The Annual Gathering Has Come a Long Way From Its Birth in 2010

By David Cohen, Industry Expert, Editor, and Writer

Creators have always been at the heart of the annual VidCon gathering in Anaheim, Calif. After all, two of them—Hank Green and John Green, who ran an early YouTube channel called Vlogbrothers, which is still active—launched the event in 2010.

Much has changed in 16 years. VidCon started out as a place where fans could meet and interact with their favorite creators. But as the creator economy has evolved, so, too, has VidCon.

VidCon is now broken out into three tracks—fans, creators, and industry, with the latter representing brands, marketers, and other people who are part of the machine—and creators have gone from posing for pictures with fans and sitting through sessions about growing their subscriber count to using the event to maintain a sustainable business through initiatives including partnerships with brands, developing their community, and expanding into areas like merchandise.

Some have even made the jump to the big screen, as evidenced by two recent feature films helmed by creators: Kane Parsons’ Backrooms and Curry Barker’s Obsession.

Open Influence Director, Account Management Aundrea Leckie and Senior Vice President, Sales and Client Partnerships Eddie Simon were among the 50,000-plus attendees at the Anaheim Convention Center, with each appearing on stage.

Why Inclusivity Is a Growth Engine for Gen Alpha Brands

Leckie and SeeMe Index Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer Jason R. Klein discussed why inclusivity is a growth engine, particularly for brands targeting Generation Alpha, sharing details of an initiative by their two companies to help apparel brand Justice fine-tune its inclusivity efforts.

“The problem with how a lot of people talk about inclusivity today is that it stops with representation,” Klein said. “Gen Alpha can smell bullshit from a mile away. This is a generation that was born into algorithmic feeds.”

AI-powered analysis was used to audit Justice’s creator ecosystem and product storytelling, helping it to better reach obvious connections that it was missing, and boosting its revenue without a corresponding hike in investment.

“No matter where a brand is on their inclusivity journey, there’s always room to grow your brand, and there’s always room to find different people to resonate, particularly with Gen Alpha,” Klein added. “We can all talk about inclusivity as a nice thing to do, but at the end of the day, it has to drive business results.”

From Broadcast to Breakthrough: How Entertainment Brands Are Adapting to the Creator Era

Next came Simon’s turn to join Diogo Felippelli, Vice President of Social Media at Fox Entertainment, for a discussion on how creator marketing for entertainment brands has evolved and where it’s headed.

They talked about the realization that follower count alone was not the recipe for success when choosing creators to work with, with Simon saying, “Followers justify how much to pay a creator. It’s not going to justify what the content is going to do.”

Rather, doing the work to find the best creators for each specific campaign has paid off for Fox Entertainment in its work with Open Influence. “Creators add extra spice that traditional marketing doesn’t have,” Felippelli said. “The marketing is personal.”

While musing about what they may be discussing on the same stage three years from now,  Felippelli said, “Creators will be an essential part of every single marketing campaign. It’s not an add-on to the marketing mix: It’s part of the marketing mix.” And Simon added that he sees gamification becoming “more and more prevalent” in campaigns.

What’s Next?

The idea of being a full-time creator has come a long way from being seen as a novelty around the time of the first VidCon. Creators now run their own production companies, launch their own brands, and take the lead in real-life events. With the global creator economy seen reaching $250 billion this year and double that by 2030, the needle will likely continue to move up.

And VidCon, originally a small gathering for fans to rub elbows with creators, should maintain its growth trajectory, as well.