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When Michelle Phan began uploading videos to YouTube in 2007, the platform was in its relative infancy. User-generated content hadn't even so been established as a vital tool for brands to effectively connect with consumers, and the idea of content creation as a profession was a far cry from the burgeoning field it is today.

Given social media's e'er-growing influence over consumers' purchasing decisions, nevertheless, user-generated content has now cemented its fundamental function in digital marketing, and brands have been tasked with reimagining their strategies accordingly if they wish to thrive in the era of the metaverse, cryptocurrency and increasingly gamified shopping experiences.

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So said Phan, who founded makeup subscription service Ipsy in 2011 as well every bit Em Cosmetics in 2015, and is widely regarded every bit the offset makeup influencer on YouTube, at the Fairchild Media Tech Forum, in conversation with WWD managing editor Allison Collins.

"When I first started [uploading videos] in 2007, there was no industry — it was nonetheless very much the wild, wild West. There were just a scattering of creators that existed back then on YouTube, and there weren't whatever brands that had a presence on YouTube," said Phan.

Around 2014, what Phan refers to equally the "creator economy" began to take hold, fueling the ascension of influencer marketing every bit brands began tapping user-generated content as a ways to relate to consumers via experiences that seemed less manufactured.

According to Phan, the more recent ascent of concepts like tokenization and Web 3.0 will fundamentally change not but the relationships brands take with consumers, but those between content creators and their audiences, creators and social platforms and even those betwixt creators and their ain content.

"The development of the creator space that I tin can run across in the future is that creators are going to ain their relationship with their viewers and followers," Phan said. "They're probably going to own it through some sort of tokenization, whether information technology'southward on a blockchain or through a game — it's going to be different than what we know of today, where I withal accept to rely on the platform to prove my content for me to go on there and connect with my viewers."

In add-on to foreseeing increased opportunity for creators to have direct access to relationships with their viewers, Phan believes shopping experiences will get more gamified, identifying online platform and storefront Roblox as one means to that terminate.

"If you lot look at Roblox, a lot of Gen Alpha are playing on it, and it's like their version of social-media-meets-games," Phan said. "There's a whole economy within Roblox where you go in, you lot purchase their money and you employ that money to buy other people's user-generated content games."

Roblox has proven itself the platonic avenue for brands to dip their toes into the metaverse, with companies including Gucci, Netflix, Nike, Vans and others flocking to the platform for contempo activations.

Inflation may also play a part in fueling the popularity of virtual goods, which tend to be cheaper than their physical counterparts for both consumers and manufacturers alike, Phan said, noting that virtual goods have higher turn a profit margins.

For brands interested in delving into virtual goods or the gaming community, Phan said collaborating with creators will probable show to exist a fruitful beginning pace, considering creators have already washed the piece of work of fostering a meaningful connection with their audience, and tin can thus alleviate that responsibility from the brand's shoulders.

 "When [consumers] run across a brand, it's a slight plough-off," said Phan. "I've always been an advocate for working with creators — when you interact with a creator, you already have admission to their community, and [consumers] love collaborations."

In 2020, Phan branched into Instagram AR filters as a way to connect with her Em Cosmetics audience and drive product awareness. One of her biggest reasons for diving into filters? She already was a frequent user of them herself — and she knew her consumers were, as well.

While Phan encourages brands to test out new stomping grounds when it comes to leveraging engineering into contemporary strategies, she likewise brash confronting trying out too much, too before long, warning that while newness tin bring consumers in, poor execution can inhibit their shopping experiences, thus driving them away.

"You want to put yourself in the shoes of your audience and ask yourself, 'Am I really going to navigate through this store that's really squeamish and is in 3D and buy all this stuff, or no?,'" said Phan, emphasizing that overcomplicating what should be a straightforward purchase process tin can backlash in a major mode.

An gorging tech investor, Phan exercises caution when deciding where to put her coin, looking to SEC-approved crypto projects and only investing in products that she would utilise personally.

Phan also stated that brands that harness the ability of alive platforms in community building; mind in on the churr of micro communities on platforms like Discord, and, lastly, pay attention to what women in tech spaces are doing and saying volition be poised for greater success in the face of mounting economic dubiety.

FOR MORE FROM WWD.COM, See:

The Metaverse: Beauty's Next Frontier

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How do Brands Attract Women to the Metaverse?

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