I’m old enough to remember when YouTube was considered a joke, where people uploaded viral cat videos. Fast forward more than 17 years later and now becoming a “YouTuber” is a legitimate career path.
A Harris Poll revealed that 29% of children between 6-17 years old aspired to be YouTubers and a Morning Consult poll discovered that 54% of Americans 13-38 would become an influencer if given the chance.
I love YouTube. I love content creators and entrepreneurship. It’s why I created Slice, in an effort to help content creators with their careers.
In an effort to help the next generation of creators transition their career from pure content creator to entrepreneur, let’s look at how one of the world’s most famous YouTubers has built her brand and the lessons you can learn from her.
Let’s meet Emma Chamberlain.
For the uninitiated, Emma Chamberlain is a 21 year old creator, most known for her YouTube channel with roughly 12 million subscribers. She’s wildly popular with her GenZ audience because she is extremely relatable. She eschews the typical Instagrammer’s desire to display a perfectly manicured life and often shares personal vlogs (sometimes from bed) without makeup or any real agenda.
Yet, despite her “we’ve been friends for 10 years” vibe, she’s been courted by some of the most iconic fashion blogs and brands to collaborate, most notably Louis Vuitton and Cartier.
From her success as a YouTuber, she’s launched the podcast “Anything Goes” as well as the coffee company, Chamberlain Coffee.
Emma is running the modern day playbook for content creators; use content to build an audience, make money with brand deals, then expand and build your own products and brands to scale.
What can we learn from this authentic content creator?
I love MrBeast. His passion and creativity are infectious. However, his videos are becoming increasingly more expensive. One of his most expensive videos was his famous Squid Games video, which cost $3.5 million for one 26 minute video. For an aspiring YouTuber, this can seem unattainable. Enter Emma Chamberlain.
As aforementioned, part of Emma’s brand is her very laid back demeanor. When she vlogs, it’s not uncommon for parts of the videos to be from her bed or car. It’s a stream of unscripted thoughts, that are later edited into a cohesive episode. She’ll even leave in parts that most YouTuber’s would cut in editing, like when she was touring fast food restaurants and went to a place that was closed. Easy to edit out, but leaving it in shows she makes mistakes too.
Despite low quality cinematography and minimal graphics, her videos are wildly successful. Expensive gear and big production budgets are not a requirement to be a successful content creator. Remove that mental block and just start creating.
Being authentic is a cornerstone of any content creator. People can smell the bullshit and with all the money content creators can make from sponsorship deals, audiences don’t have the patience for fake sincerity.
One thing that Emma is extremely passionate about is coffee. Long before she started her own coffee business, she was candidly making coffee in her videos or going to get coffee. These mentions were never for a brand, but rather, this was a big part of her day! Who can’t relate to the need for a large iced coffee before your brain starts working. Video after video, coffee was always a part of it.
Very often, the content creators’ passion for something, is what leads them to bring a branded product to life. Don’t be afraid to share with audiences details about who you are and what you love. It’s what makes people connect with you.
I have heard a lot of creator ad reads. Everyone has their own style, which I love. Good ad reads connect the product to their life. The best ones casually connect the content with the sponsor.
Do not confuse this with branded content. A piece of branded content is usually when a brand pays a creator to make an entire episode about their industry or product. It very much feels like an ad. Most audiences will skip this episode.
What Emma does so well is connect the events of her vlog to the video’s sponsor. Yes, it’s probably planned, not a total coincidence, but it feels so natural.
In one video, Emma is talking about taking a shower before she goes out for the day. Then she thanks the sponsor, an organic shampoo/conditioner brand, right before she pops into the shower. In another video, she thanks the sponsor, a neobank with a debit card, after she pays for her food.
These subtle, but not too subtle, brand connections work and make the ad read feel less forced. These products are a natural part of her life (or so it seems).
There is so much more we can learn from Emma Chamberlain, and I undoubtedly will dig deeper into her brand and content at some point. If you’re a content creator or an aspiring content creator, start to examine Emma Chamberlain’s career and pull from it what you can.
If you are a content creator, sign up for Slice and get access to brand deals and your Instagram and YouTube analytics.
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