When production companies ignored Abu Finiin’s proposal about a travel documentary series focused on culture and friendship, he decided to take a chance and create a YouTube channel called Kids of the Colony (KOTC).
Finiin told CORQ: “We’re just telling positive stories about countries that the mainstream media doesn’t normally show in a positive light. We’re doing it through friendship and we’re doing it in a fun way.” This has included visiting Somaliland, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Morocco and Bangladesh.
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The 23-year-old went viral at the end of May when he posted a video about the journey of creating a docuseries with no experience. His passion struck a chord and it had more than 1.1 million views on TikTok and 589,000 on Instagram. Over 300,000 people have liked this one video alone.
Following this viral success, Finiin’s personal TikTok gained 15,000 followers, KOTC’s Instagram audience grew by 11,000 and the channel’s TikTok grew by 5,000 new followers.
Creators including Amelia Dimoldenberg (Finiin noted “that was just super cool”), Munya Chawawa (“I adore him”), Charley Marlowe and Kae Kurd voiced their support for the channel. YouTube even commented: “U guys did that. Never stop believing” and basketball star Kyrie Irving started following KOTC on Instagram. This support reminded Finiin to keep going with his dream. He cites broadcaster Reggie Yates as a childhood inspiration.
“A lot of travel content on YouTube is just very, very surface level. It’s just a guy with a GoPro walking through the markets, ‘Oh I’m haggling’ or ‘I’m getting a haircut’. That’s cool, but for us, we always wanted to go deeper.”
Creating Kids of the Colony
KOTC started in November 2023 and stars Finiin, Kayum Miah, and Zak Hajjaj. At university, Finiin devised the idea of a documentary series of friends visiting each other’s home countries. He then pitched the idea to production companies, sending 50 emails at a time. “I never really got responses back or I’d get interest, but nothing concrete.”
He was already going to Bangladesh with Miah and Hajjaj, so he convinced his friends to film their holiday. “I don’t know what I was thinking. [I’d] never been on camera and never filmed anything before.” Everything has been self-taught and with no funding. “Learning all the camera stuff was just an afterthought. My main thing was ‘I’ve got this idea and I’ve got to pursue it’.” In addition to starring in the show with Miah and Hajjaj, he also works with filmmakers Henry Harte and Anas (anasfromwest).
When the group returned from holiday, they created the first video and made a trailer for TikTok to introduce the show and their new channel. The video has more than 92,000 views, 9,800 likes and 174 comments. Before they released their first YouTube video, their channel had more than 1,000 subscribers off the back of the TikTok.
The debut episode consists of the creators exploring Dhaka. When this accumulated more than 100,000 in seven days, for Finiin this was “confirmation that this idea is really working”.
Besides being a show focused on friendship and culture, Finiin also sees it as family-friendly content. He explained: “We purposely made it a family show, so there’s no swearing or very little swearing that is beeped out. There’s no inappropriate jokes, it’s very PG. A parent can enjoy it and the kid can watch it.”
Finiin’s aim is to create longer-form content that families can watch together. “Kids need to be consuming content that shows their parents’ country in a positive light. I never really had that.”
Brand opportunities
KOTC’s channel has 24,000 subscribers, its TikTok has 15,900 followers and the Instagram has 31,000. They have not had any funding or any brand sponsors, although Finiin has received a message from Daily Paper about receiving gifting.
Ideally, he’d like to be an ambassador for an outdoor clothing brand such as The North Face or Arc’teryx. This would be a seamless partnership as these brands align with KOTC’s themes of adventure, fun and the outdoors. He would also like to work brands such as Revolut.
After the group visits Albania at the end of June, KOTC will be embarking on a UK camper van tour this summer and they’re planning to make a video pitching brands to sponsor the van and pay for petrol. “I’m just going to reach out to them, as opposed to them reaching out to us.”
He remains optimistic about commercial deals being on the horizon. “If we keep growing this community, and it’s so exciting and it’s so fresh, brands are going to want to be a part of it very soon.”
The roadmap for KOTC
This is all just the beginning of KOTC. Looking ahead, Finiin wants to create a network to include Colony Sports and Colony News, similar to how BuzzFeed’s YouTube channel previously had different verticals.
“On Monday you have a sports documentary, on Wednesday you have a show where it’s Zak and Kayum travelling the UK. On Friday, you have a big travel show with all the guys and that’s running for six weeks.”
@kidsofthecolony @kayumiah couldn’t hack the Berbera heat🤣🤣 full vid on YT #travel #culture #summer #hotweather #heatwave #funny #fyp
Although Finiin had originally pitched the show for TV, he’s now building a community and wants to prioritise YouTube as their platform. “If we’re able to monetise [the channel] and it’s going well, there’s no reason to leave YouTube at this point. It’s accessible to everyone, you have global reach, you’re direct to consumer and it’s free for people.”
With YouTube, his goal for the end of the year is to reach 100,000 subscribers and have a system in place at KOTC for him to be working on the channel full-time.
For Finiin, KOTC’s content is “always about culture, and to explain culture in an authentic and honest way”.
By Caroline Edwards, trends editor for CORQ. Picture via KOTC’s YouTube channel.
