Zoella Economical Context Flashcards
Who is Zoe Sugg?
Zoe Sugg found fame by creating a fashion, beauty and lifestyle blog, which expanded into a YouTube channel in 2009, while she was working for British clothing retailer New Look.
Define user-generated-content
This is material created by everyday users of media platforms rather than professionals working for media organisations.
Zoe Sugg is one of the UK’s leading YouTuber’s who specialised in user-generated content.
What is the nature of her YouTube channel?
Her main channel, Zoella, is mostly fashion, beauty hauls, and “favourites” videos (showing her favourite products of the previous month).
Her second channel, MoreZoella, contains mostly vlogs where she shows her viewers what she does in her day.
How many followers has she been known to have in total across all of her social media platforms?
She has in excess of 12 million followers across her social media platforms.
Overview of Cultural Industries by David Hesmondhalgh
Hesmondhalgh states “that cultural industry companies minimise risk and maximise audiences = maximise profit, by operating, diversifying and target audiences throughout different media industries and markets”.
Why is Zoella’s channel economically lucrative?
Channels or vlogs with a large number of subscribers, such as Zoella’s, can be economically lucrative due to the amount of web traffic generated.
Why are organisations inclined to sponsor Zoella?
This allows multi-channel networks (MCNs) – organisations which look after high-volume content creators regarding marketing, promoting and monetising their channels do this in return for a percentage of the creator’s advertising revenue (this is where the BIG money is!).
Why does Zoella qualify for monetisation?
Monetisation is the process through which a product or service – such as a blog or vlog – is converted into a source of commercial revenue.
You have to have a total watch time of 4,000 hours in the past 12 months and a minimum of 1,000 subscribers.
Zoella comfortably qualifies for monetisation due to the excessive multi-million web traffic she attracts.
How else does Zoella generate revenue?
Zoella mainly generates revenue through advertisements on her multiple YouTube channels.
Who owns YouTube and does this benefit Zoella?
It is worth noting that YouTube has been owned by Google since 2006 (bought for $1.65 billion), so advertising goes through Google Ads, thus generating more potential revenue and access for user-generated content publishers like Zoella.
What type of adverts can Zoella gain revenue from?
Zoella gains revenue from ads that can be displayed as:
- Banners at the top or side of the homepage,
- Overlay ads which are placed on top of a video and can be clicked off
- Video ads which can appear before, during and at the end of a video
- Bumper Ad = non clickable 6 sec video ad
Relevant advertising is often targeted to match tastes, interests and browsing history of users. These are frequently matched by the use of algorithms.
What examples are there that confirms Zoella maximises her audience?
-Merchandise - Sells online and in physical retail. Includes own beauty and lifestyle products
Brand recognition process = icons such as her image, logo and slogan.
- Four ‘ghost-written’ novels also act as a form of synergy as these can also promote her blog/vlog and vice versa. Downloadable apps also act as synergy, linking all the different platforms and outlets.
Many vloggers, bloggers and YouTubers have branded merchandise which is usually available to purchase via an online store on the creator’s website.
How does Zoella conform to merchandise and diversification?
Zoella sells a vast range of clothing such as:
- Branded t-shirts, hoodies, caps, beanies
- Accessories such as branded phone cases, Pop Sockets, wristbands, keyring and jewellery, stationary such as branded notebooks, pens, pencils, branded mugs, bottles, backpacks.
Which industries is the Zoella brand maximised in?
Book publishing is another area that content creators often move into. This helps create synergy as books can be used to push readers towards a creator’s blog while the blog can be used to promote the book.
Downloadable apps may also be included with the book, encouraging readers to interact via social media.
Summarise how Zoella further maximises her audience in relation to Cultural Industries by David Hesmondhalgh
Zoella has a strong presence in multiple industries including online, merchandise, clothing, lifestyle and homeware products, fashion and beauty.
