Move Over Rachel Zoe: YouTube Stylists Haul in the Views
For fashion-obsessed girls around the world, the most important thing is to get approval from their friends on the purchases made. Teens today have taken this to a whole new level. Social Media sites for teens have become a way to not only communicate with their close friends but also to build a community from around the country, or even the world. Now teens are looking to put their shopping finds on YouTube and this has provided a large return for retailers. Good Morning America aired a segment this morning on how retailers are capitalizing on this phenomenon dubbed “haul videos.”
American Eagle, JCPenney and Forever 21 have began marketing campaigns utilizing this new trend. According to a report by USA Today, JCPenney has made deals with 6 girls to create videos in exchange for gift cards to their stores. JCPenney hopes that this will in turn create an increase in purchases for the back to school time period. Two of the most popular shoppers are the Fowler sisters, Elle (21) and Blair (16) from Tennessee, whose videos have accrued more than 75 million views. These girls not only have potential deals on the line, they have met a variety of important people in the fashion industry including Editor in Chief for Marie Claire Magazine, Joanna Coles. These videos are by no means carefully produced and edited; rather, they rely on single camera taping and minimal editing and are peppered with teen-speak (“omigosh…I love it”). The most-telling story of the sisters came when they were not only able to influence their viewers into purchasing a new Guess watch, but also caused Guess to sell out of every color and eventually see the increased traffic crash their site.
Forever 21 has tapped the sisters to promote their back to school line, although they haven’t made anything final. Girls are impressionable when it comes to fashion and these sisters are becoming the “it” girls when it comes to telling others what they should wear, all through YouTube. Like others, these girls are being sponsored and must comply with the Federal Trade Commission governing sponsorship regulations – mainly that they must disclose the fact they are being compensated for their content creation.
The biggest question is: will teen viewers accept these new sponsored messages or be skeptic al of these major brands with big agendas?
We know that a video viewed on YouTube is as much as four times more effective than a TV ad because the people viewing it actually want to see it and usually search for it. Also a word of mouth recommendation tends to be better received, especially when coming from someone considered to be a peer. The retailers using these videos in their marketing have tapped into a great new form of customer engagement that speaks directly to their target demographic. Talk about a dream job for girls across the country! Getting paid to shop and talk about what you love? Sign me up!
Spring Creek Group staffer Isabella Josefsberg contributed to this post. Read her recent post on Hollywood’s use of mobile here.
Sources:
Leave a Comment