Influencers, Unite! — The Rise of the Collab House in the Land of TikTok
What do you get when you toss 19 young-adult social media influencers together in an LA mansion? You get a collab house. With their ability to amplify the creative power and social reach of influencers, collab houses deserve the attention of marketers looking to leverage the presence of their brands on social media.
Read on to learn more.
Collab Houses — What Are They?
As you might’ve guessed the “collab” in collab houses comes from the word “collaboration,” which is the entire goal of these houses in the first place. While the internet facilitates collaboration across distances far and wide, it can’t replicate the level of teamwork you get from having two or more people together in the same room. Anyone who’s ever been in a video-chat meeting with multiple people knows this (“Oh, Greg, I think you just cut out for a second. Can you repeat that last thing you said? Yeah, still can’t hear you.”). In essence, collab houses boost creative potential and output by bringing young influencers together in the same space under one physical roof. The physical location itself is what makes the collab house a novel idea.
So, what’s their history? Collab houses have been around for a few years now. Back in 2014, a group of YouTube stars, who called themselves Our Second Life, moved in together and set up shop in a mansion they referred to as 02L Mansion. In 2015, a group of influencers from Vine moved into a large apartment together on 1600 Vine Street in LA. Other collab houses in the area include Vlog Squad, Clout House, and Team 10.
While they aren’t necessarily new, collab houses made the news recently following the launch of Hype House — the newest and perhaps one of the most influential collab houses to come together yet. Situated in the foothills of Los Angeles, The Hype House — a Spanish style mansion — houses 19 influencers with four of the group’s members living on location full-time.
19 young adults (most of them teens) living together in an LA mansion unsupervised — what could go wrong?
Well, so far, the group seems to be doing alright, especially in terms of their reach on social media. After posting images of their first group appearance, the cohort of young influencers and their hashtag, #hypehouse, started trending within minutes. In the span of a few short weeks, the group’s videos earned more than 100 million views on TikTok, which is itself the new kid on the social media block.
For many members of Hype House, TikTok is their bread and butter. While each influencer in Hype House maintains a presence on other forms of social media (often with very large followings), most of the group’s members first made their names on TikTok. 15-year-old Charli D’Amelio, for instance, started her TikTok career during the summer of 2019. Since then, over 22 million people have followed her TikTok account with nearly 200,000 more following the account each day.
While TikTok allowed Charli to make a name for herself as a dancer, it’s not the only social media platform she has a robust presence on (as we mentioned before). Her Instagram account, for example, boasts a following of nearly 6 million people while her Twitter handle commands a total of over 280,000 followers. And, even though she only has one video on YouTube, Charli still managed to accrue a following of over 840,000 followers on the platform.
Recently, United Talent Agency signed Charli and her sister, Dixie, to a contract that would allow the agency to help the two stars manage their careers and expand into live tours, digital content, podcasts, TV, books, and endorsements. But, given the magnitude of success experienced by Charli, Dixie, and other Hype House members across multiple platforms, United Talent Agency isn’t the only organization seeing the opportunity for partnership.
What’s Magic Behind Collab Houses?
Again, the real magic of collab house influencers, like those of Hype House, is that they have thousands or even millions of followers across multiple platforms. Their ability to work together to create content only amplifies their potential to reach even more social users. When two or more influencers work together, which collab houses make easy to do, these influencers cross-promote each others’ content, which further adds to their fan-bases. Many of these influencers have similar followings to begin with, which makes it easier to pick up followers when collaboration occurs.
As Hype House gains more followers, so do the social accounts of each of its members across all platforms. With influencers receiving millions of followers organically and with big brands doing the same, the stage is set for monumental collaborations between the two parties.
That being said, brands like Chipotle, Kroger, and the NFL have already achieved success and amassed thousands of followers on TikTok. Chipotle’s lid flip challenge provides a good example of what brands are capable of on the platform. With the lid-flip challenge, one user would post a video under #ChipotleLidFlip, which would cause their followers and other users checking out the same hashtag to see the video. Naturally, some TikTokers found the challenge intriguing enough to share a video of themselves attempting the same challenge. And, within a month, #ChipotleLidFlip received more than 230 million views.
Now think about how far Chipotle could reach by tapping into the combined creative potential of The Hype House with its 7.3 million followers? How many more views could #ChipotleLidFlip receive if even two members of Hype House, like Charli D’Amelio (22+ million followers) and Chase Hudson (11+ million followers), teamed up to promote Chipotle’s lid-flip challenge on TikTok? You do the math, but we’re guessing you get the point — collab houses and brand partnerships have serious potential.
So, what can marketers and brands do to get in on the action?
Find our answer in The Takeaway below.
The Takeaway
- Understand the environments (like TikTok and collab houses) that are ripe for modern creativity. How do you create those conditions within your store experience?
- Tap into organically aligned influencers that match the tastes of your audience — not just mega-influencers and stereotypical celebrities.
- Follow the trends. Keep in touch with The HypeHouse via — Instagram / TikTok
Want to learn more? Feel free to reach out at any time. We would love to chat!
The above piece was written by the Latitude Supercharge Research Team, which includes Connor Beck and Carter Jensen
Supporting Resources —
Resources and original reporting of the above points covered by the following publications — Deseret News, Business Insider, The New York Times, Elite Daily, and Refinery29
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