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- How Hollister and Forever 21 manage long-term creator relationships
- How Nickelodeon’s influencer families are creating benchmark-breaking content
- Emma Chamberlain Is the New Face of Lancôme
- Discord acquires Gas, the popular app for teens to compliment each other
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Great Reads
Short mobile video a la TikTok now dominates the work of internet creators
A new trend of short-form video is sweeping the internet, forcing every kind of creator — from podcasters to photographers and publishers — to adjust their media strategies. According to a new report from mobile analytics firm data.ai, users spend on average 3.1 billion hours globally streaming user-generated content daily on mobile-native, short-form video apps like TikTok and YouTube.
With TikTok, Instagram Reels and some other new platforms, the addiction is to the platform," said Sasha Kaletsky, co-founder of Creator Ventures, a creator economy investment firm. "The user isn't looking for any specific creator, they are looking to be entertained," he said. This has led to a broad move into quick, cheap behind-the-scenes videos among creators.
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WATCH NOW: Industry Experts and Creators Discuss Influencer Marketing and Creator Economy Predictions For 2023
Happy New Year! It’s time to look back at the changes to the influencer marketing industry and predict what will be in store for creators, brands, and social media in 2023. Watch this on-demand webinar as our panel of industry experts and creators discuss our predictions for 2023.
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Campaign Insights
How Hollister and Forever 21 manage long-term creator relationships
Forever 21 has phased out traditional models in some of its communications to throw a spotlight on its creator partners and user-generated content, including on channels like email and its website. Creators also helped promote a tie-up with Mattel’s Barbie last year that touched across video, live events and a metaverse activation on Roblox.
Going a step further, Hollister in 2021 launched Social Tourist, a collaboration with TikTok royalty the D’Amelio sisters. The Abercrombie & Fitch company first reached out to the sibling duo for more straightforward marketing efforts in 2020 but kept up a steady rapport that resulted in a standalone sub-brand just a few months later.
“A couple of years ago, Hollister and all of our brands really moved our creator/influencer strategy from a paid to post or pay-per-campaign model to a long-term, symbiotic relationship-building program,” said Jacee Scoular, senior director of brand strategy and communications at Hollister, on a panel Sunday. “Social Tourist is probably our beacon example of how the brand has done that.”
Nigeria elections 2023: How influencers are secretly paid by political parties
With an estimated 80 million Nigerians online, social media plays a huge role in national debates about politics. Our investigation uncovered different tactics used to reach more people on Twitter. Many play on divisive issues such as religious, ethnic and regional differences.
In July, influencers widely shared posts associating Kashim Shettima, the APC's candidate for vice-president, with members of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.
This false narrative gained momentum on Twitter and was shared thousands of times, spilling onto WhatsApp and other platforms.
A reverse image search revealed that the men were nomadic Fulani whose children Mr Shettima had enrolled in western schools in 2017 and not Boko Haram members.
A month later, influencers promoted a claim without evidence that Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi was linked to, and following orders from, the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) - a separatist movement designated in Nigeria as a terror group. His party denies this.
Those who shared this information included Reno Omokri - special assistant to former opposition President Goodluck Jonathan - who has more than two million followers on Twitter.
When approached for a comment, Reno Omokri said he stands by his accusations, but insists he has not been paid by the main opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) to campaign on their behalf.
How Nickelodeon’s influencer families are creating benchmark-breaking content
Nickelodeon's in-house influencer network, Nick Family Insiders, is a leading example of a value exchange that brings influencers into the creator process. The network targets parents with children aged 2 to 11, with an influence and reach of over 40 million followers. The influencer families are chosen based on their reach, brand fit, content quality, and audience engagement. Once they join the program, they are given a welcome kit and exclusive experiences in return for creating content for Nickelodeon. The network has delivered exceptional results for the brand, including 44% more impressions, 15% more posts, and 217% more engagements than the benchmark. The network is carefully nurtured by a team that monitors the influencers against pre-established KPIs to ensure they deliver the necessary results.
Emma Chamberlain Is the New Face of Lancôme
Emma Chamberlain defies what it means to be an influencer. She's a Youtuber, sure, but she's also a hit podcaster, a coffee entrepreneur, and a staple at fashion week. Her latest gig sees her serving as the face of one of the biggest beauty brands in the world: Lancôme.
The partnership kicks off with a four-episode web series called How Do You Say Beauty in French?. Chamberlain's answer? Lancôme (sorry, beauté!). The series shows Chamberlain running around the brand's headquarters, traipsing through Paris, and testing out all of Lancôme's cutting-edge technology to find her perfect foundation shade, new favorite mascara, and exact skincare needs.
"It's such an honor because I have always been somebody who is sort of the opposite of what you think when you think of beauty. I have always been somebody who didn't prioritize always being perfectly put together. It's really who I am—I prioritize comfort," Chamberlain says in the series. "It's not real to be perfectly manicured 24/7. I was so honored and excited when Lancôme came to me and was like, 'We get that. We know that.'"
Dyson Airwrap and Tarte lip balm top list of $3.6B in products bought via influencers
According to a new report by creator commerce platform LTK (formerly Liketoknowit), released Tuesday, its 18 million monthly shoppers bought over $3.6 billion worth of goods via its influencer affiliate links in 2022. Called its Most Loved Awards, the fourth annual list calculates top products based on a combination of engagement, impressions and conversions from its links shared across all social platforms. Beauty category dominated the platform’s overall top products list, with four of the top eight items hailing from that category. These included the Dyson Airwrap, via a QVC link; Tarte’s Maracuja Juicy Lip Balm; the Elemis Dynamic Resurfacing Pad; and the Lancôme Lash Idôle Lash-Lifting & Volumizing Mascara, via Ulta Beauty.
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Interesting People
Max Smith About To Become The Youngest American To Visit Every Continent
Max Smith is an American child who is about to become the youngest American to visit every continent. He has visited five continents and is set to visit South America and Antarctica on the Celebrity Cruises' Infinity Cruise in February 2023. Max's mother, Lesley Carter, is passionate about travel and runs a blog, Bucket List Publications, where she shares her family's travel adventures. Lesley started her blog after moving to California with her husband and not being able to work due to visa conditions, and it quickly grew in popularity.
Max's mother had planned for him to visit every state but due to the pandemic, she changed her goal and aimed for Max to visit every continent, which he is about to achieve. Lesley shares, “That plan kind of took to the back burner, so then I thought, what else can I do to make an impression on the travel world? We have so many resources and so much access to different things around the world that I thought it was a great opportunity to share that with him as well." and "People want to continue those adventures when they have children. They just don’t think it’s possible… but if you’re going to wait until you can travel with the child, you’re going to have to wait until they leave because they’re not going to be a child forever.”
Francesca Witzburg Of TheTrademarkAttorney: Protecting Your Intellectual Property
Francesca Witzburg, an intellectual property lawyer, is sharing her knowledge and experience on protecting intellectual property for creators and business owners through her social media content. She began her business after the birth of her first son during the pandemic and found that creating content while working as an attorney full-time was a difficult task.
She records videos in batches and has a social media manager to help with content creation. Her content focuses on educating business owners on how to protect their intellectual property through trademarks, copyrights, and contracts. She shares a success story of helping a celebrity client legally protect their name for an entertainment service. She currently doesn't monetize her social media accounts.
Meet the YouTube creators covering Davos 2023 | World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting 2023 in Davos, Switzerland will feature a group of six YouTube creators from Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, Ghana, India, and the Middle East, who will be the largest group of social media creators ever to participate in the event. The creators, who have a combined following of 230 million online, will be covering themes of climate action, social justice and global healthcare, and will be engaging with ecopreneurs and innovators pushing for solutions and global change.
The creators include Adanna Steinecker, a Nigeria medical doctor now living in the UK, Nuseir Yassin, an Arab-Israeli vlogger, Luis Villar, a Mexican YouTube influencer and blogger, Prajakta Koli, India's most subscribed female creator, Berthold Ackon, a Ghanaian influencer, and Nathalia Arcuri, the CEO of the world’s first platform offering financial entertainment.
Taylor-Rae Falconer: From beauty to IVF and nasty trolls, my life as influencer Dirty Doll
Taylor-Rae Falconer (30) burst onto social media during lockdown just two years ago when her down-to-earth vlogs on the ups and downs of everyday life became an instant hit. From footage of a glamorous night out with new husband John, to early mornings with no make-up and messy hair, Taylor-Rae says her aim is to keep her videos real.
“I moved to Coleraine early in the first lockdown and found myself very alone with no friends and also bored because I had to close my barber shop. I was never really into social media; I didn’t like that aesthetic life it portrayed and the picture perfect Instagram posts. One day because I was bored I decided to video myself doing my make-up with my pet monkey Winston on my shoulder which I called ‘Monkeys and Make-up’.
“I think the key for me was opening up every area of my life to let people see the normality. The videos are just of me being me and John and our journey together.”
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Industry News
Createra Raises $10 Million Led by Andreessen Horowitz to Boost Gen Z-Focused Gaming Metaverse
Createra, a user-generated content (UGC) metaverse engine, announced that it has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) to build the largest Gen Z-focused metaverse platform. ""Createra’s powerful cloud-based web engine makes it incredibly easy to develop multiplayer games with web3 features,"" said a16z general partner, Connie Chan. Createra offers users exclusive crypto-native autonomous worlds with features including cross-play and instant accessibility, ensuring both users and creators have the tools needed to adopt new industry trends for optimal gaming experiences in the metaverse. Through the use of web3 tools like blockchain, verified ownership, and asset monetization, gaming is seeing the birth of crypto-native, fully “on-chain games,” otherwise known as “autonomous worlds,” built on top of distributed ledger technology.
Discord acquires Gas, the popular app for teens to compliment each other
Discord, the communication platform primarily used by gamers, has acquired Gas, a social app that allows users to give anonymous compliments to their friends. The app, which was launched in August and has 1 million daily active users, was created by one of the co-creators of TBH, a similar app that was acquired and shut down by Facebook. Discord has not disclosed the terms of the acquisition, but it is part of their effort to expand beyond the gaming community and target new audiences. The Gas team will join Discord and continue to operate the app as a standalone product.
LinkedIn at 20: how a new breed of influencer is transforming the business networking giant
LinkedIn, the business networking site, has been working with creators as a strategy for growth. The site, which is now 20 years old and was founded in Silicon Valley, is now the seventh largest social network after Facebook/Messenger, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter and Tik Tok. In 2021 it had nearly 824 million users across 200 countries and territories, of which 6% (49 million) are premium subscribers. The majority of its users are young, with 59% made up of 25-34s and 20% 18-24s. LinkedIn had a "good" pandemic, with conversations on the platform rising 43% and content-sharing almost 30%. As a result, the company has been working with creators to bring new audiences to the platform and drive engagement.
TikTok’s fashion creators forge ahead in face of potential US ban
A US-wide TikTok ban would be a blow to brands that rely on TikTok for marketing, and for creators whose full-time revenue derives from the video sharing app. However, despite talk of the potential ban intensifying, the general mood of fashion and beauty brands and creators isn’t one of concern — at least not yet.
There’s no alarmism among youth agency Archrival’s brands or influencers, founder and CEO Clint Runge says. Designer, stylist and content creator Sara Camposarcone is confident that the app is here to stay. That said, she says a ban would be a huge blow, given that she now does content creation full time, so it’s her main source of income. Content creator Kate Bartlett, a fashion student in New York, agrees, and is keeping a close eye on the potential ban. “As a creator, it’s not only the threat of losing connection with your audience, but of losing a large percentage of your income,” she says.
Similarly, Tommy Groenendijk, owner of upcycling clothing brand Vintage Stock Reserve (VSR), describes “a lingering fear that TikTok might disappear for us at any moment”. It’s also an integral part of London-based brand Poster Girl’s publicity, founded by Francesca Capper and Natasha Somerville — and, notably, it is used as a key platform for US customers to get to know the brand.
YouTube plans to modify profanity rules that prompted creator backlash
In recent weeks we’ve heard from many creators regarding this update,” YouTube spokesperson Michael Aciman told TechCrunch. “That feedback is important to us and we are in the process of making some adjustments to this policy to address their concerns. We will follow up shortly with our creator community as soon as we have more to share.”
In November, YouTube expanded its definition of violence beyond real-world depictions, including in-game violent content “directed at a real named person or acts that are manufactured to create shocking experiences (such as brutal mass killing).” The company said that gore in “standard game play” was fine, but only after the first 8 seconds of a video. The whole section left plenty of room for interpretation, for better or worse.
The changes to its profanity policy were more drastic. YouTube announced that it would no longer count “hell” and “damn” as profane words, but all other profanity would be lumped together instead of differentiated based on severity (e.g. words like “shit” and “fuck” would now be treated the same way). Further, “profanity used in the title, thumbnails, or in the video’s first 7 seconds or used consistently throughout the video may not receive ad revenue,” according to the new policy.
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Great Paywalled Content
Why TikTok’s Biggest Stars Are Struggling to Sell Beauty Products - BoF
Sephora has lost confidence in some of its most famous faces.
The retailer removed Hyram Yarbro’s skin care line, Selfless by Hyram, from its stores and website at the end of 2022, just a year after it introduced the products to hundreds of stores in 29 countries. Addison Rae’s Item Beauty, once carried in every Sephora store, is only available on Sephora’s site – and deeply discounted. Sephora confirmed to BoF it had dropped both brands. The news was first reported by Business Insider.
Yarbro, 26, and Rae, 22, are both TikTokers who rose to internet superstardom during the platform’s stratospheric rise in 2020. Like a previous wave of Instagram and YouTube influencers before them, they hoped to quickly turn their viral videos into beauty products in the real world. Rae’s makeup and skin care, made with Madeby Collective, and Yarbro’s Selfless, a joint venture with The Inkey List co-founders Colette Laxton and Mark Curry, both debuted at Sephora in 2021.
Partly, Yarbro and Rae’s beauty misfortunes stem from TikTok’s accelerated fame-cycles – and by extension, quicker brand lifecycles. Today, followings that bloggers and influencers spent years cultivating on YouTube and Instagram could be gained in a week or a few months on TikTok. A single video on the platform could take a non-influencer from obscurity to having millions of views in days.
L'Oréal Hands Over the Creative Reins to Influencers Over 40 - Adweek
With influencer spend set to reach $32.5 billion according to Statista, and the majority of these budgets still going to Instagram, brands are keen to capitalize on these eyeballs turning to young influencers to help drive sales. However, by ignoring an older demographic, marketers are missing a trick. According to Hootsuite, around 13% of Instagram’s audience is aged 45 and over, while Gen Xers are the fastest growing group of any users on the app.
L’Oréal Paris is the latest brand to address this gap in the market with a campaign for its Age Perfect Rosy Oil-Serum, enlisting 10 influencers aged 45 to 84 to promote the product.
Created in partnership with influencer agency Billion Dollar Boy, the push is targeting the Nordics, including Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. It launched at the end of 2022 with Instagram Reels, images and Story sets. The creative features close-up shots of each creator, accompanied by voiceovers involving self-affirming “love letters” from the influencers to themselves and their skin.
Talent ranges from to 65-year-old blogger and model Susanne Histrup to Finnish entrepenuer and author Merja Mähkä.
Gabriella Ostrenius, Nordic social brand lead at L’Oréal Paris, told Adweek: “Many anti-aging brands promote the narrative that older women are focusing on trying to get rid of wrinkles. But, with the launch of our Rosy Oil-Serum, we want to celebrate and encourage the attitude of positivity, confidence and self-love that our audiences already feels about themselves—no matter what their age.”
She said the launch aligned with L’Oréal’s “age-inclusive” brand values, part of its diversity and inclusion commitment.
Auburn Banned TikTok, and Students Can’t Stop Talking About It - The New York Times
It didn’t really occur to me when I saw that first email that it would be something that impacts me directly,” said Destini Ambus, a senior at Auburn University in Alabama, about the state's ban on TikTok on state-owned devices and internet networks. Auburn University also banned TikTok from campus Wi-Fi networks, joining several other public universities that have recently enacted similar restrictions. "Me and my friends have been talking about it ever since we first found out," said Elizabeth Hunt, a 20-year-old Auburn junior. The ban has left students at Auburn surprised and bemused, they said in conversations with The New York Times, especially because they are still able to access TikTok by switching to their data plans on their phones.
Why the beauty YouTuber collab model has struggled to translate to TikTok - Glossy
TikTok’s beauty influencers are known for driving major sales spikes — but not necessarily with their own brands.
As beauty YouTubers became embroiled in money-losing drama over the past several years, brands shifted their sights to TikTokers. Comparatively wholesome with a proven ability to set off viral product trends, TikTok influencers emerged as the obvious new guard of collab partners. But in the past week, TikToker-affiliated beauty collabs and sub-brands have had their fair share of setbacks. Following a pivot from YouTube influencer to TikTok influencer collabs in recent years, Morphe shuttered all its U.S. stores last week, and its parent company Forma Brands announced its bankruptcy filing on Thursday. It was also revealed last week that Selfless by Hyram and Addison Rae’s Item Beauty are exiting Sephora.
“TikTok’s algorithm has driven users to explore new content via the ‘For You’ page, rather than solely invest in a handful of influencers,” said Jesse Rubinstein, founder of social media production agency Hello There Collective. “[This] is starkly dissimilar from influencer interaction on Instagram and YouTube.”
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