A New Brand of Celebrity: The Youtube Star

Young people who grew up with technology these days are breeding a new brand of celebrity: the YouTube star.

Ask any young person between age 13 and 18 who Jennifer Lawrence is and they might know who you’re talking about. But mention “Pewdiepie,” arguably YouTube’s biggest celebrity, and they’ll go crazy.

A recent survey from Variety found that YouTube stars are more popular than mainstream celebrities among U.S. teenagers — and those teenagers are more likely to make purchases based on what YouTube stars say.

Sarah Prizzi, a senior at Ramapo College, is a member of the YouTube group Spotted Otter Productions. She, along with Eric Vitale and Danielle Marchese of the group are among those who are making strides into the vlogging world.

Last summer, the Spotted Otters’ video “Do You Want to Go to Chipotle?” became a viral sensation; it gained momentum and was featured on well-known sites such as EliteDaily, Hello Giggles and Total Sorority Move.

 

The video is a parody of the popular song, “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” from the Disney movie “Frozen.”

“I think what got us so many views on the video was the topic being so relevant at the time,” Prizzi said. “Frozen was still super popular and in addition, Chipotle is a food chain people tend to obsess over. We took something we loved and knew everyone else loved, and made it our own.”

Prizzi went on to mention that the group’s recent success on YouTube has given them the motivation to work harder than ever before. She said that the impact of the video’s popularity reassured them that they needed to keep doing what they were doing in order to keep up with their audience’s expectations.

“We have so many more projects in store for the future. We put out a video every Tuesday, are currently in the process of becoming an LLC and we’re making business cards so we can do commercial work,” she said.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, an LLC, or limited liability company, is a flexible form of enterprise that blends elements of partnership and corporate structures. An LLC is not a corporation; it is a legal form of company that provides limited liability to its owners.

Prizzi mentioned that for the time being, the group relies on funds from their own pockets. “We made some money off of our videos, but it wasn’t enough to last. We haven’t done anything to try and raise money, but we’re hoping that once we become an LLC everything will take off,” she said.

“We want to have our own studio and become our own company—we want to be our own bosses,” Prizzi said.

The Kids Have Spoken

In March 2014, brand strategist Jeetendr Sehdev of Los Angeles surveyed to 1,500 respondents in the coveted teen demographic, about the approachability, authenticity and overall influence of 20 top celebrities — 10 mainstream and 10 YouTube-grown.

The top five personalities that teens are most captivated by and influenced by are YouTube personalities, including Smosh, TheFineBros, PewDiePie (with the most subscribers of any YouTube channel — a whopping 36.4 million), KSI, and Ryan Higa.

America’s silver screen sweetheart Jennifer Lawrence is down at No. 7, with Katy Perry at No. 9 and Leonardo DiCaprio plummeting to No. 20.

According to the survey, the YouTube stars seemed to have scored higher than mainstream celebrities because of their authenticity and relatability — the criteria that has the highest chance of influencing teens to make purchases.

Why? It’s no secret.

YouTube stars know how to build and engage an audience. They each have a distinctive persona, provide their audiences with fresh and regular content and stay active on the social media frontier, according to digital natives.

“Building an audience is really important to us, but so is having fun and remaining true to the reason why we started making videos,” Prizzi said. “We encourage our viewers to send things in as ideas to get them involved and to show that we care.”

 

 

By using YouTube, stars give users the chance to interact with them. It gives the audience a feeling of being connected with the star outside of cyberspace.

Freedom of Speech

Teens also say they appreciate YouTube stars’ more outspoken sense of humor, lack of filter and risk-taking persona, behaviors often regulated by Hollywood gatekeepers.

From the comments and feedback section of the survey, Variety reported, “Teens enjoy an intimate and authentic experience with YouTube celebrities, who aren’t subject to image strategies carefully orchestrated by PR professionals.”

Having built their multichannel networks from scratch, YouTube stars draw viewers in with intimate stories about their lives and lively content that makes them seem approachable and trustworthy.

Britney Blanco, 22, of New Milford, said: “They’re more real and a lot more engaging. YouTube gives me a chance to interact with them openly, rather than watching them in a scripted movie on a big screen or TV.”

So if a YouTube star creates a video talking about a product they like, they have a huge audience that is willing to listen, share and buy.

The Smosh stars Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla channeled their love for video games last year and created their own short to promote the new Assassin’s Creed III game. Their video currently has over 56 million YouTube views — no doubt boosted by their 19-million-plus subscribers.

Hecox told Adweek that if the content is good, the audience “could [not] really care less if it’s sponsored or not.”

In the ever-changing world of technology, video blogging has given ordinary people the opportunity to showcase their talents for the world to see — without having to audition for the part.

“YouTube stars are people I feel like I can look up to,” said Taylor Blanco, 18, of New Milford. “I would much rather watch someone act silly and fun on my computer, than watch someone who looks like a Barbie doll on the red carpet,” she said.