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The Emergence of Citizen Marketers
I'm fascinated by a story for ABC News that appeared in one of the SmartBrief enewsletters that I received today. The article (and video) is called "Girls Gone Viral: Online Fame From Shopping." In it, writer Eric Noll describes "a new phenomenon called 'haul videos'." These are, he explains, a way for people (usually teen and twentysomething women) "to show off their purchases to the whole world." Currently, he reports there are more than 110,000 haul videos on YouTube and "some videos are racking up tens of millions of views."
The article quotes consumer psychologist Kit Yarrow, who John Evans interviewed for his article on connecting with Gen Y that appeared in G&T's July/August 2010 issue. She says that "haul videos are the perfect marriage of two of Generation Y's favorite things: technology and shopping."
It turns out that haul videos are not only a means of expression and sharing, they are also a way for those young shoppers to earn money. Noll talked to Elle Fowler (21) and Blair Fowler (16), from Tennessee, two sisters whose haul "videos have been viewed 75 million times" and who have turned making the videos into a career of sorts. I was curious and checked out one of Blair's videos on YouTube. In it she describes her "haul" for Lush.
As I watched, I wondered what the video had done for Lush's business. (Noll writes that a watch the sisters bought and talked about in a video, sold out in 24 hours after the video was posted.) I also wondered if the sisters would continue to produce videos as they moved on in life, marrying, buying homes, having babies. It's amazing to think that a company could get that much publicity for free. It's also amazing to think that young people have become such influential marketers--whether they call themselves that or not.
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Lori Smith, , Editor-in-Chief
Lori Smith is the editor of Gifts and Tablewares, Canada's premiere gifts and tablewares magazine. Written for retailers of gifts, tablewares, housewares, stationery and home furnishing accessories, its objective is to help readers increase their sales and run their businesses more profitably by providing information on new products, merchandising, small business management, customer service, consumer behavior and industry news. The magazine is published six times a year by BIG Magazines, LP, a leading Canadian information company.
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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on March 22, 2010 5:45 PM.
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Comments (4)
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Posted on August 28, 2010 10:11