Join the Crowd

Licensees and retailers increasingly want to profit from the popularity of social media stars, whose fame is derived from their presence on YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, Twitter, and/or Snapchat. Not only do these new celebrities have ever-expanding and very loyal and engaged audiences, but they can have a great influence on their fans’ purchasing habits as well.

At the same time, social media celebrities—although growing in number—comprise a more or less unproven type of property when it comes to their licensing track record. And they tend to appeal to a relatively narrow slice of the total consumer population. Thus, despite these social stars’ attractive qualities, they present risks for the licensing community.

To mitigate the uncertainty, licensees and retailers are dipping their toes in the waters by implementing initiatives that encompass groups of social media stars, rather than pinning their hopes on the success of just one. For example:

• Throwboy, a novelty pillow marketer, put together a line of products tied to Meghan Camarena, Joey Graceffa, and Matthew Santoro, three YouTube stars, under the Throwboy Loves brand.
• Jazwares launched a property called Tube Heroes with a roster of YouTube stars including CaptainSparklez, KSI, Sky, and TDM, among others. In addition to Jazwares’ toys, the brand umbrella is featured on apparel from Bioworld and accessories from Accessory Innovations.
• Aeropostale introduced a line of apparel under the United XXVI Collection, encompassing four Vine stars: Nash Grier, Hayes Grier, Cameron Dallas, and Carter Reynolds.
• Target created a party goods program featuring a rotating group of three Pinterest celebrities, Jan Halvarson (Poppytalk), Joy Cho (Oh Joy), and Kate Arends (Wit & Delight).

There are exceptions to this strategy; Aeropostale’s Bethany Mota collection is a notable example of a collaboration in which a single social media maven is able to stand alone.

But many licensees and retailers are likely to opt for safety in numbers, at least until a few more hits strengthen marketers’ confidence in the viability of social media stars. Some of those future solo stars may even break out from a group venture such as the ones discussed here.