Accessibility and Relatability

One of the main reasons behind the increase in of finfluencers is their ability to make financial advice more accessible and relatable to a wider audience. Unlike traditional financial advisors who may seem intimidating or unapproachable, finfluencers use social media platforms to share their knowledge in a casual and engaging manner. They break down complex financial concepts into digestible bites, making it easier for people with little to no financial background to understand and implement the advice. They also often share their personal experiences, including financial successes and failures, fostering a sense of authenticity that resonates with their audience. This genuine connection builds trust, leading their followers to consider their advice more seriously.

Millennial and Gen Z Appeal

The rise of finfluencers is closely tied to the demographic shift in the audience seeking financial advice. Millennials and Gen Z, in particular, form a significant portion of their followers. These younger generations often prefer digital platforms and social media for information consumption, finding more affinity with influencers who understand their unique financial challenges, such as student loan debt, housing affordability, and gig economy work.

Educational Content and Empowerment

Finfluencers have made it their mission to increase financial literacy among their followers. They offer educational content that covers a wide range of topics including budgeting, saving, investing, and retirement planning. By empowering their audience with knowledge, they encourage them to take charge of their finances and make informed decisions. With the cost of living crisis in full force, this is something that is more in demand than ever.

Community Building and Peer Support

Finfluencers excel at community building, creating supportive environments where their followers can interact, share experiences, and learn from one another. This sense of belonging can be particularly valuable for those who might feel isolated or overwhelmed by financial challenges. The community aspect fosters a collaborative learning space where members can openly discuss their financial journeys without judgement.

Digital Disruption in Financial Services

The rise of finfluencers coincides with a broader trend of digital disruption in the financial services industry. Fintech innovations, robo-advisors, and online investment platforms have already transformed how individuals access financial products and services. Finfluencers fit into this evolving landscape, offering a human touch and personalised guidance that complements the convenience of digital financial tools.

It must be said that taking advice from finfluencers does come with its own risks. In a recent interview with the Financial Times, finance expert Bola Sol explained how ‘the accessibility of social media means new creators crop up frequently and produce content that takes advantage of people.’ There are, however, new measures being introduced to tackle the new social financial landscape. 

Money Week reports how the Financial Conduct Authority and the Advertising Standards Authority have teamed up to warn finfluencers that some financial promotions could be a criminal offence and aims to provide them with clear guidelines to follow which they should check before agreeing to promote products.

The most recent influencer-PR trip to hit the headlines came from Shein. The fast fashion brand took a group of influencers to their factory in China to get an inside look at how their garments are designed, manufactured and shipped, and used it as an opportunity to change people’s opinions on the sustainability of the brand. Audiences soon began questioning the influencers’ decision to accept the invitation from Shein despite the numerous reports alleging labour abuses, potential use of hazardous materials, poor working conditions, and contribution to the climate crisis. Both the brand and influencers that took part in the trip were lambasted on social media and it soon became a lesson on how not to do a PR trip.

Lots of brands have also been slammed for a lack of diversity on creator-press trips. Lifestyle blogger Kirsty Merrett shared her thoughts in June, tweeting: “Is it just me who is seeing press trips and events with less and less diversity?!”. Beauty creator Gary Thompson aka The Plastic Boy also asked on Threads last week: “Is it me or have we got back to 2019 I’m seeing events and PR trips with no inclusivity! No boys, No POC, just straight up copy and paste”. 

There’s also been cases where brands or events have tried to raise their profile by inviting large content creators to attend, even if the person hasn’t expressed an interest in them or what they do. TikTok It-girl Madeline Argy told her followers the story of being invited to the F1 and even got the chance to meet drivers like Lando Norris, despite admitting she knows nothing about Formula 1 and therefore had nothing to say to him. Fans of the sport quickly took to social media to complain that ‘it’s like a slap in the actual F1 fans faces’. 

Some brands have, however, got it right. 

In the last few years, fashion and consumers have become obsessed with the ultra-flashy styles of the Y2K era. From sky-high shoes to mini bags, the resurgence of the early 2000s took over the 2020s. Nostalgia was and still is ‘the’ moment. As of recently, however, runways have focused on perfecting wearable styles. TikTok It girls are deeply invested in the quiet luxury aesthetic, trading Y2K-inspired trends for muted colour palettes. Thanks to the widespread interest, the search term ‘quiet luxury’ has surpassed 40 billion views on TikTok, with ‘stealth wealth’ growing to over 620 million views. 

Drawing inspiration from shows such as HBO’s Succession and celebrities like Sofia Richie Grainge, creators have theorised that by not looking obviously wealthy you are in fact rich. 

Take Mark Zuckerberg for example, he has always been seen wearing casual and unrecognisable branded clothing and yet he is among one of the richest men in the world.

Creators have been providing tutorials on ways we mere humans could attempt to recreate this nonchalant aesthetic, from ‘old money’ outfit inspiration to ‘how to dress like the 1%’. Lydia Jane Tomlinson and Coco Bassey are a few creators showing us ways we can imitate the ‘old money’ aesthetic in our everyday lives.

The concept of the trend itself can be traced all the way back to the 19th century Gilded Age era when minimalist aesthetics and practicality were made infamous, and to 1700s France when conspicuous wealth was all the rage. The fall of the French monarchy and the rise of urbanisation is a great example of stealth wealth. 

The pandemic was our modern equivalent. We saw young aspirational buyers panic buying and investing in large logos and statement pieces. Three years later and in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, ‘quiet luxury’ is the new buzzword. 

The desire for those who are financially stable to inconspicuously wear high-value items without garish logos suggests their desire to not obviously flaunt their wealth during hard times. 

There is an argument to be made on how ‘quiet’ quiet luxury is. TV personality and businesswoman Bethany Frankel shared on TikTok her thoughts on why quiet luxury may be considered passive-aggressively loud. She states ‘it’s like when someone tries so hard to look like they didn’t try.’ 

A DrinkAware survey looked into the UK’s drinking behaviour and found that just 8.1% of 18-to-34-year-olds drink four times per week or more, compared to 25.2% of those aged over 55.

There have also been many influencers joining in on these conversations, whether it’s talking about going completely tee-total or just reducing their alcohol consumption. One of the leading voices in this community is Millie Gooch who, after being sober for nearly a year, set up an online community for sober and sober curious women to have a safe space to speak about not drinking. Made in Chelsea’s Spencer Matthews gave up alcohol after having his first child and even created a hugely successful non-alcoholic spirits brand called CleanCo.

Millie’s Sober Girl Society Instagram page now has 197,000 followers, proving how popular this type of content is. When speaking to Corq.com, she credits the rise in popularity to ‘an increased focus on mental health, conscious consumption and the cost of living crisis’.

Following on from the success with her community, in May Millie hosted her first ‘Dry Disco’ alongside fellow sober influencer @stephelswood. Dry Disco was a non-alcoholic day festival for women which included panel talks about self-love and sobriety, dance workshops, breathwork classes and a disco party.

Other influencers who have joined in on the conversation are The Michalaks, who recently celebrated 9 months sober and former Love Islander and mental health activist Dr Alex George who shared that he has gone 100 days without alcohol.

On top of this, social media platforms seem to be implementing stronger restrictions on alcohol content meaning younger generations are now not as exposed to content including alcohol which could also explain the shift in attitude. 

The Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA) guidelines on alcohol state that it is illegal to promote ‘excessive consumption’, or suggest alcohol can be used to boost confidence or have any other positive outcomes. It is also worth noting that alcohol ads cannot be targeted to under 18s – and you have to be over 25 to feature in an ad. 

This shift is not only evident on social media but in other forms of popular culture too. 

Something her followers love is that Alix Earle has always kept it real in her videos, often getting ready in her messy bedroom or regaling stories of when she was out partying the night before, and sharing her drunk TikTok drafts. She has also been incredibly candid about her journey with acne and kept her audience updated on her accutane journey. 

Some say she’s like the real-life Serena Vanderwoodson, the character played by Blake Lively in Gossip Girl. Both have the same unbrushed hair, last night’s clothes and way of living. Many have also said Serena ‘is the blueprint’ of the ‘messy girl aesthetic’.

So, is this the end of the clean girl aesthetic? 

It might be because these types of video feel personal, as though you’re on Facetime with a friend while getting ready and that’s when you’d typically share that kind of information. Also, the medium of makeup being a distraction from personal news may make it easier to talk about and for a viewer to digest.

A recent trend that also may be considered an overshare is the Notes app trend. This is where you quite literally just share a photo carousel of what you keep in your Notes app, some of which can be quite personal – for example Amelia Dimoldenburg’s version of the trend showed topics to bring up in therapy and an ‘I think we’re better of as friends’ text.

There are, of course, positives to oversharing. This can be the fact that talking about mental and physical health issues may help not only the creator but the viewers feel better and less alone. Dr Gerrard, a lecturer in Digital Media and Society at the University of Sheffield, says: “On social media, you see people sharing stuff online in a way which they simply can’t with their friends or families. If people are sharing a lot but they’re creating a space they don’t otherwise have in their life — then that’s amazing and can be integral to their survival.”

In this age of social media, people also have other ways of sharing – but only with the people they choose. This can be in the form of a closest friend account, or a private Snapchat or Instagram ‘close friends’ story where you can select exactly who is seeing the stuff you share, and what you’re ‘oversharing’.

The Giggly Squad podcast has a bit more of an extreme view on oversharing, stating that people who will post themselves crying on Instagram for example are “not trying to solve the problem, you just want to be heard”. 

On the other end of the spectrum, some choose not to share their lives regularly on social media and rarely upload an Instagram Story. They therefore can come across mysterious and unbothered. People won’t know much about their lives and it might lead to people wondering: what are they up to?  

It has even been described as being ‘sexier’ if you have no social media presence at all. In this Vice article, they discuss why ‘the “zero online presence” person is the crème de la crème of the internet’. 

But why is being offline so attractive? Vice says, ‘being offline suggests inner confidence. You are presumably not bothered about being “seen”. You are not bothered about the opinions of others. You do not need their likes and follows. You are just out there, living your life. This points to self-assurance, a solid sense of self-esteem – all attractive qualities.’  

Being off the social grid, then, will lead others to be intrigued and a sense of mystery or unavailability can be attractive to some. 

Crucially, there is also a lot less to judge. 

Whilst the technology has gained widespread use and acceptance in many industries, there are still some sceptics who are hesitant to fully embrace it. One of the main reasons being the concerns around accuracy and bias. As with any AI technology, ChatGPT is only as unbiased and accurate as the data it is trained on. If the data used to train ChatGPT is biassed or incomplete, the responses generated by the technology may also be inaccurate. 

Additionally, there are concerns around security and privacy, as ChatGPT collects and analyses user data. Some people may also be sceptical of the lack of human touch in ChatGPT responses, as it may not be able to provide the same level of empathy and understanding as a human representative.

With this being said there are many brands who have already successfully implemented AI technology, namely beauty brand Lottie London who have used it to speed up brainstorming and Pizza Hut, who in 2016 implemented a chatbot on Facebook Messenger that allows customers to order food directly through the chat interface. 

And there are many more ways in which ChatGPT can positively impact your brand.

The top trending topics on the app so far are fashion, beauty, food, travel, wellness, fitness and pets. Under each category are suggestions and recommendation content from get-ready-with-me styles of video to aesthetically pleasing content.

Nail inspiration, outfit details, food recipes and workout routines also seem to dominate the app. Creators post slideshows of their content including the name of the products used as text on the image. On fashion posts, creators are seen tagging their outfits with where they bought specific items and food creators usually post a video of them making their dish or share a slideshow of the several meals with the recipe in the caption. 

Lemon8’s user interface is perfect for those who enjoyed the pleasing and curated aesthetics of Instagram but hated the algorithm style of TikTok. Much like all other social platforms, you are able to scroll through video and photo content on the app. It even has a For You Page. 

The new platform has grown in popularity since its soft launch in the US, where creators were relied upon to help pull audiences over to Lemon8. A report in the New York Times confirmed that micro-influencers were paid to start posting on the app with specific guidelines on how and what to post, and to promote the app using #Lemon8partner.

Since its stealth launch in February, it would seem the paid strategy behind Lemon8 has worked well as more and more creators are joining the app. 

Lemon8 seemingly attracts creators with smaller followings on other platforms, such as TI (also known by his pseudonym ladmeetsmakeup). Interestingly, it would appear that creators with millions of followers on TikTok and Instagram have yet to migrate, but it’s more a question of when. 

With the official launch in May, we look forward to seeing the app grow to discover new creators alike.

Is Lemon8 better than TikTok? 

Well, like most social media platforms, Lemon8 allows users to create content that will serve audiences differently, but Lemon8 seems to lean towards influencer marketing more than TikTok.

Lemon8 is recognised as a product placement platform, where brands can work with creators to promote their products to sell a specific lifestyle aesthetic to their audience. 

Creators on TikTok, however, are typically known for their niche content that engages with a specific audience. And with video content, creators on TikTok are able to convince their audience that their content is natural. 

Remember the camcorder? Well, it’s back and @Kyliejenner is one of many well known faces to have jumped on the bandwagon and used it to create social content. Whether it be in a shoot teasing her upcoming Kylie Cosmetics makeup collection or a post exhibiting her Oscar’s outfit, the low-fi content of both evoke positive memories of the old-school home-movies of the 1980s.

Some may question why, in an age where technology is at its height, low quality content is being favoured. Here at THE FIFTH, we believe it’s down to the ongoing craving audiences have for authenticity and honesty from content creators. Posting low-fi content almost reverts social media back to the old ways of capturing content, where there wasn’t the false reality of filters and edited images, making creators seem more relatable and trustworthy. 

A further example of a creator using nostalgia successfully in their content is @Fajereats, a food content creator from Kuwait who is well known for her mukbang content. In a recent collaboration with The Cheesecake Factory, Fajer created one of her classic mukbang style videos, but used the caption to reflect on her childhood memories of the restaurant. Her Reel is evidence that nostalgia sells. According to Corq, the Reel resulted in an engagement rate of 2.7%, which is higher than her usual 2.46%.  

The Intimacy Bubble

Snapchat’s approach to privacy is highly personalised and designed to safeguard users’ content. The app allows users to customise individual ‘snaps’ to disappear in as little as one second or as long as 24 hours, ensuring that their content is not available permanently. Additionally, the app notifies users when someone takes a screenshot or saves their snaps. Snapchat also uses encryption for all photos and videos sent within the app, providing an additional layer of security.

As a result, users feel a sense of safety on the platform, knowing that their private thoughts and feelings can never be saved or shared without their knowledge. This sense of security is especially important given that social media platforms are often geared towards a larger public audience. Snapchat’s direct line of communication, however, enables users to share their most genuine and innermost feelings in a controlled and contained environment, making it an ideal platform for private and personal conversations.

Following in the steps of Snapchat, Instagram allowed creators to show off their creativity with their own personalised filters. Content creator Coco_floflo even had her own filter named ‘filenoir’. 

The introduction of AR allowed everyone to have fun whilst being creative. It was a great business opportunity, allowing them to get closer to their followers by creating personalised filters that reflected their brand identity. 

Fast forward to now and AR filters are now being replaced by AI filters. 

Snapchat is still considered the leading platform, but as TikTok has gained users, they’re now challenging Snapchat for the title – something Instagram tried and failed to do.

Back in December 2022, we were all introduced to the viral ‘magic avatar’ feature on the photo-editing app Lensa. The app allows users to transform selfies into AI-generated avatars. 

Launching to meteoritic popularity overnight, Lensa became one of the most downloaded photo and video editing apps on the app store. 

Some may argue that Lensa’s AI-generated filter opened the door to TikTok launching its own in the form of ‘Bold Glamour’. Creator Chiara King posted a video to the platform after it launched to show how the filter makes her look like a “completely different person”. 

Previously, owning an overly obvious knock off was seen as something to feel embarrassed about. With Gen Z’s adoption of this trend, however, finding ‘dupes’ and ‘copies’ is an achievement and now seen as something to be proud of. The ‘hot girl’s don’t gatekeep’ trend, which you can read more about here, is reflective of this new concerted effort on TikTok to reveal your best kept fashion and beauty ‘secrets.’ A great example is when TV presenter Annaliese Dayes proudly took to TikTok to flaunt her very own House of Sunny dupe. The video gained 767,000 views.

Dayes isn’t the only creator to gain success through this trend. Blythe Snyder went viral when she pioneered the parody version, labelled the ‘doop’ trend. Whilst shopping in Target, Snyder started to notice how many items reminded her of higher-end products. She took to TikTok to document this, holding up products like a black tote bag, calling it a ‘prada dupe’ with an exaggerated pronunciation of the word “dupe”.  The video quickly went viral, and received over 2.9 million views, with many creators recreating it.

Shein, the Chinese fast fashion brand is a key example of this. In an Instagram post by @Highsnobiety, it was reported that Shein adds over 1,000 new styles to its website every single day and has no sustainability initiatives nor transparency around its production and manufacturing processes. Despite this, the fast fashion giant has quadrupled its revenue over the past three years, reaching $15.7 billion in sales, confirming the popularity of cheaper alternatives. 

Secondly, there is the issue of intellectual property and who owns the design, and whilst high end brands do not tend to mind when they are ‘copied’, there are many cases of litigation in the mid market territory.

Overall, when it comes to dupe culture, there is clearly a battle of accessibility vs. accountability. It can be argued that it is elitist to assume people can afford designer clothes or always shop ethically, whereas others would argue that the sustainability concerns outweigh the argument of accessibility. 

Joel Rochester posts about ‘books and beverages, sorcery and swords’ on their channel. That’s how Rochester  – the man behind the YouTube channel Fictional Fates – sums up his content. With a combination of book hauls, reviews, and bookshop tours, the Cardiff graduate is a go-to for book round-ups and recommendations.

Jack Edwards is a lifestyle content creator and book addict. While his content is mostly education-oriented, his TikTok channel is dedicated to sharing book reviews alongside pop culture and political commentary. Kate Wilson started her account during lockdown but has since been known to hop on all the TikTok book trends such as ‘convincing you to read my favourite books based on their aesthetics’.

The trend continued, with @Skzzolno and her friend posting a TikTok a few weeks later. In it, they explained their positive experience with lucky girl syndrome, and argued that by repeating the words “I’m so lucky, everything just works out for me”, they have passed their exams with flying colours and got the best bedrooms in their new college house. This video then got over 5.3 million views. 

This isn’t an entirely new concept. Manifestation and affirmations are phenomenons that have been around for a while and all stem from Neville Goddard’s book The Law of Assumption. The theory suggests that if we believe we have something, we will eventually get it.

On the positive side, the lucky girl syndrome trend can be a source of inspiration and motivation for other young women. Seeing others’ success stories can serve as a reminder that anything is possible, and you never know what tomorrow will bring. Additionally, the trend can help to promote a sense of community and support among young women on social media. 

As some have pointed out, however, there is a dark side to the lucky girl syndrome. Whether it is its roots in privilege as Dazed Digital pointed out, or The Guardian’s idea of toxic positivity where if things don’t work out for you, it’s because you attract the bad in your life. 

The trend can also lead to feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem among those who are not as ’lucky’ as others. People might compare their own lives to the highlight reels they see on social media and feel like they are not achieving enough, or that they are not as successful. 

On top of this, the trend can perpetuate the idea that success is solely based on luck, which can discourage people from proactively trying to achieve their goals. This concept also flies in the face of the famous saying by the golfer Gary Player: ‘the harder you practise, the luckier you get’. 

It is important to remember that social media is a curated version of reality, and people are more likely to share their positive moments, successes and accomplishments rather than their struggles, failures and setbacks.

Whilst lucky girl syndrome is just a TikTok trend that probably isn’t here to stay, it is indicative of the manifestation trend that is making its mark in 2023 and one that we recommend brands keep an eye on.

What makes the trend so popular? Put simply, it’s the phrase itself which helps to make it so popular. By using the term ‘gatekeep’, social media users are intrigued and want to find out more about a product steeped in exclusivity. It’s as though they’re being let in on a little secret. 

Brands can easily jump on this trend by having creators insert the phrase in their content. Not only will it reach a mass audience, it will also create a buzz with people wanting to be part of the once-exclusive thing.

Streaming platforms can jump on the trend as well by having creators not gatekeep the latest show on their platform. Beauty brands can follow in the footsteps of Charlotte Tilbury when creators stopped gatekeeping the halo foundation, which resulted in it being sold out. 

It is also important to remember to not confuse gatekeeping with preserving culture. TikTok creator Natty Issues explains nicely in her video why preserving culture is not the same as gatekeeping. 

What are you no longer gatekeeping? And will you let us in on it?

This recent shift has not gone unnoticed. Google’s Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan highlighted how younger generations were using social media platforms as search engines, instead of Google, at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech Conference in 2022. Raghavan also mentioned that according to internal research, approximately 40% of young people will use platforms like TikTok to search for lunch options, rather than Google. 

It is important to note that TikTok is not the first social media platform to have been referred to as a search engine. YouTube has been increasingly used to search for products, tutorials and recommendations over the last decade. Furthermore, the same can be said for Amazon, as well as Instagram which has also provided users with the latest fashion and beauty trends. 

It would appear, however, that TikTok’s short and snappy videos provide up-to-date and instant answers which is perfect for Gen Z’s decreasing attention span. 

Moreover, TikTok users are given recommendations from their favourite content creators and can check the legitimacy of any recommendation with a quick scroll in the comments section. Even the creators themselves are talking about how they are ‘TikTok-ing’, not ‘google-ing’.

TikTok has acknowledged that users are beginning to use the platform as a search engine and have added in more features accordingly. When you start a search in the search bar for example, you will now see a list of other suggestions –  just like on Google.

When you click on the search bar it also shows you some of your past searches, as well as a “You may like” list of searches.

Furthermore, there are also search suggestions in the comments section.

It would seem, therefore, that TikTok is becoming the go-to Gen Z search engine. 

Jumping on the increased interest, TikTok have also recently released an advert showcasing the ‘search’ feature on the app, and the advert ends with the words “search it with TikTok”. 

Many prime-time shows have therefore welcomed famous social media faces to their line-ups. The most pivotal is YouTuber Joe Sugg who appeared on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2018. Joe was one of the first social media stars to appear on such a show, making quite an impact. Strictly Come Dancing’s social media presence almost doubled, with Sugg’s jive being viewed by over 1.3 million people compared to the 80,000 average. With Sugg alone potentially bringing his 8.2 million YouTube subscribers to the BBC, it is no wonder that the show saw such an increase in viewership. That is no coincidence. 

Joe’s Strictly success led to other shows also casting social media talent, and this has been the case year after year ever since. Strictly Come Dancing, I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here and Dancing on Ice are just three of the leading reality shows that have welcomed social media influencers with open arms. Gogglebox even aired a celebrity special featuring YouTuber KSI. The results speak for themselves.

Joe Sugg and Caspar Lee 

Whilst Joe Sugg, brother to Zoe, continued to do YouTube until about a year ago, his main focus has turned to acting and TV. In 2018, Joe became the first ever social media star to become a cast member of Strictly Come Dancing in which he came second place alongside his partner Dianne Buswell, who is now his long term girlfriend. Post strictly, he took an interest in animation films, and has starred in Shaun the Sheep, Wonder Park and more recently The Amazing Maurice where he plays main character Sardines alongside Emilia Clarke and David Tennant. Finally, he is co-founder of a talent management agency, MVE (previously known as Margaviane) with fellow YouTuber Caspar Lee. 

Caspar stopped YouTube in 2019 in order to pursue a number of entrepreneurial companies. He is now the founder of four companies, MVE (Margavaine), aforementioned, Influencer (a data-led, global influencer marketing business), Creator ventures (a venture capital firm that invests and collaborates with creators) and Proper Living (an affordable student accommodation company in Cape Town).

Tanya Burr and Jim Chapman 

Tanya Burr quit YouTube three years ago to pursue an acting career. Since then she has featured in the TV show Holby City and movie Venice at Dawn to name a few. Whilst her YouTube presence is now non-existent, Tanya still maintains a strong Instagram presence and continues to collaborate with beauty brands such as Elizabeth Arden and Function of Beauty. Around a similar time to when she left YouTube, Tanya got divorced from fellow Brit Crew member Jim Chapman. Since then, she has entered a new relationship, one that she has kept private, and recently gave birth to her first child.  

Jim Chapman is now remarried and has a daughter called Margot. Jim still creates videos for YouTube, however on his own personal channel he has steered away from challenges and moved onto family, lifestyle and high fashion content. He recently started a family TikTok page called The Chapmans where he and his wife, Sarah, document life as a family of three.

The Brit Crew all seem to have gone on to successful ventures since their group YouTube days when they were all associated with one another, but where do they go from here? It is clear that many will continue down the route of content creation, but the market is far more saturated than when they first started and there’s competition for audiences from younger, Gen Z creators like @olivianeill and @lookingforlewys on platforms like TikTok. 

Over the past few years, short form content has been on the rise, so adding TikTok to their platforms in which they post could help. The app has made it easier than ever to go viral and grow in popularity. It is also interesting to note that as the Brit Crew’s original audience have now grown up, many have started to frequent TikTok more often. 

Louise Pentland recently posted a TikTok video where she speculated that many of her original YouTuber following have now moved over to the short form entertainment app. This video went viral, with it gaining nearly 1 million views, 107 thousand likes and a multitude of comments validating her theory. 

Whilst many of the creators do have TikTok accounts, they are posted on a lot less than their YouTube accounts. Take Alfie Deyes for instance, who has posted 5 times on YouTube in the last 2 months, compared to 3 times in the last year on TikTok. 

My recommendation? To keep up with the Gen Z content creators and audiences, the Brit Crew should aim to up their presence on TikTok in order to reinstate their trendsetter status.