VidCon 2022 Takeaways
Alyssa and Jordanne took to VidCon to chat with agents, brands, and creators (the ABCs) about the creator economy. This was the first VidCon since the pandemic, as well as Player 2’s first time attending. While VidCon veterans remarked that this year felt about one-third the size of the pre-2020 shows, the team gained valuable insights and made meaningful connections. Here are some of the team’s takeaways from their first VidCon:
1. VidCon is divided into three ticket tracks: Community, Creator, and Industry. We recommend the Industry track for business needs, but here’s the breakdown:
The community ticket will give you access to community level panels, the outside festival area, and the expo hall. The target audience for the expo hall appeared to be aimed at the 20 and younger demographic with bright, colorful, and youthful brands (and of course creator booths with their merchandise). True to a convention focused on creators being seen, everything was photo-ready.
The creator ticket will give you access to the community areas and a smaller more specific expo room with creator lounges, more photo ready opportunities, and the creator panels.
The industry ticket will give you access to all of the community, creator, and industry areas at the convention center. There are two exceptions: The industry ticket does not grant you access to the branded sponsored creator lounges or creator parties off-campus. The industry ticket also gives you access to a networking app. Which brings us to insight number two:
2. Use the Industry Track networking phone app — Brand managers, talent agents, creators, and creator/marketing services/product founders all want to chat. The industry track floor has a row of high-top tables numbered 1 through 40, and the app coordinates who can meet where. This not only facilitates conversation and the ability to connect with other attendees, it helps manage your schedule. Plus, you have access to the application and attendee list once the show is over.
3. Industry panels are not indicative of the broader creator economy so much as the shape which the next wave of entrepreneurs hope to mold it into. Getting a panel on the line-up is one way to help your business stand out and join this “shaping” process. (Next year, Player 2 will consider putting a panel together.)
Seen here: Kim Barbosa (Director, Social Media and Influencer Marketing at Mattel) says the key to influencer marketing is not to barge into someone else's house and talk solely about yourself- rather, it is to invite creators into your house, to discover all your brand has to offer.
4. Pro-tips for advertising in the gaming metaverse are nearly identical to gaming-influencer marketing tips. Alyssa sat in on the panel “How Can Your Brand Thrive in the Gaming Metaverse?” The primary takeaways were:
Zach Hahn says that “the Metaverse is a creator platform” and points to Roblox and Minecraft (though he does point out EPIC has a pretty great Metaverse platform with Fortnite)
Jeremy Lopez pointed out that “gamers are open to advertising but it needs to be additive to the gaming experience and not “HEY BUY ME NOW”
Creator, Kate “HelloIamKate” Sisto says that it’s important for brands to avoid predatory practices and she even avoids companies if they’ve done predatory or inauthentic campaigns in the past.
5. While there was a lot of NFT related content, creators are still skeptical. And gaming creators appear to be the most skeptical. Gamers tend to be early adopters of new technology, but unfortunately the early waves of the NFT space feel a lot like the dot com boom— with articles highlighting the environmental cost and the pump and dump scams. Creators generally are for the broader idea and the technology of being paid a percentage of every transaction but NFT is nearly synonymous with hexagonal profile jpeg. We believe a really exciting and thoughtful idea will be the one creators fall in love with.
6. Brands: Create an experience to bring creators to you. From colorful photo backdrops to a human claw machine, the brands represented at VidCon made TikTok-worthy moments for attendees to enjoy (and post).
7. Influencer Marketing at scale is all the rage, but is it all that it’s cracked up to be? We talked to several influencer marketing products that were focused on influencer marketing at scale. The biggest selling points were efficiency and scale (reaching a lot of influencers), but what they lacked was authentic and genuine storytelling. At Player 2, we believe that authentic and genuine connections between influencers and brands are the most effective.
