The Hundreds is a clothing brand that took advantage of blogging, when blogging was in it’s infancy, to provide an inside look at the brand and the culture that surrounded it through the lens of it’s founders. The blog provided a way for people to participate in the brand and the culture without actually buying any of the product. Followers of the blog tended to become ‘superfans’ because of the feeling of being a part of something bigger than yourself that it drove.
On another note — I think there’s an important distinction to be made between media personalities and brands. A media personality is type of brand, and one that lends itself well to social content. However, the flaw in media personalities is the fact that growth is hamstrung by your transparency and authenticity.
We see media personalties who are a hit with creating teen friendly youtube content try to age up and fail. Any content that a media personality creates that is ‘off-brand’ is see as inauthentic to an audience who has been sold on a specific type of content as being the media person’s authentic self.
Brands built on symbolism don’t have this problem because they are largely amorphous identities that can define themselves how they choose, allowing them to grow and change rather than being physically tied to the perceived personality of an individual.
