How a 6-year-old YouTube star makes $18 million a year, the milkshake brand dominating TikTok, and inside UTA's Charli D'Amelio deal
Hi, and welcome to this week's Influencer Dashboard newsletter!
This is Amanda Perelli, and I'll be briefing you on what's new in the business of influencers and creators.
This week, I spoke to Eyal Baumel, the CEO of the entertainment company and global YouTube multichannel network, Yoola.
Yoola takes YouTube creators like 6-year-old Anastasia Radzinskaya and turns their channels into business empires.
Anastasia has nine global YouTube channels, and owns four diamond play buttons, a plaque YouTube sends to creators once they hit 10 million subscribers on a single YouTube channel. Her videos feature her playing with toys or acting out scripted skits, which her mom writes, at home alongside her dad.
Anastasia's YouTube business generated $18 million in a single year, according to Forbes, which put her in the No. 3 spot on its most recent report on the top-earning YouTubers.
Baumel broke down the company's global multilingual strategy - Russian, English, Spanish, and more - and how it helped Anastasia become one of the fast-growing YouTube creators.
Check out the full post on how Yoola built Anastasia's influencer business, here.
You can read most of the articles here by subscribing to BI Prime. And if this is your first time reading Influencer Dashboard, subscribe to the newsletter here.
A milkshake brand blew up on TikTok, and its 460,000 followers have changed how it approaches marketing and its target audience
F'real Foods, a beverage company that sells milkshakes at gas stations and convenience stores across the US and Canada, discovered TikTok after finding out that users were already making videos about its brand.
My colleague Dan Whateley spoke to F'real about how it has approached building an audience on the app. F'real told Dan that TikTok users have reshaped the way the company thinks about its products and target audience.
The company has grown its fan base to nearly half a million followers on TikTok and has generated millions of views and likes on its TikTok videos.
Read the full post on F'real's TikTok success, and how much it spends on sponsored videos, here.
Inside UTA's deal with TikTok star Charli D'Amelio and how the talent agency plans to expand her influencer business
TikTok has become one of the hottest social platforms among Generation Z, and Hollywood's top talent agencies have recently shown an interest in signing its biggest stars.
Agencies can offer digital clients access to top brands, celebrities, and help in entering the world of traditional entertainment (like movies, music, and television).
United Talent Agency recently signed Charli D'Amelio, one of the most recognizable TikTok stars with more than 23 million followers.
I spoke to two execs at UTA, Kendall Ostrow and Greg Goodfried, about signing D'Amelio (along with her family), and what the agency looks for in a TikTok creator.
Read the full post inside UTA's plans to expand Charli's influencer business, here.
What else happened this week on BI Prime:
- YouTube star Marques Brownlee explains how he got his start and his advice to someone who wants to launch a channel and creator career: I spoke to Marques Brownlee, known as MKBHD online, a tech YouTube creator, about his tips for starting a YouTube channel and what equipment you need to do it.
- An Instagram influencer with 100,000 followers shares the 9-page media kit she uses to pitch brands, which includes how much money she charges: Dan spoke to travel and style influencer Macy Mariano, who shared the exact document she uses to pitch brands.
- YouTube stars Ethan and Grayson Dolan took us inside their fragrance company Wakeheart, which is launching a new line after selling more than 20,000 units in its first drop: I spoke to the twin influencers Ethan and Grayson Dolan, who have expanded their digital business by launching a direct-to-consumer fragrance company.
Creator Spotlight: Ruby Asabor (@lavishruby)
This week, I'm highlighting 22-year-old YouTube creator and entrepreneur Ruby Asabor for our Creator Spotlight.
Asabor has 136,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel Lavish Ruby, which she started three years ago. She films finance videos, vlogs about her life after college, and shares study hacks for taking tests.
She started an e-commerce business by selling bullet journals, and since her YouTube content was academic-based, she already had the ideal target audience, she said. She also earns revenue through affiliate marketing, selling a course, and through brand sponsorships.
Here are Asabor's 3 tips for growing as a YouTube creator:
1. Stay up-to-date with trending videos and don't be afraid to try different things.
2. Be consistent. Post often to let your subscribers know when to expect a video. The more you post, the more YouTube will recommend your videos.
3. Pay attention to SEO (search engine optimization), which includes your title, tags, and the description bar. Good search engine optimization allows your video to rank in search.
4. Have an enticing thumbnail image which makes people want to click on the video. Get creative with your thumbnails and make this your clickbait, while still keeping the title a little more specific about what the video is actually about.
You can check out her YouTube channel, here.
Send tips or feedback to me at aperelli@businessinsider.com.
Here's what else we're reading:
- Creators finally know how much money YouTube makes, and they want more of it: Google recently announced that YouTube earns $15 billion in yearly advertising revenue. Julia Alexander, from The Verge, spoke to YouTube creators who shared their thoughts on the news.
- A verified Kendall Jenner TikTok account was deleted because it was an imposter - and TikTok won't say why it gave a fake account a verified blue checkmark: Paige Leskin, from Business Insider, reported on a TikTok account that appeared to belong to Kendall Jenner, which was verified and given a blue checkmark, that was actually made by someone posing as her.
- Inside the life of 15-year-old Charli D'Amelio, the most popular teen on the internet who rose to fame after choreographing TikTok dances and joining the Hype House: Kat Tenbarge, from Insider, wrote about how D'Amelio and her family rose to fame.
