What Services Does The Polar Bears Offer?

Five core services, all built around YouTube. 

1. Distribution
2. Paid Media
3. Commercial Partnerships
4. Consultancy
5. And Vixxi, our proprietary data platform. 

Some clients use one. Some use all five. There's no fixed bundle you're forced into.

Everything runs on a flexible model, which means you pay for what you actually use and nothing you don't. Per-video optimisation starts at as little as £3.33 with bulk credit packs. 

Full channel management starts at £1,625/month. And every service is powered by Vixxi, the technology behind everything we do, which analyses over 50 billion minutes of content every month.

That's the overview but here's what each service actually involves.

YouTube Distribution

Distribution is where most clients start. It covers the work that determines whether your videos get found or get buried: channel strategy, titles, descriptions, tags, thumbnails, chapters, captions, scheduling, and publishing.

If that sounds simple, try doing it properly for 50 videos a week. Consistency at scale is the hard part, and it's exactly what this service is designed for. Every video gets optimised using data from Vixxi's pool of 2 million+ managed videos. Not templates. Not guesswork. Metadata decisions informed by what's actually working right now, in your niche, in your territory.

The credit system makes it straightforward. The 'Optimise' tier covers titles, descriptions, tags, and chapters for 10 credits per video. 'Brand' adds a custom branded thumbnail overlay for 5 additional credits. 'Generate' adds AI-generated visuals for 6. You pick what you need per video and only spend credits on what you use.

Our comprehensive packages start from £1,100 — including a full channel strategy, professional channel branding, and 200 credits to hit the ground running with everything you need to launch and scale on YouTube.

For channels that also need someone managing the broader operation, full channel management sits on top of Distribution. Scheduling, publishing, content calendars, performance reporting, strategic oversight. That layer starts at £1,625/month and scales based on the number of channels under management.

YouTube Paid Media

Paid Media is YouTube advertising. Audience targeting, budget allocation, creative testing, campaign management, and performance optimisation across YouTube's ad formats.

This is where brands reach people beyond their existing subscribers, and it's also where a lot of money gets wasted when campaigns are run without proper data behind them. We've seen clients come to us after spending five or six figures on YouTube ads with another agency, with almost nothing to show for it. Usually the targeting was wrong, the creative wasn't tested properly, or nobody was monitoring performance closely enough to course-correct.

Our approach ties Paid Media directly into Vixxi. Campaign decisions are informed by the same dataset that powers our organic optimisation, which means we're not running ads in a vacuum. We can see how paid and organic performance interact across your channels and make budget decisions based on the full picture rather than just ad-platform metrics in isolation.

This service suits brands and media companies who are already investing in YouTube content and want to amplify its reach. It also works well alongside Distribution, so your paid campaigns drive traffic to videos that are already optimised to convert that attention into subscribers, watch time, and revenue.

YouTube Commercial Partnerships

Commercial Partnerships covers the revenue side of YouTube. Brand deals, sponsorship management, AdOps, and sales materials.

For rights holders and media companies sitting on large content libraries, this is often where the biggest growth opportunity lives. You might have thousands of hours of content generating steady ad revenue, but there's almost always more to extract through strategic partnerships, better AdOps management, and smarter monetisation.

This service is particularly relevant for broadcasters and producers who are still figuring out how to turn YouTube from a distribution channel into a genuine revenue stream. We help with the commercial strategy, the deal negotiation, and the operational infrastructure that makes partnerships actually work at scale.

It's not a service every client needs, and we'd tell you that upfront. If you're a creator publishing original content and your revenue comes mainly from AdSense, Commercial Partnerships probably isn't relevant yet. But if you're managing content across multiple channels with advertising, licensing, or sponsorship revenue in the mix, this is where we can move the needle significantly.

YouTube Consultancy

Not everyone needs a managed service. Some clients have capable in-house teams and just need an expert to check their thinking, audit their strategy, or help them navigate a specific challenge.

That's what Consultancy is for. Strategic advice from the team behind 2 million+ managed videos, without the commitment of an ongoing service contract. It could be a one-off channel audit, a content strategy review, a monetisation assessment, or help with a specific problem that needs someone who's seen it before at scale.

We've had clients use Consultancy to figure out whether they even need an agency. Some come back and engage us for Distribution or Channel Management. Others take the recommendations and run with them internally. Both outcomes are fine. The point is getting you the right advice, not upselling you on services you don't need.

Vixxi

Vixxi is the technology that ties everything together.

It's our proprietary YouTube data platform, and it powers every service listed above. A Vixxi base fee unlocks video optimisation, livestreams, and reporting and analytics. It consolidates data from YouTube, Google Ads, and Google Ad Manager into one system and analyses over 50 billion minutes of content every month.

Vixxi is also the reason our pricing looks the way it does. Traditional agencies assign people to do the data-heavy, repeatable parts of optimisation manually. Vixxi automates that work, which means our team focuses on creative decisions, quality control, and strategic judgment. Fewer manual hours per video, same or better quality, dramatically lower cost.

If you want the full picture on what Vixxi does and how it works, we've written a dedicated piece on it. But the short version is this: Vixxi isn't a product we sell alongside our services. It's the infrastructure our services run on. When you work with The Polar Bears, you're working with Vixxi whether you think about it that way or not.

How Does the Credit System Work?

Rather than charging a flat retainer for a vaguely defined scope of work, we use a credit-based system. You buy Vixxi credits. Those credits are spent on specific deliverables with clear, visible pricing.

Ten credits for a full video optimisation. Five for a branded thumbnail overlay. Six for AI-generated visuals. You can see exactly what every credit is being spent on, and you're never paying for something you didn't ask for.

Credit packs scale with volume. A smaller pack costs more per credit. A larger pack brings the per-video price down, all the way to as little as £3.33 at the top end. Enterprise clients purchasing 300,000 credits access discounts up to 80%.

The advantage over a traditional retainer is transparency and flexibility. You can scale up for a busy month, scale down for a quiet one, and at no point are you locked into a multi-year contract wondering where your money is going. It's a monthly subscription. You only pay while the service is active.

Can I Use Just One Service?

Yes. There's no mandatory bundle.

Plenty of clients use Distribution on its own. They've got their channel operations handled internally and just need the per-video optimisation done at scale. Others use Paid Media without touching Distribution because their organic content is fine and they just need help with advertising. Some start with Consultancy to figure out what they actually need before committing to anything.

The credit system is designed for this. You're not paying for a package that includes five things when you only want two. You use what makes sense for your situation, and you can add or remove services as your needs change.

Most of our larger clients do end up using multiple services over time, not because they're locked in, but because once one service is working they can see the value in layering on another. The path usually goes: start with Distribution, add Channel Management when the volume justifies it, layer in Paid Media when organic growth plateaus and paid amplification makes strategic sense.

But there's no pressure to follow that path. Start where it makes sense. Expand when it makes sense. That's the whole point.

What Does It All Cost?

Here's the honest breakdown.

Video optimisation ranges based on which credit pack you buy, a bigger pack means the cost per credit goes down making per-video optimisation cheaper. Pre-build distribution packages start at £1,100 for a channel strategy and channel branding plus 200 credits. Channel management starts at £1,625/month and scales based on the number of channels.

Paid Media and Commercial Partnerships pricing depends on scope. Campaign budgets, channel count, revenue complexity. These are conversations rather than off-the-shelf numbers, because the right setup varies massively between a creator running one ad campaign and a broadcaster managing monetisation across 30 channels.

Consultancy is project-based. We'll scope it based on what you need and give you a clear figure before anything starts.

Enterprise clients managing multiple channels across territories can access volume discounts up to 80% on credit packs. The more you use, the better the maths gets.

If you want to see exactly how the numbers work for your situation, book a free strategy call. We'll walk through what you need, what you don't, and what it would cost. No obligation, no pitch.