facts – then put yourself in the spotlight.
For instance, if you wrap cars with laser-precision, or you can spot a tire kicker a mile away, make a video about it. Almost no one has the same skills nor lived experience as you, so present yourself as a creator with unique talents and flair. For added engagement, you can explain your process in a video with a voiceover narration. And trust us – this guided narrative can work for even the most ‘mundane’ skills, because chances are that the majority of your audience will still have plenty to learn from you.
Even if you’re doing something simple for the first time, other people will want to see how it’s done – or even what mistakes to avoid. Resourceful viewers can find value in even the most unexpected places, and for highly passionate communities like revheads, you can expect most of your target demographic to be largely resourceful.
3. Interact and invite interaction
When people interact with your reel – like liking, commenting and sharing – Instagram notices the kind of attention you’re getting and pushes your profile to more like-minded people. That’s why the best way to grow your profile is to do what you can to drive engagement. Whether you do so in the form of asking your viewers to comment a particular word to receive a guide in their DMs, or even just creating content that naturally sparks a conversation, these engagement driving tactics can help ensure it’s not just your view counts that go up, but also your comment sections, likes, and follower counts too.
Again, passionate communities can inspire discussion from the most unexpected places. In fact, sometimes a simple question can snowball into hundreds of people weighing in in the comments section. So don’t be afraid to ask ‘dumb’ questions, as others in your audience will likely be wondering the same thing but be too afraid to ask – not to mention people love to show off their know-how.
It’s easy to forget that no one sees what you see. Even if you’re doing paperwork backstage at the world’s most exciting car expo, people will be sure to enjoy getting a peek behind that backdoor. As your video content begins to amp up and your follower count grows, those behind the scenes peaks can make you look more accessible and connected to your audience as a creator. It’s all about maintaining a down-to-earth vibe that shows you’re aware of what your followers want to see, and that you do your best to show them exactly that.
A few ideas for this include a detailed day-in-the-life video, or just capturing an event from your exclusive view backstage. Even if you make custom rims, or fix-up old wrecks, show your audience the work that goes into making that final product shine.
And if you’ve set up a Patreon, this ‘exclusive’ behind the scenes content can provide extra incentive for your followers to support your channel or profile in more ways than just subscribing and watching new videos as they come out. After all, savvy creators find cost-effective and dynamic ways to monetise their content. That’s the key to ensuring you can transition to managing your socials as a full-time content creator.
Have you seen that filter with the silly orangutan? How about the one with the dancing girl? There’s a filter for almost anything, so why not spice up one of your car edits with an AR filter or some colour grading? Suddenly you have endless options to make a simple walk-around or a car park shot engaging and entertaining without having to set up any action. Get creative with the audio too, add a filter or remove the sound entirely and add your favourite song to add to the vibe.
Again, you don’t need god-tier editing skills to be able to make a fun Instagram story or a 7-second TikTok. You don’t even need editing software that costs hundreds of dollars annually either. In fact, Adobe Express now includes a wide range of Instagram story templates that are filter-friendly, so feel free to experiment with this freemium software offering to see how it can help elevate your video content with minimal fuss.
Do you work with cars in a garage? If so, then chances are people would love to see the incremental effort of an auto restoration project or any other kind of car modification project that you’re working on. Think about all the furniture restorations you see online – people just love to watch the progression of a long-term project. It provides a level of satisfaction and also just makes you look super dedicated and knowledgeable within your niche.
Again, you don’t need any particular kind of equipment for this video angle either. If you don’t have a tripod or a safe place to put your phone, you can always do a walkaround of that rusted car body you’ve brought back to fix up. After that, you work your magic and take another video of the new and improved car then put the videos together. The contrast is what gets people excited, so play it up as much as you can – show the pieces that are falling off or totally disintegrated then come back after to show the replacements. It’s a video format that’s always satisfying – like cutting your lawn.
The best creators have rich personalities. People love watching them because they seem like they genuinely love what they do and – most importantly – they love sharing it all with their followers. And what’s the best indicator that somebody genuinely loves where they’re at? The fact that they don’t take themselves too seriously.
Playing it cool keeps your audience at a distance, so it’s less engaging and can make you seem less relatable. Think about Supercar Blondie. She’s not just a content creator, she’s a personality. We know her opinions on Lambos, BMWs and of course, the DC Avanti, and even when she says something silly, people love to engage with it.
So if you’re a car mechanic with a page showing off your before and after, try something new and show off your sense of humour or a little camaraderie with your colleagues. You might just find it’s more fun anyway.
Finally, everyone likes a throwback now and then. But you can take your nostalgia-inducing throwbacks to a whole other level by using archived footage to actually make something new!
Let us explain. If you’ve been shooting photos of cars for a year, make a montage showing off the highlights – people love to see how you’ve grown and what you’ve seen. The same goes for old videos and reels, find new ways to use the content. This is especially useful if something has flopped the first time, because it gives you the chance to repackage it into something more engaging and to learn from your mistakes.
There’s no topic or subject that can’t be made interesting. Even if you’re talking about the metal composition of your car’s rims, someone will want to hear about it, learn about it, or even just chat about it. Reels are trial and error, so keep working on it and you’ll close in on what works and what’s fun too. And don’t be afraid to combine a few ideas, as that’s a clever way to put a new spin on an old format.
