Zoella (Media A-Level Eduqas)

• Idea of blogs/weblogs was first created

  1999
• Popularity of blogs grew rapidly, 'blog' was the word of the year in 2004
• There were only 23 blogs in 1999 → 50 million in 2006
• Ability to monetise blogs and make money through advertising became available (AdSense)

  2003
• In 2010, 11% of bloggers said it was their main income
• Emergence of new digital technologies formed a cultural shift towards user interaction, participation, connection and collaboration → formed the web 2.0 era
• Content creators began having cultural significance
• Content creators having cultural significance


  • Amount of images of them that are circulated
  • Statues at Madame Tussauds
  • On the covers of newspapers and magazines
  • Featured on band aid 30s re-recording of 'Do they know it's christmas' in 2014 (only non professional singers to appear)
• In 2022, broadcast TV's weekly audience reach sees steepest annual declined by 12%
• Number of TV programmes pulling in 4m+ viewers halves since 2014 - PSB are still the most popular channels
• Teens and young adults spend an hour a day on TikTok, with 'snackable' short-form content particularly popular
• Commercial radio riding a wave in its 50th year, while smart speakers and podcasts see growth in use
• Even those aged 65+ are diversifying to streaming platforms, rise from 7-12%
• All social media platforms increased their audience reach in 2017
• Rise of online media has disrupted the power structures of traditional media
• YouTube's demographic


  • 2.1 billion active monthly users worldwide
  • 15-35 (largest audience group)
  • 51.4% female, 48.6% male
  • 45.6 minutes are spent on the age per day
  • Ad revenue made $30 billion annually
• 'YouTube shorts' shows shift to 'snackable' content
• Democratisation of media


  • Allows content creators to bypass 'gatekeepers'
  • All a vlogger needs to make and distribute a video is some sort of recording device and access to the internet
  • Led to huge growth in user-generated content
• Zoella's target audience


  • Female
  • 13-24
  • BC1-C2
  • Mainstreamers / Aspirers
  • White
  • Heterosexual
• Zoella's content


  • Emotive, activities like fashion, costume and mise en scene, pets, intimate and confessional tone
  • Youthful co-presenters, amateur aesthetic, everyday activities associated with this demographic (shopping, fast-food), comedic tone, slang, comment sections, content is safe and family friendly which appeals to the parents of this demographic
  • Partnerships with companies of a similar socioeconomic status, language is moderately formal, house represents a fun and youthful environment
  • Narratives are apolitical and rarely deal with serious commentary, choice of car and home are aspirational for viewers, constantly on-trend
  • Only white people typically appear in her videos, inadvertently creating a racial hierarchy and enacting symbolic annihilation (post colonial reading)
• Parasocial relationships and communities between fans

  Ideology that youtubers are friends → fans respond with the #WeStandWithZoe when the sun posted a salacious article about Zoe
• Zoella's mode of address

  Friendly and welcoming, audiences are encouraged to participate and directly interact through comment sections and public events (Vidcon)
• Zoella adopts a postmodern approach
• Postmodern elements in Zoella's content

  • Lines between reality and media is blurred (simulacra)
  • World of images that no longer mean anything
  • Hyperreality - media images have become more real than 'reality'
  • Self-reflective / self-awareness (amateur aesthetic)
  • Conforms to dominant ideologies, she doesn't challenge grand meta-narratives and therefore rejects the theory
  • Breaking the 4th wall
  • Intertextuality
  • Rejects cultural elitism
  • Acknowledge artificiality
  • Pastiche
  • Parody
  • Fragmentation
• In 2018 Zoella had 12 million subscribers and 11.2 million followers on instagram
• Zoella released 3 books and became the highest selling debut author in the UK
• Zoella has homeware and beauty ranges
• Zoella reportedly makes £50,000 a month and has an estimated net worth of £2.5 million
• Zoella made £400,000 just from youtube in 2014 (peak)
• YouTube partner programme


  • Enables creators who have achieved a certain number of channel views to monetise the content they produce by running advertisements alongside their videos
  • Advertising revenue that this generates is then shared between YouTube and the content creators
  • Display ads, banners, Overlay ads, Video ads, pre-roll ads, skippable or non-skippable and bumper ads
  • Advertising can be targeted to match the tastes and interests of the individual users based on their personal browsing histories → achieved through the algorithm
• Sponsorships


  • Content creators are paid to review, endorse or promote particular brands or products
  • In some cases the creator is paid a set fee, in others they are paid according to the number of views their page generates or the number of people who click through to the promoted product from their web page
  • Audiences have become numb to traditional means of advertising so companies have had to find alternative methods
• Zoella attracts brands by being family friendly and therefore always monetised, achieves millions of views per video, has a loyal fan base built up over years, covers trends and mainstream content, everything is happy, positive and conforms to dominant ideologies
• Diversification


  • When a creator expands their brand across a range of different platforms and products
  • Many vloggers have their own brand of merchandise which can be purchased from their online store or creator's website
  • May also branch out with partnerships from highstreet shops (Zoella and Boots)
  • Helps build brand recognition as it features a logo, slogan or catchphrase
  • Book publishing is also an example
  • May encourage fans to read their other pieces of writing like a blog, on the blog they may promote the book and other content → cyclical piece of marketing
• Zoe and her brother created a brand together called 'Sugg Life', a pun on their surname, in 2016
• As of May 2018 the SuggLife store is no longer active
• In 2016 Zoella had beauty products in 12 different countries, in 2018 she released her 5th beauty range titled 'splash botanics'
• Each year since 2016 Zoe has released a limited edition homeware line under the Zoella lifestyle brand → distributed from many UK retail stores
• Zoella x Etsy launch in 2020
• In 2019 Zoella started a second YouTube channel 'MoreZoella'
• In 2019 Zoella announced on 'MoreZoella' that Zoella beauty and Zoella lifestyle were being discontinued as her licensing company SLG and her didn't agree on decisions and she had a 'new vision'