A child logs into Disney+, and after watching the new Lilo & Stitch film, they’re greeted with user-generated videos all about the brand, including a music cover, deep dives into characters and even a baking tutorial.

Don’t worry, nobody’d been hacked; it was part of a new strategy Disney+ quietly tested back in September and October, in a partnership with digital media company pocket.watch. Best known for brands like Ryan’s World and Love, Diana, pocket.watch distributes creator content to streamers. It already sells more than 400 episodes of its programming to Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.

In a new move for both companies, the streamer quietly added a collection of 11 user-generated videos, originally from YouTube, on September 19 in the US to align with the streaming launch of the new Lilo & Stitch (September 3). These videos lived on the service alongside Disney+’s own Lilo & Stitch content for a month.

Curated by pocket.watch, this package included videos from popular YouTubers, including Top Pops (3.3 million subscribers), who shows off his Lilo & Stitch Funkos, a vid on baking a Stitch-themed cake from Sweet Impact (3.4 million subscribers) and a video from creator Jordan Fringe (761,000 subscribers) talking all about Lilo & Stitch: The Series. 

It was the first time Disney+ had ever carried a set of videos like this, and, officially, it was part of the streamer’s plan to bring new and exciting programming to subscribers, according to Disney+.

But there was also a deeper goal behind the strategy: By bringing that UGC-type content onto the streamer, Disney+ could tap into the popularity of these videos while also giving kids a way to explore their fandom without leaving the platform.

It only takes an hour and 48 minutes to watch the new Lilo & Stitch on Disney+. Some families might watch it a few times, so maybe the streamer gets three or five hours of a family’s time. That’s a decent number—but compare that to all the time kids spend watching content about the film on YouTube or TikTok. Whether it’s checking out cosplays, looking at toys, watching reaction vids or even just clips from the film they just watched, kids can easily spend 100-plus hours viewing content about Disney’s film on other platforms. And Disney would presumably want to keep those views inside its ecosystem.

This approach could work wonders for other platforms, too. Take Netflix and its hit property, KPop Demon Hunters—a quick YouTube search reveals videos like “Ranking k-pop demon hunter cosplays” and “Who Is Your Favorite Character in KPop Demon Hunters?” drawing millions of views. Views that aren’t on Netflix.

Disney+ didn’t share whether this experiment was a success, and it wouldn’t say whether it would try it again. But with all the potential upside from bringing digital-first creators directly into these huge streaming services, the question becomes: Is this the next big strategy for streamers?