These Digital Influencers Helped MetroPCS Create Its First Branded Content Series

MetroPCS is joining the list of brands who see the importance of digital influencers with strong connections to their audience. The prepaid wireless phone service teamed up with Defy Media to sponsor a miniseries from the Clevver team of creators. Defy works more like a TV network rather than a multichannel network, in that it produces a wide variety of scheduled shows, including entertainment news, beauty and style, food, music and more across Clevver's six YouTube channels and other brands like Smosh and ScreenJunkies. MetroPCS is sponsoring a series called Beauty Trippin, where the hosts and producers from Clevver Style's popular Beauty Break show travel the country. Beauty Break started because "we fail more often than not when following beauty tutorials," said Joslyn Davis, one of Clevver's executive producers and hosts. [kickout id="3"] "My biggest accomplishment of 2016 was my eyebrows," said Lily Marston, a host, editor and producer for Clevver. "As hosts of a beauty series on YouTube, we were sick of pretending that we know what we're doing." The new season of Beauty Trippin, which launches today, will see the hosts experiencing DJ school, becoming a "video vixen" for music videos, modeling and working with a designer in New York to create customized pieces of clothing. The whole point of the Beauty Trippin series is to get the hosts out of their typical space and on the road where they can experiment and experience more than just beauty or health hacks. With the continued success and popularity of Beauty Break, and the first installment of Beauty Trippin, which was sponsored by Nair, MetroPCS decided to work with the team for its first foray into branded content. "Digital content consumption is on the rise with younger audiences," said Kevin McLaughlin, the svp of marketing and product at T-Mobile in an email. "MetroPCS has the opportunity to be at the forefront with unique partnerships. We're seeking out more immersive ways to tie our brands to the pillars and values we want those audiences to associate with us." "With our brand partnerships, we can immediately see feedback from our audience," said Holden Berlin, the svp of program marketing and development for Defy Media. "Our measuring stick for working with brands is always how our audience will react." [kickout id="1"] As more brands and influencers work together to create branded content, Berlin sees brands releasing more control in order to let creators have more freedom to do what they do best. "Some people have worked with influencers and got burned before," he said, "or they're just now starting to get into the influencer space and are totally open to what it can be." Clevver made its name, according to Davis, by "covering Bieber when most people were still covering Clooney." Instead of continuing with standard news clips, eventually the channels transitioned into personality-based shows which opened the door for more opportunities. [kickout id="2"] "The more time you spend working with a brand, the more you're able to turn that into a real relationship," said Marston. "You can work and coexist and create compromises so you can deliver what the brand wants." As Clevver hosts have come to learn, their fans will comment if they feel like the shows are "selling out" or cheating them out of authentic content, but they'll also point out when they're proud of them for making the most of brand integrations. "Working with MetroPCS was less of a product integration and more of a collaboration," said Marston. "We got to go on kind of a 'bucket list road trip' to try all kinds of things." Brief meet-ups with Clevver fans were organized in each city with the help of MetroPCS, too. "Our creators love getting to connect with their fans, and they're aware that it's not always possible to do without the help of a brand," said Berlin. "The fans understand that we're a business," said Davis. "We're not making videos for no reason. Yes, we want to make great content, but we still gotta eat and pay the bills."