Zendaya 2

Zendaya: Audience and Industries blog tasks

Create a new blogpost called 'Zendaya: Audience and Industries blog tasks' and work through the following to complete your case study.

Audience

Smart Water brand case study

Read this Smart Water case study from Influencer Intelligence and answer the following questions:

1) What is the charity link to her Smart Water brand ambassador role and how does this link to the celebrity persona she has created?

“We could not be more thrilled to have Zendaya join smartwater as the newest face of our brand,” said Matrona Filippou, Global Category President, Hydration, Sports, Tea & Coffee, The Coca-Cola Company. “A global icon and cultural force, Zendaya isn’t afraid to be true to herself, and that’s what makes her the perfect addition to the smartwater family.”

2) Read the analysis of Zendaya’s social media profile. What statistics support why she is described as ‘a high-ranking celebrity influencer’?

Zendaya appears in the list of high-ranking celebrity influences (alongside Selena Gomez, Bill Gates and Miley Cyrus), ranking in the top 10% of all Twitter accounts, with 25.4% share. 

3) What details are provided about Zendaya’s audience?

• Diving into hobbies, Zendaya’s fans on Twitter are interested in music, mystery films, reality TV, social networks and fantasy books. On Instagram, music, basketball, fashion, makeup, coffee, radio, boxing, skateboarding and American football reign supreme. 

• Other celebrity influences for this profile include Ariana Grande, Beyoncé, Kylie Jenner, Demi Lovato, Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Dwayne Johnson and Harry Styles.

• Comparing media consumption, Zendaya’s followers enjoy MTV, Vogue, E! News, ESPN, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Marie Claire, Hugo Gloss, Playboy, The Times and HBO. 

• Interestingly, smartwater does not come up as one of Zendaya’s audiences key brand affinities. Instead, we can see Victoria’s Secret, Nike, Disney, Netflix, CHANEL, Christian Dior, Adidas, Starbucks and Marvel are popular. Vitamin Water does appear on her Twitter profile, which is somewhat of a competitor, as does FitTea.

4) What psychographic groups would fit the profile for Zendaya’s audience in this case study?

Aspirers. 

5) Why does the case study suggest Zendaya is a good fit for the Smart Water brand?

Overall, Zendaya and smartwater are more or less aligned when it comes to age, gender and location demographics. It may be that the brand are hoping the star will raise its profile with younger consumers, as well as tapping into her 190m social reach and over £1m social media value. Zendaya also has well above average equity, appeal and awareness scores and is one of the biggest names on the planet right now. She is no stranger to brand partnerships, but this marks her first drinks collaboration and continues her philanthropic project work.

Social media data analysis

Look at this analysis website for Zendaya’s Instagram account. Complete the following tasks:

1) Pick out three notable statistics from the site.

2) Scroll down through the data available. Who are Zendaya’s top mentions and what does this suggest about how she uses the account?

• louisvuitton
• nicolasghesquiere
• lancomeofficial
• abdmstudio

These mentions suggest that Zendaya uses her Instagram account for strictly professional purposes. Which in turn doesn't validate Zendaya's statement of having complete control over her Instagram.

3) How does Zendaya’s Instagram engagement rate of 3%+ compare with the average engagement rate for accounts with more than 100,000 followers? 

It shows that Zendaya is doing something differently than all the other influences in her bracket, as her audience interacts with her more - could be because she makes herself relatable. 

Zendaya: audience questions and theories

Finally, work through the following questions to apply media debates and theories to the Zendaya CSP: 

1) Is Zendaya’s website and social media constructed to appeal to a particular gender or audience?

In my opinion, I don't think so. I feel as like she makes content or constructs her social media to make it feel relatable to anybody.

2) What opportunities are there for audience interaction in Zendaya’s online presence and how controlled are these? 

Through the use of comments or replies, these are controlled however, as she would have a media team pinpoint certain comments she is allowed to reply to. In the case of her Twitter however, it seems she replies to comments as she pleases.

3) How does Zendaya’s social media presence reflect Clay Shirky’s ‘End of Audience’ theories?

I think that her social media presence is a product of the theory, as it contributes to the media in the form of memes or genuine social change

4) What effects might Zendaya’s online presence have on audiences? Is it designed to influence the audience’s views on social or political issues or is this largely a vehicle to promote Zendaya’s work? 

In my opinion, I think her online presence is a vehicle to promote her work as a wide majority of her social media contains strictly work based products. Audiences also aren't too keen to show or comment on how they feel either, thus validating my point.

5) Applying Hall’s Reception theory, what might be a preferred and oppositional reading of Zendaya’s online presence? 

The preferred reading of Zendaya's online presence would have audiences questioning certain beliefs or checking out an investing in the brands she showcases/mentions, whereas the oppositional reading would consist of "oh wow, she looks great in this louis vuitton marketing photo" or "she is really well versed in politics or the media."

Industries

How social media companies make money

Read this analysis of how social media companies make money and answer the following questions:

1) How many users do the major social media sites boast?

As of Q4 2022, Meta (META), formerly Facebook, had 2.96 billion monthly active users. Twitter (now X) stopped reporting monthly active users, but the last count in Q1 2019 was 330 million, while LinkedIn had about 900 million monthly active users as of Q1 2023.

2) What is the main way social media sites make money? 

Through advertising.

3) What does ARPU stand for and why is it important for social media companies?

For social media, the importance of the number of viewers glued to their computer or smartphone screens is every bit as important (if not more so) as it is to commercial television. There’s a reason why Meta’s 10-K filing with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) uses the acronym ARPU, which means average revenue per user.

4) Why has Meta spent huge money acquiring other brands like Instagram and WhatsApp?

Growing Meta’s user base to the point where it reached critical mass was obviously important to the company’s operations, but only to the extent that it provided something to attract advertisers. To an uninterested observer, committing $19 billion to acquire the texting application WhatsApp might sound like the height of dot-com-era hubris and recklessness. But it wasn't.

WhatsApp boasts over 2 billion monthly active users, which to Meta management means an even greater stock of susceptible minds to sell as a unit to companies looking to, for instance, move a few more smartphones this quarter. Every acquisition Meta has made since, whether it was $1 billion for Instagram or $19 billion for WhatsApp, was conducted with the same goal in mind.

5) What other methods do social media sites have to generate income e.g. Twitter Blue?

Other social media companies are also exploring new ways to increase their revenue. For example, after Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022, he changed the site's blue "verified" checkmark system. These checkmarks were once given to prominent or important accounts (such as journalists, politicians, celebrities, and newspapers, and other media accounts) to show that their identities had been verified and could be trusted.

Under the new system that Musk implemented in 2023, however, checkmarks became a symbol that users had subscribed to X Premium. X Premium subscribers receive benefits including editable posts, fewer ads, longer posts, and more robust security measures. This service costs $8 per month or $84 per year.

Other websites have followed in Twitter's footsteps and have also introduced these premium services before. Snapchat's "Snapchat +", and Youtube's "Youtube Premium" are some of the iconic instances of this trend.

Regulation of social media

Read this BBC News article on a report recommending social media regulation. Answer the following questions:

1) What suggestions does the report make? Pick out three you think are particularly interesting. 

• implementing "circuit breakers" so that newly viral content is temporarily stopped from spreading while it is fact-checked

• making it illegal to exclude people from content on the basis of race or religion, such as hiding a spare room advert from people of colour

• banning the use of so-called dark patterns - user interfaces designed to confuse or frustrate the user, such as making it hard to delete your account

2) Who is Christopher Wylie? 

Among those contributing to the report were Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie, and former Facebook investor Roger McNamee - a long-time critic of the social network.

3) What does Wylie say about the debate between media regulation and free speech? 

In an interview with BBC News, Mr Wylie said the report's recommendations had been designed to protect individuals' free expression.

The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Whenever social media regulation is proposed, there are concerns about stifling free speech. Don't your proposals pose such a risk?

In most Western democracies, you do have the freedom of speech. But freedom of speech is not an entitlement to reach. You are free to say what you want, within the confines of hate speech, libel law and so on. But you are not entitled to have your voice artificially amplified by technology.

These platforms are not neutral environments. Algorithms make decisions about what people see or do not see. Nothing in this report restricts your ability to say what you want. What we're talking about is the platform's function of artificially amplifying false and manipulative information on a wide scale.

4) What is ‘disinformation’ and do you agree that there are things that are objectively true or false? 

Who defines what counts as misinformation?

I guess this gets down to something fairly fundamental: do you believe in truth? There are some objectively disprovable things spreading quite rapidly on Facebook right now. For example, that Covid does not exist and that the vaccine is actually to control the minds of people. These are all things that are manifestly untrue, and you can prove that.

Our democratic institutions and public discourse are underpinned by an assumption that we can at least agree on things that are true. Our debates may be about how we respond or what values we apply to a particular problem, but we at least have a common understanding that there are certain things that are manifestly true.

5) Why does Wylie compare Facebook to an oil company? 

An oil company would say: "We do not profit from pollution." Pollution is a by-product - and a harmful by-product. Regardless of whether Facebook profits from hate or not, it is a harmful by-product of the current design and there are social harms that come from this business model.

6) What does it suggest a consequence of regulating the big social networks might be? 

If you have a platform that has the unique selling point of "we will allow you to promote hate speech, we will allow you to deceive and manipulate people", I do not think that business model should be allowed in its current form. Platforms that monetise user engagement have a duty to their users to make at least a minimum effort to prevent clearly identified harms. I think it's ridiculous that there's more safety consideration for creating a toaster in someone's kitchen, than for platforms that have had such a manifest impact on our public health response and democratic institutions.

7) What has Instagram been criticised for?

This is a product of a platform that is making recommendations to you. These algorithms work by picking up what you engage with and then they show you more and more of that.

In the report, we talk about a "cooling-off period". You could require algorithms to have a trigger that results in a cooling-off period for a certain type of content.

If it has just spent the past week showing you body-building ads, it could then hold off for the next two weeks. If you want to promote body building, you can.

But from the user's perspective, they should not be constantly bombarded with a singular theme.

8) Can we apply any of these criticisms or suggestions to Zendaya? For example, should Zendaya have to explicitly make clear when she is being paid to promote a company or cause? 

In my opinion, I cater towards both options for the statement. I feel like making a clear promotional post should only happen in the case of devastating real world events, or products or media that either relate to her professional side or give some sort of benefit to the world. However for mediocre situation, I don't think she needs to push it.