ICYMI: VidCon 2024 Recap — In Its Adulting Era
+ some influencer scouting tea ☕️
Hey from VidCon 👋🏼 Based on your votes, I’ll only be sending out one email newsletter about VidCon — details below ⬇️
But I wrote up a prequel and a recap on LinkedIn if you want to read even more about VidCon 2024:
⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY
First came TikTok’s AI avatars, now Instagram and (reportedly) Google are working on creator chatbots
Instagram’s testing a Reels feature to help creators get feedback from people who don’t follow them
Instagram said Notes is the second most popular form of sharing for teens on the platform
TikTok is running their version of Amazon Prime Day July 9
YouTube released its 2024 Culture & Trends Report
Pinterest launched board sharing to other platforms
How brands are using the comments sections to drive results
This year’s VidCon is about the adulting of the creator economy
Report: Social media benchmarks for 11 industries across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube*
💻 ROADMAP
📲 TikTok Updates
TikTok announced 'Deals For You Days' — their version of Amazon Prime Day — on July 9. Brands and retailers such as L'Oréal Paris, Our Place, Too Faced, and Zwilling USA will offer discount sales on TikTok Shop while vlogger Tati Westbrook goes live, showcasing her favorite beauty and lifestyle products
TikTok released a What's Next 2024: In Action Trend Report tracking the evolution of their new year's predictions.
📲 Meta Updates
Mark Zuckerberg announced creator-made chatbots. Meta will work with 50 US-based creators to test the chatbots with a small percentage of users. Creators in the beta program will be able to create AI characters through Meta AI Studio on Instagram.
At the same time there are rumors that Google is working with YouTubers to develop chatbots based on their likeness. While on the flipside, TikTok announced it would work with brands to develop AI avatars. Either way, it looks like the influencer marketing industry is about to get stress-tested by an influx of AI chatbots.
Instagram is testing a new Reels feature called Trials (something I think I missed until a Meta product manager mentioned it at VidCon). Trials allows creators to share Reels with and get feedback from people who don’t follow them.
Instagram seems to be testing public send counts as seen by the paper airplane icon on this screenshot. As Adam Mosseri has reminded everyone, sends are one of the most important metrics to track for success.
37% of Instagram users now use Reels daily, and 78% engage with it monthly.
📲 Pinterest Updates
Pinterest launched board sharing, making it easier for Pinners to share specific boards — not just Pins — to other social platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok. (Anecdotally, this was one of the most welcomed new features I’ve observed in a while.)
Pinterest released a report on The Potential of Total Attention. “Total” attention being characterized by active and passive attention.
📲 Alphabet Updates
Google has reportedly held talks with YouTube creators about the possibility of developing chatbots based on those influencers’ likenesses.
YouTube released its 2024 Culture & Trends Report focused on fandom.
YouTube announced new benefits for Premium subscribers, including picture-in-picture Shorts videos, a “Jump Ahead” button that lets you skip to the best part, and early access to the latest experimental features.
📲 Patreon Updates
Patreon announced new and upcoming products that can help creators. Updates include a new way to drop work complete with countdown clock and live chat, a gifting tool and shareable video clips of Patreon posts that can be posted to other platforms.
📲 Twitter (X) Updates
Twitter (X) announced only Premium subscribers would be able to livestream on the platform.
📊 DATA DROP
Deep Breath: This Is Your Q3 Check-In
We’re midway through the year, have you decided where to focus your attention for the rest of 2024?!
Here’s some data that could help: TikTok (4.6%) leads in engagement, followed by YouTube (3.9%) and Instagram (3.5%). But… Instagram continues to be the platform with the broadest reach, reaching +75% more users than TikTok.
Dash Hudson’s spilling the tea on social success in their 2024 Cross-Channel Benchmark Report:
Gain valuable insight from leading brands across key channels with Dash Hudson’s benchmark reports spanning 11 industries across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube
Access Dash Hudson’s exclusive social media benchmarks for 11 industries (Beauty, Fashion and Luxury, Retail, Home, Media and Publishing, CPG, Food and Beverage, Children and Baby, Wellness, Travel, B2B, Sports)
Understand emerging trends in social entertainment, broken down by channel and industry
*sponsored
🪩 VIDCON RECAP
🚨 What’s happening:
This year’s VidCon theme wasn’t AI. It was scaling creator operations. If last year’s theme was the rise of the influencer as a small business; this year was about the full life cycle of a creator media empire: recruitment, operational expertise and retirement.
Granted, this was the Industry track so creators and their fans might come away with a very different perspective. But this year really is about the adulting of the creator economy.
“We can all feel like there's something different in this ecosystem that wasn't there before,” said TubeFilter co-founder Joshua Cohen, kicking off the day. “There's something different in the air now than what was at VidCon 2009, 2008, when they used to have to explain to people what a YouTuber was and how they made money.”
☕️ Who’s around:
The White House digital strategy team was on hand to meet and mingle with creators and participate in a couple of panels. There were also rumors of an Amazon stealth team, doing some lowkey creator recruiting.
The major platforms all had a presence with YouTube’s Creator Stadium; TikTok’s Destination: Creation lounge; and Instagram’s Creator Track booth — while Snapchat hosted a top secret saloon offsite.
Meanwhile, TikTok-friendly beauty brand e.l.f. joined sponsors like Mars and Disney on the convention room floor — a first for the cosmetics company I believe.
📝 Seen and heard on Day One:
⏱️ 9:45am - The conversation kicked off with creators Colin & Samir quizzing the semi-retired MatPat and his wife, Theorist partner Stephanie Patrick, on how a creator could successfully “peace out” of their YouTube channel.
MatPat was part of the great retirement wave of 2024, releasing a tearful goodbye video in January after he and Stephanie sold their production studio and YouTube channels.
People are being more thoughtful about their exit plans, said Stephanie. Next gen creators will think, “What can I do with this channel as a product, not just as a creative expression of me?”
⏱️ 10:15am - Continuing the adults-in-the-room theme, James Creech hosted a panel with executives: Mythicals’ president Brian Flanagan, the BucketSquad’s president Zack Miller and Jubilee Media’s COO Shelly Soriano. These are the C-Suite folks focused on the growth and management of creator businesses.
“We do really believe there are major media companies going to be built in the next 10 years, driven by creator owned and operated enterprises,” said Flanagan, who sits atop a team of 100 employees.
⏱️ 10:40am - It wasn’t all org charts and spreadsheets. Andrew Rea, chef and creator of the Babish Culinary Universe, used his conversation with The Information’s Kaya Yurieff to announce a new THC-infused sugar and detailed his upcoming rental venture: Bed n Babish. The revenue diversification is strong with this one.
[Kaya Yurieff and Babish chef Andrew Rea on stage at VidCon]
⏱️ 11:05am - Creator Peter Hollens used the term P&L (profit and loss statement) during a “Creator Careers” panel, which is just such a stark contrast to VidCon’s creative roots and the teens roaming the Community track two flights down.
But when there’s $250 billion at stake, somebody’s got to take care of business.
“It's absolutely better for us to be building our own empires, our own CPG companies, so that we can compete and then, if we want, sell to private equity,” said Hollens.
⏱️ 12:25pm - If your org is dragging its feet on working with influencers and creators, let them know that all 32 teams in the NFL have their own creator strategy.
“What we see, even on our own channels, is that the creator content actually outperforms some of our own League content, which is great,” said the NFL’s SVP of Marketing, Ian Trombetta.
⏱️ 12:45pm - If you’re looking to add someone to your LinkedIn Games leaderboard, try Mashable founder turned LinkedIn influencer Pete Cashmore.
“People are realizing that the biggest media format is actually gaming, it's overtaken everything else. It's overtaken film. It's overtaken books, I kind of like it,” he revealed during a panel EMarketer’s Jasmine Enberg hosted on the sleeping giant of influencer marketing.
⏱️ 2pm - There’s still money being pumped into the creator economy. But consumer investors have a very specific target in mind: creator or celebrity brands.
“They're basically not looking at a CPG deal unless it has some sort of creator or celebrity angle,” said Megan Lightcap, principal at Slow Ventures, during a panel on the Economics of the Creator Economy.
“In consumer, the name of the game is cost of [customer] acquisition. And so I think for them, this is a way to fundamentally change the P&L of a traditional consumer business.”
⏱️ 3pm - YouTube didn’t make any new product announcements during their keynote but we got an entertaining history of Skibidi Toilet and the platform did drop a hefty trend report on the promise of fandoms.
⏱️ 3:55pm - My last session of the day was Instagram’s “Creator Culture” panel. It was another opportunity for the Meta team to emphasize the importance of creating shareable content — I’ll write more on that soon.
Also, don’t sleep on Notes. In under a year it’s become the second most popular form of sharing for teens on Instagram. If it’s got Gen Z cred, that puts it at the top of the product leaderboard.
👀 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
TikTok in denial as US ‘ban’ approaches -Semafor
How brands are using the comments sections to drive results -Marketing Brew
The digital behaviors of Gen Z: how they digest and metabolize what they see online -Business Insider
The most important role on your social marketing team probably doesn’t exist yet -Sprout Social
‘The darker you are, the less you’re worth’: the influencer pay gap -The Guardian
Brand purpose is out, brand authenticity (and AI) are in -The Drum
OK, so, here’s why ever video starts the same way now -Bustle
Hi, it’s me from 2 days ago: the death of the chronological internet -Fast Company
16 ways to vet an influencer before partnering with them -Forbes
Why influencers want you in their group chats -Business of Fashion
Influencers aren’t getting famous like they used to -Glamour
Thanks for reading!
Thank you for always taking out time to share ❤️🫶🏽