Creator acquisitions at YouTube | Business Insider "Rising Star of the Creatory Economy" (2022) | Adjunct Lecturer at USC Annenberg
My takeaway from the Kai Cenat “riot” was not on the danger of influence but rather the danger in not being able to measure influence accurately. “There is an epidemic failure within the game to understand what is really happening” - Moneyball (2011). The Creator Industry continues to use archaic methods of measuring influence and thus continues to be surprised by outcomes. We all remember VidCon 2022 when “top” talent shockingly struggled to draw crowds despite their millions of followers. Charli D’Amelio and Khaby Lame with their 300 million combined followers drew a "notably subdued" crowd (per The Hollywood Reporter). Yet Kai Cenat, with hundreds of millions of less followers (80K subs on Twitch, 6M IG, 4M YouTube), was almost able to own a city block in NYC. Why? We need to stop measuring influence purely in breadth (number of followers) and start also measuring it in depth (extent to which you are able to influence your fans). Someone who is able to combine both (like Cenat) wields influence that actually matters. Most interesting to me was that Cenat himself was surprised by the turnout. Ahead of the event he said on stream he expected 500 fans (in reality thousands attended). I genuinely believe Cenat had no idea it would turn out like this--underscoring the need for better measurement. Perhaps if Cenat were able to more accurately measure the depth of his fanbase, he could’ve avoided this incident. Were you surprised by the turnout for Cenat? Outside of followers and views, what metrics can more accurately measure a creator like Cenat’s influence? #creatoreconomy #kaicenat
Maybe a good metric for depth = monthly watch time/monthly unique viewers
Nice take, Andrew! A few years ago Victoria Paris ran into the same issue when hid a ring somewhere in NYC. So many fans showed up to look for it, she also said she felt scared and overwhelmed. There's something here about breaking the 4th wall between creator/audience that moves people into action.
Tyler Allen
1y
Add up total watch time between Charli d’amelio vs Kai. Charli has more followers and views BUT people have spent waaay more time with Kai.
When Beta Squad arrived in Sydney it was clear that the police had a much clearer idea of the chaos that was about to ensue than the Beta team did. The Beta members had no plan how to enter the park filled with the many thousands of screaming fans, and no plan to escape bar surrounding themselves with 6 body guards and hoping for the best. But the police were ready, there were a tonne of them, some on horses. Their previous meetup in Melbourne was on a weekday, when <18s were at school, however their Sydney meetup was not, and hence probably the reason for their lack of expectation regarding turnout. I can’t even imagine what the KSI and Logan Paul meetup would have been if it was on a weekend… pure mayhem.
Sonam Lama
1y
•Side Talk NYC• which is one of the most popular instagram account in NYC. They promoted it on their page along with the free giveaways for that event <which is taken down atm>. They are well known for doing large crowd gathering events. So as for people who knows about them were not surprised how it turned out.
Completely agree with you about the metrics. BTW, I think any celebrity would cause a riot by offering free loot in Time Square. Giveaways are easy; getting people to pay full price or more (see "Swift, Taylor") is true influence. I also see Cenat's name on this Rolling Stone list, and wanted to know your thoughts about it. RS claims that these creators are "influential," but I'm seeing mostly vanity metrics and media appearances here. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-lists/top-social-media-influencers-creators-2023-1234713799/alex-cooper-1234713874/
I think the platforms could do a better job of helping creators understand what % of their followers are actually active on the platform and engaged... MAU/DAU is a key performance indicator for top platforms like Meta, YouTube and I think this would be somewhat useful information for creators as well. For ex Kai Cenat started making TikTok content in June of 2020-- so odds are he has a lot more active followers than a TikTok creator who accumulated millions of followers in the musical.ly days.
ladidai
1y
I just don’t understand why Kai and his team didn’t partner with a large venue. Somebody would’ve easily sponsored it. Even 500 people gathering in the middle of Union Square is pretty chaotic. This city is already super crowded as is. Hope all parties involved learn and plan ahead next time.
Creator Economy Sherpa | Award Winning Curator, Moderator & Speaker | "Inside the Creator Economy" Newsletter | Board of Director | Geek
1yThis is a super interesting take, Andrew.. I agree with you that measurement is an issue. However, I do think if you are one of the top streamers in the world on Twitch, you should probably work with local security folks just for backup. It's not just for fan safety, it's for the creator's safety too.