Nearly 80 French tween girls huddled outside the Havas Cafe at the Cannes festival last week, waiting excitedly with their smartphones and cameras. They weren’t on a Kim Kardashian or Courtney Love stakeout, but were hunting Vine “star” Cameron Dallas.
Michelle Phan, Bethany Mota and Jerome Jarre may have been in the last wave of social media stars sought after by brands, but now they’re so yesterday. A new crop of influencers has emerged. And while Vine and Snapchat still remain important platforms for these micro-celebrities, some are also turning their attention to newer arenas like Periscope.
“The influencer space while still huge, is a lot more saturated — so they are a lot more focused on their content and style than the previous set,” said Eric Dahan, CEO of Instabrand, one of the several companies that plays matchmaker between brands and these influencers. “It’s also important to stay relevant, and Periscope has great potential.”
Newer platforms also present talent the opportunity to make their mark and consolidate their presence, said Speakr’s founder Marco Hansell, who recently enlisted some influencers for a campaign for Dr. Pepper on Periscope, among other campaigns.
“It’s a fresh opportunity for them to brand themselves,” he said. “They may never be able to catch up to the mega-influencers on an established platform, but they can take the lead on new ones.”
Here, then, is introducing the social media stars class of 2015 on Vine, Snapchat and Periscope:
Cameron Dallas
Dallas, 20, rose to fame on Vine, posting videos of himself playing pranks on his friends and family. Today he has 7.7 million followers. He has also launched a clothing line with Aeropostale, starred in a movie titled “Expelled” and even won the Teen Choice Award for Vine last year. He has even made appearances in two episodes of the NBC thriller American Odyssey and recently released his debut single “She Bad.” In 2016, he will star in a movie titled “The Outfield,” alongside friend and fellow Viner, Nash Grier.
Nash Grier
With more than 11.8 million followers on Vine, Grier is one of the leading Viners with his mix of slapstick comedy and parody videos. Grier reportedly gets paid anywhere between $25,000 to $100,000 for shoutouts to brands in his Vines like Sonica and Virgin Mobile, among others. He has appeared on Good Morning America.
Brittany Furlan
Furlan may be the most popular female star on Vine, where she takes on wacky personas, but she’s also big on Snapchat. She uses the ephemeral platform to talk about everything under the sun, from random daily happenings in her life to recipes. She’s been featured by Time Magazine as one of the most influential people on the Internet and has also landed herself a sketch comedy show produced by Seth Green.
Matthew Santoro
This Canadian influencer has had a robust YouTube channel for a few years now, with over 4 million subscribers. His videos are a mix of education and entertainment, and focus on highlighting bizarre, funny and interesting facts. He has been making inroads into Periscope recently too — getting 85 million hearts on the live-streaming app, according to influencer agency Collective Digital Studio. He also just announced a book deal with Penguin this week, with his book “MIND = BLOWN” slated to come out in August 2016.
Christian Delgrosso
Delgrosso has a presence on both Instagram (1.1 million followers) and Vine (6.4 million followers), but is an early-adopter on Periscope too. According to Speakr’s Hansell, he is one of the stars that has been able to transfer his followers from one platform to another (i.e. Periscope) and was also one of the biggest draws for the Dr. Pepper campaign.
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