The YouTube Generation Hits Jackpot

All you young-and-fabulous are in agreement that YouTube is fantastic, right? Owned by Google, it has 20 million users in Britain, making the BBC’s 6.5 million viewers seem small-fry in comparison.

For a handful of young entrepreneurs-turned-tycoons, YouTube just got a lot better. The latest craze to sweep America is headed for our shores. The ‘haul video’, also known as ‘vlogging’ (video-blogging) involves young girls showing off the results of their shopping sprees and uploading the videos to the site. The craze soon took off; as it stands there are 110,000 haul videos on the Tube, some with tens of millions of hits. How are they cashing-in from the phenomenon? Because brands are falling over one another to offer the girls with the most followers sponsorship offers, product deals and magazine spreads.

The vlogging-frenzy was started by sisters Blair and Elle Fowler, from Tennessee. They have achieved celeb-status in the video-haul world, and their videos have been viewed over 75 million times. It must help that Blair is particularly stunning; your stereotypical all-American teen. On her blog Blair describes herself as “just a girl who loves anything makeup, fashion, beauty, pink, or juicy!” It is easy to judge the sisters for their bimbo-esque qualities and their obscenely materialistic attitudes, but they are certainly no fools. At age 16 and 21 they have earned enough through their haul videos to feed a small country. Their popularity is increased by their claim that they genuinely purchase the haul items themselves, without being compensated by brands for promoting their products.



Some of these vloggers, such as Blair, are ‘successful’ enough in their hits that they are approached to join the YouTube Partner Program: Shihir Mehrotra, director of Product Management at YouTube, trawls the site in search of those who have cultivated a particularly high number of followers. Once they become partner they are paid to make their haul videos and receive a percentage of the revenue brought in by the advertisements. Mehrota reveals that “several…are making six figures” annually from the Partner Program. He also states that “some haul videos…compare to major cable channels in views”, which reveals the scale of this new craze.

Not everyone is impressed by the latest YouTube phenomenon. Those old enough to be breathing when Elvis was still alive complain that they cannot keep up with the changing face of social media. In the words of my own father (age 53), “I find Facebook cringe, and what do you call it? TwitTube? It’s even worse”. However, it is those who are whole-heartedly jumping on the social media bandwagon that are cashing in.

Hold on tight, older generations, you’re in for one hell of a ride…

by Christy Thatcher

Teenage Riot

If you were on Brick Lane in East London on Friday morning you may have witnessed scenes like these...



But what was driving these kids to risk arrest and a bit of a roughing up by police? Some sort of political protest you'd think? Surely a worthy cause? But no, this was a riot to get into an American Apparel fashion sale.

28,00 people joined the Facebook event and in combination with internet banner ads and word of mouth, thousands turned up forcing the event to close and the police to move in.

The event had now been moved but with the added exposure of a fair few YouTube videos and press coverage I would almost guarentee the same outcome next time.

An idea to overcome electoral apathy in young people: host a 85% sale on American Apparel clothing at polling stations. That should do it.

Chat Roulette

If you haven't had the pleasure yet, take 5 minutes out of your day to watch Chat Roulette. In this video a hooded pianist (who looks mysteriously like Ben Folds [previously of Ben Folds Five]) improvises songs, singing what he sees.

Guaranteed to put a smile on your face or your money back...

War! What is it good for...?

...well, a T-shirt based stop motion video apparently.

Here's another viral racking up some serious YouTube hits. 'T-Shirt War' is a home-made stop-motion video battle between two blokes, using 222 custom t-shirts and a fire extinguisher.

A brief history of pretty much everything

This was created by a 17 year-old called Jamie Bell (not the one from Billy Elliot) and posted on his YouTube channel Displeased Eskimo...

"This is the final piece for my AS art course, a flipbook made entirely out of biro pens. It's something like 2100 pages long, and about 50 jotter books. I'd say I worked on and off it for roughly 3 weeks."

Yes he said AS ART COURSE. Mental, he's clearly a talented guy.

Lady LouLou

Check out this prize-winning performance of Bad Romance by our very own Louise...

YouTube-tastic!

New videos worth checking out on The Lounge Group's YouTube channel, including; Danny Cipriani and Denise Van Outen on Alliance & Leicester's 'Premier 21' Account, Sway's campus tour with Need For Speed, the Lynx Bullet consumer launch party, and the Impulse Romance Revolution. Get watching!