Viral Vlogging

I am no stranger to social media. Spending large amounts of my day on different platforms, I had no idea the potential social media offers the average person. In chapter 12, section five, which discusses vlogs, the book mentions a popular vlogger, Neistat. Neistat caught the attention of Nike and was given a large sum of money to create a video. The video was a success, attracting even more brands to his page. He has since created content for Vogee, Mercades-Benz and J. Crew — all long-standing, extremely successful companies.

While reading about Neistat and his journey, I began to think about how such iconic companies have embraced not just social media, but vlogging, into their marketing strategies. This concept intrigued me, as it seems many historic companies tend to shy away from overusing social media. While obviously all brands have some sort of presence, companies like Kendra Scott and Nike have a huge social media following. Interestingly, I had actually searched for internships with Kendra Scott in graphic design but found they mainly offered social media internships. This piqued my curiosity, and I explored deeper on their platform to see just how much their interns do — I found they rely heavily on their interns for most of their content. Tying into this article I read about how younger generations are finding the social media niche easier to navigate, mostly because we don’t know a world without such platforms. 

After learning more about vlogs I have realized that most videos on Tik Tok are essentially vlogs. TikTok is a massive platform right now, and I hadn’t initially associated it with vlogging. Personally, I love unboxing vlogs. TikTok allows creators to make vlogs about any concept they choose, enabling companies to observe trends and potentially use them to gain traction. Unboxing and PR packages have become a viral trend. Established creators are sent packages by companies, and in turn, the creator makes a video of them unboxing the gift. This strategy is smart for both the companies and creators — who wouldn't want free stuff! Unboxing vlogs allows the company to showcase new products and introduce their brand to a larger audience. I’ve seen not only large companies like Morphe, Altar’d State and Poppi, use this approach, but also small businesses. Small business unboxing vlogs tend to have more personalized packaging, tailoring the package to the individual creator, whereas larger companies often send out more generic, yet still appealing, packages. 

Young content creators are benign recognized and compensated by large brands through vlogging. Creators, like Neistat, are doing what enjoy and making a living from it. And we, the younger generation, are consuming vlogs and marketing, often without even realizing it.