From left to right: Me; Ariel King, content strategist for Arena is fighting to get some lens time through my afro; Fleur De Force, a beauty and fashion vlogger; and then there are Huw Samuel and Leslie Wai, who are Viners.
These social media superstars in the photo formed an interesting panel for a session in March, in central London during Day 1 of The Guardian Changing Media Summit 2015. They took the stage in front of an audience of industry advertising professionals for a breakout session entitled: “Millennial Magic – How to Collaborate with Vine and YouTube Stars.”
Now, The Guardian newspaper was founded in Manchester by John Edward Taylor in 1821–so it especially has a place in my heart as I am a Manchester lad, and I grew up seeing my father and his mother reading it. The Guardian achieved national and international recognition under the editorship of CP Scott, who held the post for 57 years from 1872. CP Scott is also remembered for outlining those principles that continue to define the paper today with the quotation in one of his comment pieces: “Comment is free, but facts are sacred… The voice of opponents no less than that of friends has a right to be heard.”
The Guardian has grown beyond being just another newspaper. This is the 10th year that they have run this conference; and it was the place where they announced an alliance which includes The Guardian, the Financial Times, CNN International, Reuters, and the Economist teaming up to pool their digital advertising space in order to fight back against the drain of advertising spend to tech giants such as Microsoft, Google, and Facebook. The initiative is called the Pangaea Alliance and it will give brands access to more than 110 million online readers using a computerised, or programmatic, advertising system.
SEE ALSO: Content Publishers, Facebook Is NOT the End-All, Be-All
It’s also worth bearing in mind that YouTube has only been around for ten years, and the iPhone was launched in 2007. Amongst all of this, The Guardian’s ideals appear to remain relevant today in an age driven by social media and mobile smartphone devices. Whilst our consumption habits and approach to communicating and learning has changed (I mean who doesn’t reach for YouTube to see how to do something), what hasn’t changed is our desire to comment and find facts–our appetite just got bigger and we’ve gotten faster at doing it.
But this isn’t just about users and marketers going on a quest for endless hits, likes, and shares. Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO, VaynerMedia and general partner, VaynerRSE, gave a rabble-rousing hard-hitting keynote at the conference that could have featured as a verse in a remix of Jay-Z’s ’99 Problems.’ He stressed the pitfalls of being beguiled by reach, without appreciating the importance of depth.
Gary believes that there is too much talk of width and not depth, and by extension, the rise of programmatic advertising is something that we should manage with an air of caution. We should not sacrifice human thoughts and emotions completely to the majesty and supposed certainty that algorithms, big data, and robots present with their quantitative figures.
What he means by that is understanding how we interact with online content: how long we spend there, how it moves us and affects a change in our reality–and importantly, jumping on media platforms early when audiences are small because there is an opportunity to capture disproportionate value through first player advantage and stand-out.
Now you might be thinking what if the platform or app falls out of fashion, has that been a waste of your time? He argues no. Because even when the idea or company falls away, we should be looking at how they have changed behaviour – and this is where the real learning and value lies.
“…the rise of programmatic advertising is something that we should manage with an air of caution. We should not sacrifice human thoughts and emotions completely to the majesty and supposed certainty that algorithms, big data, and robots present with their quantitative figures.”
Let’s go back to those darlings and superstars of social media and look at some of the take-aways from their session:
Where they do enter into sponsored content and sponsorship agreements, vloggers and viners only do exclusivity for that one piece of specific content. After that, they are free to work with competitors and that’s the big difference between their sponsorship agreements and those of athletes and celebrities. Also, it’s the vloggers’ and viners’ ideas, their creativity and spontaneity, and there is no media machine behind them helping to hothouse engineered consumer consent. Corporates have had to loosen the reins of control and really treat these as two-way collaborative arrangements.
Vloggers’ and viners’ audiences come first and foremost, and what they think matters so if their audience wouldn’t approve or the content will suffer, they will turn down commercial offers. Their main aim is to keep their audience satisfied and to maintain one-to-one dialogue – and they seriously do take the time to communicate directly and reply to messages.
It’s these things that help protect their credibility and authenticity, so with such skills and such a following, that’s surely going to affect our wider realities too. Who knows, maybe professors will be hired on numbers of likes and hits on social media in the future.
We’re also seeing a convergence between corporate and consumer brand theory and practise. We have branded humans and humanized brands. Brands have become the meaning creators, language shapers, and game changers that join images, messages, and meaning across territories and boundaries. The lines are now blurred between who defines and controls power, legitimacy, and urgency. Anyone can be a brand, a journalist, a storyteller, a scholar, and a politician.
If we look at Obama and his selfie videos and his comments on tweets about him, then he’s raising the bar pretty high for leaders. Another example of how he’s not a fish out of water when it comes to the new normal of social media. How many politicians, members of the C-Suite, university vice-chancellors, etc could pull this kind of performance off? Not many I’d say, but I guess this is the new normal for leaders now; not just to get your grad. trainee to pump out the odd tweet, but to say it with a selfie yourself and look at ease.
So why do I say that YouTube and Vine stars will take our jobs? Well on first reading, that statement may sound silly but if we’re talking about the numbers that these guys are generating in the millions, how much time people spend watching intently (as opposed to switching over, skipping, passively consuming, and leaning back from conventional advertising) then we can see that this isn’t just a numbers game. They are winning hearts and minds, encouraging interactivity, and eliciting a form of branded consumption-based action that transcends previous barriers and segmentation criteria.
SEE ALSO: Finding Your Authentic Voice in the Human Era
Imagine a reality now where these vloggers and viners are convincing people in a matter of seconds to spend time and money, and this could cross-over with them not just being endorsers, but for example, actual professors, politicians, lawyers, and C-suite professionals. Ultimately, this is the new professional DNA of transformational leaders, authentic and caring celebrities, and personal brands that can swim through oceans of communication bringing millennials with them.
These vloggers and viners in the photo have hundreds of thousands of followers and millions of hits. If this is news to you, then check them out here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/FleurDeForce?gl=GB&hl=en-GB
http://fleurdeforce.blogspot.co.uk/
https://instagram.com/fleurdeforce
https://vine.co/Huw.Samuel
https://vine.co/LeslieWai