BEAUTY HAULS & REVIEWS CONTEXTUAL REPORT

BCM302

Knowing that this is the final digital artefact and contextual report is bittersweet. Looking back at all the digital artefacts I’ve begun, developed or neglected indeed shows my growth as a person finding my way and footing in the digital world which has been exciting, fun and at times challenging to keep up with. For my final digital artefact, I decided it was best to continue a previous digital artefact that I enjoyed and found had utility for myself and also for others who consumed my content. My digital artefact I had named “Beauty Hauls and Reviews” and focused to publish my content through TikTok.

Background

I began this digital artefact journey wanting to make an impact in the beauty and makeup industry. This is ultimately the industry that I have wanted to focus on and delve into. Its been my passion and hobby since the age of 13. As I’ve been involved in some form or another in the beauty industry, I felt I had enough knowledge and expertise from watching others, for creating content surrounding the beauty and makeup industry and found it was important for my future. Before studying for my bachelor of communications and media, I had never had that push of encouragement to begin doing something in this industry and for that, I’ll forever be grateful to have had that push and ability to ideate, test and reiterate as well as scrapping and beginning all over again when failure was experienced.

I wouldn’t have labelled myself as a content creator when I began the DA, but seeing how far I’ve come since taking the DA seriously, I can see in my future labelling myself in this way especially or more specifically as a TikTok content creator. I’ve come to love the process and the responses that my followers have had with me and the content I’ve published. It’s a truly exciting and surreal experience to see and hear from followers and be able to interact with people on a topic I love.

Pitch Blog Post & Video

Proposed Utility

For my final digital artefact, I began with the intention to grow my online presence in the beauty and makeup space on TikTok. I never intended this DA to become a “beauty influencer” type of digital artefact and nor did I ever expect to see the growth that I have seen in the past 3 months. I simply decided that to pursue my passion, I needed to make this a passion project rather than focusing on the fact that this was an assessment, I framed this digital artefact as a passion project and hobby. This mindset and framing of my digital artefact gave me the extra passion and drive to work on the digital artefact without feeling as though it was a hassle or burden.

Apart from the desire to grow my presence on the platform to help others, I wanted to set myself as a beauty content creator from Australia. The majority of content creators in this space are from other countries, with the vast majority being from the United States of America. It is difficult to be a part of this beauty tiktok realm as Australians unfortunately often miss out on new product launches and brands that are exclusive to stores Australians cannot access. I wanted to create content that focused on Australian brands or products that anyone could easily access and purchase for themselves if they wished.

Methodology

The intended methodology with the DA was to continue carrying on my previous DA by posting consistently once a day. I never mentioned this previously as I hadn’t realised this prior, but I posted these daily videos at around 9 pm-9:30 pm which I believe had a successful impact on the growth I experienced throughout this process. Although I intended to post at least one video daily, this was not always something I could achieve but in saying this, I ensured that if I had some time away from posting when I did make my return, I worked harder and created content that was trending or that had an important utility to my audience that ultimately saw growth.

I generally spent my weekends batch creating content to then edit daily as needed to post to my account. Occasionally I posted 1-2 videos a day. Knowing not all people enjoy waiting for a part 2, I often decided the best way to reach my audience and have them return for part 2, would be to post the content videos back to back. This certainly saw part 1 videos have far better results but it did also pull people back to my page and potentially have them select to watch the other videos.

Alongside my video posting and the intended schedule I had created for myself, I decided to document my progress through monthly reports. Consider the end of this report as my October update. I stuck true to this schedule although there were times I should have posted the updates sooner, I still persevered and wrote up a blog post update that included progress reports and exciting things I discovered and found to happen in that particular month. To see those progress update blog posts, please follow the links below.

August Update

September Update:

Intended Audience / Starter Pack

My intended audience is easy to describe yet hard to pinpoint due to TikTok’s algorithm. It’s difficult to determine if the audience consuming my content fits my exact intended audience but with the interaction and growth I’ve experienced, I feel I can safely assume my content has reached my desired audience. These people are part of my below starter pack.

I imagine my audience to look, feel and be a part of the beauty side of tiktok in one or multiple ways pictured in my audience starter pack. I feel I fit this starter pack as I have also been heavily influenced by the recommendations given by other TikTokers in the beauty realm.

Collaboration Element

This new feature to collaborate with another person developing their digital artefact was interesting, and if you used your opportunity wisely, it was an excellent way to get feedback and advice from a new perspective. This insight has the potential to assist you to create further improvements in the development of the DA. I decided that the best use and collaboration for my DA would be to contact Kira Sweet.

I decided to reach out to Kira back in week 5. My DA had progressed from the beginning statistics I had recorded earlier that month but was not seeing any steady or consistent new followers, comments or views. Kira was part of the creative services team providing fellow DA peers advice on their TikTok pages as she has grown her own and managed other TikTok accounts quite well and had the knowledge and experience I was lacking in this area. Although reaching out made me nervous, the whole process was easy and quite delightful! She had put out a post on Twitter looking for any DAs she could lend her services to, so I replied and we got to talking. We ended up organising a date when we could meet on zoom. She analyzed the content I had already published and provided me with a document full of different ways I could improve my content and begin seeing growth on TikTok and in the niche I specifically have chosen to be a part of.

This zoom meeting was extremely insightful and I found it to have helped me immensely. In the meeting, we discussed points of improvement and ways I could get my content and my message in this niche more defined. Everything we discussed in the zoom meeting was sent to me afterwards which helped me go back and take a look at the document which I did multiple times throughout my DA’s progress as a way to go back and find inspiration when I felt I was lacking ideas.

The ideas that were brought forward in the meeting with Kira and me were in the document provided to me and after analysing my content now, it is evident her advice helped a lot. I began to recognise the names of people who were regularly interacting and consuming my content. For me, this meant that I was beginning to see the signs of growth and improvement in my content and my niche and ultimately suggesting that I was growing in this niche. I was beginning to see my presence make an impact. Due to this, I would say that without the collaborative element, my DA may not have done as well as I have seen it achieve. I thoroughly enjoyed the collaboration that was included in this digital artefact assessment task.

Feedback

The feedback I received mainly came from my collaborative element and what Kira and I discussed when analysing the content I had already produced and published to improve upon for my future content. If I was to give feedback to myself looking back at how I’ve managed my DA, I can certainly see areas I could have improved on. I would say that the weeks that I consistently posted the content that was trending and where I was actively and consistently posting were my best. My downfall areas where I hadn’t noticed as much interaction came from the moments I had taken a break. These breaks certainly had an impact where occasionally I would notice losing a few followers or not getting the interaction I normally received. My feedback to myself is to stay consistent and persistent. I cannot truly continue this DA if I do not love it, and of course, through the development of my previous and current DA, I’ve come to enjoy the whole process and can confidently say, I LOVE IT!

The biggest indicator from my audience that suggested I was on the right track was the growth, likes, saved, shares and comments my videos began gaining. This was the best feedback I could have asked for. Of course, comments asking for follow-up content were great! They gave me video ideas and had the commenters come back to my page. Listening to my audience and what they wanted to see was a key factor for the continued return of my followers.

The October Update

I began October with the below statistics.

Now I have ended, well almost ended the month with these statistics.

This progress is amazing, especially for me because it shows me that the advice that I was given and the content I’ve been creating and publishing to my audience are doing well and I’m on the right path.

October saw the biggest growth. I was producing content that was trending and using hashtags that were highly ranked. I found that this month was one worth creating content for because Australian beauty stores were having sales and launching Christmas products. Christmas always has the best deals and therefore makes content recommending products highly ranked. I simply hope that after this DA is submitted, my TikTok page can still grow like that of my TikTok page used as a DA.

Advice to future digital artefacts

Do not start a DA if you strongly do not love the topic. Your DA will feel like a chore if you don’t choose wisely. Begin creating your dream content and do not care what others may think because all that matters is that YOU are proud of yourself and what YOU have produced.

Overall, looking back on my DA, I could not be happier to say that I didn’t feel as though I was impacted by FIFO, that’s an achievement I’m very happy to report. After 3 years and many moments where I felt as though my DA had failed, I’ve finally found a DA that I not only love but am proud of. It certainly wasn’t easy getting here but I’m certainly proud of myself and the perseverance that these last 3 years of creating and publishing content have allowed me to accomplish. When you love what you create, it shows!

TIKTOK PAGE: @oliviajlopez

Are these the final peer reviews for BCM?

BCM302

I think I say it every round of peer reviews, I never enjoy these. I often feel uncomfortable although I know I am only providing feedback and notes on potential improvements if needed, I can’t help but always feel out of place.

For this round of peer reviews, I have decided to follow Jess Jenkins’ journey on the creative services team. She is providing the service of photography and the development of aesthetics. After viewing and reading the pitch, I felt a bit lost as to what this DA was called and where I could access such a service if I needed to. Although there is a link to a previous DA’s Instagram page, there is no exact place she is advertising her services that make me understand what services are being provided. I felt as though there needed to have a specific platform/s that would showcase what was on offer and potentially clarify how clients would be gained if there were no services being advertised. This I found confusing as I’m struggling to see how I can keep up with her journey in photography and aesthetic development without a defined platform.

It seems as though this DA is something that Jess enjoys and has found a passion for, which is something I love to see when someone is developing a DA. As someone who is not a photographer, I can appreciate the hard work that photography and aesthetic development require, and I look forward to the DA’s growth. I do wonder how this DA assists in Jess’ future. I assume photography is the industry she may like to pursue but she also mentions social media management so I’m curious to see how both of these will relate to one another or if they do, how and why wasn’t this shown in your pitch. I would have enjoyed getting to see what could be created.

This semester I will also be following Georgie O’Brien’s journey on the B29 Resources Team. This DA Pitch was clear and effective in explaining what the purpose of the DA’s development was. As someone who does not have access to building 29 or have any knowledge of what can be found there, this is quite interesting. I enjoyed getting to hear the excitement in Georgie’s pitch video and to be able to see who their target audience is as well as how the B29 resources team intend to get their content across to their audience was really well done. I liked seeing direct links that took me to the platforms that were being used as part of this DA.

I did find the DA pitch video speaking to be a little fast, but this is something I know I commonly happen to do which to me means the person is excited and passionate about their project. This I can forgive because I much prefer to hear a fast speaker than someone who may not actually have any proper interest in their DA. I do question how this DA has relevance for Georgie’s future as promoting UOW’s building 29 is only truly useful if it had a correlation to a future prospect. I assume social media management as Georgie and the team appear to place a strong focus on their social media channels to promote this particular building.

Overall, I’m excited to see what happens next with these 2 DA projects. I chose to follow these as they are quite different to one another but also from my own which could give me inspiration on how I can better develop my DA.

Beauty Hauls & Reviews

BCM302

It is pretty obvious once meeting me that beauty & makeup is more than a love or a passion, it takes up the majority of my life. It is what I dream about in my sleep and what I know in my heart will always keep me sane.

As my DA is a continuation of a previous DA, I wanted to continue to pursue this topic because DAs can feel like a lot of straining work when you start an idea you don’t truly love and have the time or ability to commit to. As this DA ended up becoming a hobby of mine from previous semesters, I know that I can commit to creating and publishing content for BCM302 and truly give it more than just a little bit of thought, I can give it my all.

My strategy for this DA is similar to the strategy I use outside of uni. This means staying up to date with all the latest trends and product launches and creating content to reflect what is trending and new in beauty and makeup. Although this will mean purchasing products to review and haul and therefore can be expensive to keep up with, I know I would have purchased these products regardless if they were for my DA or simply to grow my collection. I love trying new products and growing my makeup collection and in the meantime, I’m getting to help others who view my content, letting them know if what is being featured is worth the splurge. Most times it is but its good to have someone tell you if something is worthless to save you your money because beauty and makeup is not cheap.

I am beginning my DA with these current statistics.

Content will be published daily to my TikTok account @oliviajlopez. I’m always experimenting with the best time to post my content during any day to get the best results and will document my results throughout the progress and duration of this DA. I also hope to find the best hashtag combination for the highest results of views, likes and shares on my content. I hope to document this progress and what I’ve discovered monthly to my blog which I will advertise on my Twitter account for anyone interested in my progress.

Though I’m aiming to continue to grow and build my DA, I am focusing on the development of my online presence on TikTok, but also within the beauty realm. With this, I have identified that I am not aiming for a particular number of views on a video or to reach a particular number of followers, though this is a good way to know that I am building my presence, I am more so looking at the comments, recommendations & suggestions viewers of my content are asking to see from me as a big integral part of my DA’s success. Interaction with anyone consuming my content is important to me as it helps to build my presence in the beauty space on TikTok.

Where do I fit in the beauty industry? Will I be a part of it in the future?

BCM325

To close off my DA, I wanted to talk about my future in the beauty industry. To be clear, this is ultimately the industry I hope to work in. With my DA blog posts, I wanted to research the industry and decided to also use TikTok to create content and become a more active member of the beauty industry, most often referred to as the beauty community.

Aside from working in the industry with the hope to work in marketing and advertising, I have always dreamed of working in the content creator realm. I want to make mention of my past because I feel as though this is important for context as to why I feel the way I feel.

Since my introduction to makeup tutorials on youtube back in 2014, I have always loved the idea of creating and posting videos. Still, as a young 13-year-old, the idea of posting content on the internet when I was a shy girl, who kept to herself always scared me. Filming was always fun, but I had no idea how to edit a video or how to upload a video, which over the years I taught myself but was never brave enough to finally post.

In a previous DA, I did finally decide to post beauty videos to youtube but keeping up with filming, editing, uni, a job, a global pandemic and all the craziness in between made the process difficult and it was during that same time, that TikTok was taking off. It was at that moment that I felt I could post beauty content, content free of judgement from those around me. Since then, I have come to love the process of creating content a lot more and because of this, I believe that TikTok content creation is part of my future in this industry.

I made a goal at the beginning of 2022 to consistently post to TikTok.Many people have new years resolutions, I spend my first days of the new year writing up goals that I feel are realistic, growing my tiktok account was one of them. Since January 3rd, I have logged my statistics to see the growth month after month which encourages me to continue to create content.

I didn’t set a specific number of followers or a specific number of views, but I set the goal to be consistent. This has actually been something I can confidently say I have stuck to. Now I may not post daily, but I post to the platform without feeling anxious about what people think because I have come to realise that this is part of my future and you cannot achieve your goals or dreams without action.

So far these are the statistics that I’ve collected since the beginning of the year. These are not all precisely tracked.

My ultimate goal, alongside content creation, has always been to work for a beauty brand and if we’re being specific, Too Faced. Their motto is Own Your Pretty and I felt that that was an important message. I bought every product (still purchase from them just not as often) and was so obsessed with the brand that when I met their Executive Director Global Beauty and makeup artist Elyse Reneau, I 110% freaked out and of course immediately told her I wanted to work with Too Faced. We talked about the different ways I could work for the brand which ultimately meant working for Mecca, which of course, I’m not going to complain about.

The point of this post isn’t to brag about my love for content creation, or followers (they’re not that impressive yet), but for me to have something to look back on when I’m working for a beauty brand of my dreams or living my dream of content creation or maybe owning my own beauty brand and being my own girl boss.

The point of this DA wasn’t to just research the future of the beauty industry and document it, but to also continue working on what I hope to spend the majority of my life doing. Working or simply being a part of the beauty industry.

My future will always include the beauty industry in some form or another but how I get to the top positions is something I cannot specifically outline because the future is not set in stone. What I do know, is my participation, love and passion I confirmed over 7 years ago.

Beauty is my life, it’s what makes me most excited and calms me down during moments of panic. The love I have for beauty is on the same level as my love for Ariana Grande, my dog Mollie and course my family, and for that, I’m certain that my future will always include the beauty industry.

My OVERLY Large Personal Makeup Collection

Are you TWEETING me?

BCM325

Live-tweeting this second half of the semester was a very different experience in comparison to the first half. This time around, I felt a little more confident and understood more of what was expected. I even found a little routine that allowed me to generate tweets prior to our viewing of the weekly film and still engage with my peers.

Looking back on each week I began to realise the connection between the weekly lecture topic and the film we watched if I hadn’t seen the lecture prior to the film I didn’t pick up the connection which was something I experienced in the earlier half of our viewings.

The task of tweeting and engaging with these films whilst also making connections to the lecture material was a challenge. I found myself wanting to watch the films and soak up what was being communicated without forgetting to tweet and interact with my peers and the connections they were making and often found that I would read movie reviews and analyses the night before to prepare tweets and tweet them at the perfect moments.

Looking back on each week, I found there were moments that truly stood out to me.

Robot and Frank (2012) Week 6

Tweet 1

Tweet 2

This week was centred on artificial intelligence, Robot and Frank truly showed us a future that is not only possible but also positive. Aside from the stealing, the fundamental value that our future will rely on artificial intelligence in the form of a robot similar to Robot is not only a future we should look forward to but one with many benefits for all ages not just for our elderly. It shows us that our futures may not actually be as different or as dystopian as other films depict our futures to look like and for this I found this film to be one that made me look forward to our future. Artificial intelligence doesn’t have to be negative or completely change our lives for the worse, it’s there to prevent human error, being available 24/7 or for the simple fact that for those tasks that humans may not be able to complete AI is there to assist (Kumar 2019).

Arrival 2016 (Week 8)

Tweet 1

Tweet 2 & Tweet 3

Arrival was a film with a slow start. It was highly emotional and focused on that highly interesting question, are aliens real? Futurists use their curiosity to gain knowledge about what’s to come. They anticipate future scenarios and Dr Louise Banks did just that. She used her knowledge and communicative skills and was able to communicate with the Aliens and was given the opportunity to see her own future. The future she was seeing was one she decided to continue rather than alter her destined future. This film showed us the probable, the possible and the preferable.

Alita Battle Angel 2019 (Week 9)

Tweet 1

Tweet 2

Alita Battle Angel made me think about the people we already have in our society. If a cyborg is defined as having both human organic elements and biochemical components, this would mean any person with an artificial limb fits within the definition of a cyborg. With this in mind, people with artificial limbs do not yet possess the physical abilities that Alita had. This area of technology has so much yet to continue to develop making it a very important and interesting area to watch out for, we may one day just have our very own version of Alita.

Ready Player One 2018 Week 10

Tweet 1

Tweet 2

Ready Player One invites the thoughts of virtual reality and cyberspace to us in a way that makes us realise this is our future. Our cyberspace worlds already exist, they may not exist in the exact same way as The Oasis, but we already have The Metaverse from Facebook and of course the virtual reality games. We can even look at our social media platforms as cyberspace, where we can reinvent ourselves if we wish, and only show who and what we want to one another.

This round of live-tweeting was more insightful and enjoyable. The films felt to me to be more realistic accounts of where our future could evolve towards. The advancements we have had in technology make the potential of the futures found in these films feel more achievable. These advancements seem more probable to occur because they have better CGI and special effects that make the events in the films appear more believable and thus also making them more enjoyable to consume.

The lecture content correlated perfectly with each of our films and made me begin to imagine the possibilities that could become our future. Cyberspace and artificial intelligence feel more inevitable than the arrival of aliens and changing our destined future or the emergence of cyborgs like Alita, but we never know when a new life form may enter earth or become lab-grown/sewn. This is where we truly need futurists to plan and think through ways to live through such events. This task has made me question all aspects of life and for that I’m grateful.

References

Kumar 2019, Advantages and Disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence, Medium, Towards Data Science, viewed 16 May 2022, <https://towardsdatascience.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-artificial-intelligence-182a5ef6588c>.

#What the Tweet!

BCM325

These past few weeks have been a very new and interesting experience. Live tweeting a movie is not an activity I have ever partaken in prior to BCM325 and it’s definitely brought up quite a few different emotions for me. In this critical self-reflection, I wanted to discuss pivotal moments I discovered during the process of live-tweeting and discuss what I’ve learned and what I believe I can continue to improve on.

My biggest concern that I’ve developed whilst participating in these live-tweeting events has been the quality of content that I’ve produced. As someone who extremely rarely watches anything to do with the theme of sci-fi, robots and technology takeovers, I have felt very out of place during this experience. This feeling has stopped me from feeling confident in my tweets and relating our weekly lecture content and readings to the films due to my lack of total understanding and enjoyment of the films we have consumed.

A key takeaway from what I’ve learnt during this process is the importance of multi-tasking whilst the film is playing. This has involved creating discussions with my peers, developing my own tweets from things I find interesting or important and the most obvious, watching the film and thoroughly consuming its content. This has not proven to be as easy a task as I had initially expected it to have been and will continue to be a challenge for me throughout the semester.

What I feel I’ve done well has been creating discussions through my tweets and also learning to be open to new film genres and themes I wouldn’t typically consume. I feel as though being open to these new film genres has allowed me to see different perspectives of the films and understand why my peers have made particular parts of the film tweetable moments that have created genuine interest and discussion amongst each of us.

I did want to also bring awareness to the areas that I struggled with which included the lecture content and relating it to the films we have watched. Due to this identification, I will be making it a priority to work on this in my future tweets. I decided to go back through my lecture notes and create connections between the lecture content and the films watched.

Let me Peer into your Pitch

BCM325

Peer commentary tasks are never my favourite, although I do enjoy getting to learn about my peer’s digital artefacts.

Rebekah’s DA is focused on the future of her pre-existing dog Instagram and TikTok page.

Kathyrn will be delving into the future of the automotive industry.

Hannah’s DA is centered around her own future.

Critical Self-Evaluation on Comments- What did I learn during the process?

Looking over my comments, I feel comfortable saying that everyone developed a great pitch and my comments show this. Although all 3 had things I would have included or changed, I must be critical and remember that because all 3 topics are very different to one another, they will not have similar styles in the way they pitched their DAs especially when I compare them to my DA pitch.

I always find leaving comments on my peers work a bit uncomfortable especially if the topics are of areas I have no knowledge/ very little knowledge of. This then leaves me in a spot where I need to find the perfect balance between analysing the topic to the way its presented to come up with a useful and hopefully a comment with constructive feedback ensuring no bias is included.

The main takeaway I learnt from this process is how large and unique all the DAs are from one another although we are studying the same degree. I also love seeing how differently we plan our DA schedules/timelines as this gives me insight into how much work each person plans to put into their DAs development. This can sometimes tell me how invested a person truly is about their topic which for me is very important as why do something if it has no meaning or a degree of usefulness to your future or your interests. I like looking at my DA as a hobby rather than a uni assignment and that for me distinguishes the great DAs from the good DAs.

What do I consider to be good feedback?

For me, good feedback is a bit like a burger (fun fact, it took me 17 years before I ever tried a burger). The top bun is always positive and highlights a well done point, then we have the filling of the burger, which for me is providing the feedback, questioning the DA, and/or highlighted more of what was done well. Then your bottom bun, is about providing links or leaving a useful tip. Although this may not be seen the same amoungst others, I like being praised for something I’ve done well before the areas lacking substance are brought to my attention. I also have found that providing feedback can be discouraging if positives aren’t mentioned which brings down your confidence and sees you question if your DA is suitable for you. For this reason, I like my burger method for leaving feedback for my peers.

What did I learn about my DA from engaging in commentary?

For this, please a take a listen to my short podcast style video below.

The Future of the Beauty Industry

BCM325

Along with my initial aims for my DA, I wanted to provide a proper outline of what I expect to accomplish during my DA. Below is my Gantt chart or my production timeline.

Planning, researching, collecting feedback as well as creating content are all important tasks that I hope to ensure are completed throughout the duration of my DA. These 4 main tasks will make up the bulk of my DA. This leads me to explain why my DA will have utility for myself and for others in the near and far future.

Utility

My DA has utility for my future for the simple reason that I hope my future employers find this DA and recognise the dedication and passion I have for the beauty industry. Since my first dance recital, I’ve fallen in love with the process of applying, supporting, collecting, researching and testing beauty products. I hope for my near, after Uni future, in the next 2.5 years, when I begin applying for my dream job roles within the industry, that my DA gives me the extra edge that allows me to stand out amongst other applicants.

For the far future, I hope that I can look back at my DA and recognise the trends, techniques, predictions and even be able to look back on what would be my history and acknowledge the areas and things that brought me closer to the beauty industry. I hope that future students can look at my DA in 1 year, 3 years, or 20+ years and use some of my research, predictions and content to put towards their own predictions.

Predictions and forecasting are important aspects of future studies. Through the development of my DA, the focus will be centred on these 2 aspects. As we progress into the semester, I will also continue to incorporate the weekly topics into my DA development.

Feedback

Upon beginning and creating content, I intend to respond to any feedback and comments I receive on my TikTok and peers as a way to begin a discussion. Discussions are a great way for me to see alternate views and gain more perspective and understanding. With this, I hope to be able to then if required improve my content or style of delivery of the research to ensure I am producing engaging and thoughtful content.

Let’s Begin

As with most things, history often repeats itself such as with fashion trends, but as for my first prediction for my DA, I do not believe that many beauty trends will repeat themselves. There are things we have all gone through or have seen, and have come to the conclusion that we do not want their return. I think rather than returning, history will be reinvented. Thin brows will not be back and nor will the square, blocky brows (been there, done that, instant regret). I also aim to dive into what activism has looked like in the industry for the recognition of African Americans and those with deeper complexions.

The future is beauty-full!

References

Gill, T 2013, Beauty Shop Politics, Google Books, viewed 18 March 2022, <https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Sq7lCQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=the+future+of+the+beauty+industry&ots=Zq1DlCWm8N&sig=KCkEMvNxicSDY9Q4cFomiDjx8SM&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=the%20future%20of%20the%20beauty%20industry&f=false>

Łopaciuk, A & Łoboda, M 2013, GLOBAL BEAUTY INDUSTRY TRENDS IN THE 21st CENTURY, accessed 18th March 2022, <http://www.toknowpress.net/ISBN/978-961-6914-02-4/papers/ML13-365.pdf>

CONTEXTUAL ESSAY – TIKTOK MAKEUP TUTORIALS AND REVIEWS

BCM206

DA on TikTok: @oliviajlopez

This semester for BCM206, I decided to venture out into the world of TikTok. As a devoted user of the platform, I thought it would be best to test out the platform and for once be the creator rather than the viewer. I began to think about what I hoped to do in the future and I’ve always known that makeup and the beauty industry was where my dream lay and so I decided it would be best to begin my journey in content creation in this industry.

I set out my goal as outlined in my pitch with the intention of encouraging and teaching my audience how to do their makeup. Someone who may not feel confident with a makeup brush or has no idea where to start was where my thought process evolved from. Makeup can be intimidating and something my friends and family always ask me about is providing advice on how to do their own makeup and so my DA makeup reviews and tutorials began. I never set out to become an influencer but rather to help others feel confident and beautiful.

I discovered early on that there are a bunch of people who teach makeup applications but not as many who are honest when reviewing products. Many of these “influencers” were being paid or gifted the products for their reviews or you can tell from their online persona that they’re trying to get those paid jobs. As someone who was buying the products, I decided it would be best to give honest reviews and my opinions to educate my TikTok audience on what they should avoid purchasing.

Below are my 2 DA audience starter packs. The first is based on the people I wanted to reach in my updated version of my DA and therefore the type of girls I was hoping to have my content help. My second was the audience I had initially in mind who wanted to up their makeup game and improve their skills through my tutorials. Unfortunately with TikTok, it is difficult to see 100% who my audience was and is.

I first set out with reviewing 2 products that I had recently purchased but not used and thought it would be the best option to give a live review with minimal cuts or edits to be the most genuine version of myself. Genuine reviews have always been my mission and I feel like I have been able to consistently show through in my videos.

@oliviajlopez
Testing colourpop blush and lite stixs! I think they’re pretty but definitely need to give them another go! #colourpopcosmetics #fypシ #makeupreview
♬ original sound – olivialopez

The video did very well in its initial week officially live and has now become the only video that still consistently receives views. Currently, it has over 700 views, 72 likes and 2 shares! These statistics were really exciting to me as I had never expected people to share my content with others. This was extremely exciting to see especially on my first video. This video is also my only video with a comment I added with extra hashtags which could be the key to the continued growth of the video. Although this was my only comment, the 2 shares are indicative of some small success.

I found the content creation process to get easier and feel less awkward as I continued to find my place in this niche. Talking to a camera or your phone on your own although I have been exposed to the concept for years, is still an unusual situation to be a part of but of course, I persevered and pushed through that awkward stage and continued creating content.

My next few posts were also received in a reasonably well manner but have not experienced consistent and continuous growth like my first video although the hashtags used are very similar with the difference being the product or brand name hashtags that changed. Neither of my next 5 videos had any shares but all experienced similarly likes and views as seen below.

Although I had not received shares, I did receive my first comment which indicated and made me feel like I was on the right path.

After my pitch and before my beta, I decided to play around with the concept of multiple videos with 3 parts as the maximum amount, reviewing a product/s to see if this had any impact in increasing views, likes or shares. Through conducting this mini-experiment, I predicted to have one video outperform the other 2 which is exactly what occurred. The pattern was that either the 1st or the 3rd video performed the best with more likes, views or shares, or a combination.

Throughout the semester the utility was always to educate my audience on what to buy if they’re interested in makeup although my initial idea was to have a combination of reviews and tutorials, I feel I found my little niche on the platform. I hadn’t had a viral video but I’ve seen steady and consistent growth with my views, likes, shares, followers and even comments started to appear on some of my videos.

Whilst checking my analytics, I noticed that my views by regions started to feature the United States indicating my videos were reaching Americans more than Australians meaning a potentially larger audience. I even started to notice European countries were viewing my content which to me feels like a significant breakthrough since starting out my views were only reaching Australian TikTok audiences.

I truly believe with my continuation on this DA, I have the ability to grow my platform and continue to help my audience. I have felt in my element creating content this semester for BCM206. It never felt like a hassle or like it took too much of my time and because of this I enjoyed the process even more than any other DA I’ve developed in the past and I believe it has to do with the platform. TikTok is new to me and so it was exciting to learn about all its editing features and editing techniques. Prior to this semester, I hardly ever used the platform other than as a viewer which made my time fun.

Kim Kardashian Hollywood

BCM215

At the beginning of the semester and reading BCM215’s name- Game Media Industries, I already imagined having to study gaming and gamers, something I had never thought of myself as. Although the entire semester looked over the gaming industry and its different areas, I surprisingly enjoyed the weekly topics and the freedom I had with my DA. I decided after identifying that I’ve always been interested in celebrities and their reasons for their partnerships, that researching and analysing the involvement and the celebrity’s reasons for developing mobile games would allow me to answer the questions I had always had.

I decided to take my approach and analyse celebrity mobile games through a financial and marketing lens. As a commerce student as well as being a communications and media student, I find combining the two areas of my studies interesting. I wanted to see if there was a financial advantage for more than just the celebrity. Identifying if the celebrity is simply placing their name on the game for the financial benefit or if the development of the game is a venture they truly care about was something I knew I wanted to discover.

Initially, my goal was to play and analyse multiple mobile games which I had selected after researching which celebrities had developed games. After selecting the games I wanted to trial, I began my DA, but shortly after my pitch, I knew I needed to change my process because my plan was not achievable so I made the decision to research one game and one celebrity, more specifically, Kim Kardashian Hollywood (KKH) game. The concept of a celebrity can be seen as a commodity or as a commercial product that can be manufactured and traded by promotions and publicities in media industries (Marshall, 1997, 2014). A celebrity can also be seen as having or being a persona. Kim Kardashian has, like all other celebrities, her everyday persona and her celebrity persona which is portrayed and transferred into her KKH game. In the game, her character is your mentor who assists you in developing yourself as a celebrity ‌(Soehendar & Widjayanti, 2020).

15 Problems Only Kim Kardashian: Hollywood Addicts Understand — Cosmopolitan, 2014

Through my research, I learnt that Kim Kardashian Hollywood was released in 2014 which looking back on that year makes me feel old since I’m 2 years into Uni and that was the year I started high school. 2014 was also the year and time the Kardashian name took off, the marriage to her now ex-husband Kanye West and in general social media grew tremendously. The game in its initial launch accrued more than 42 million downloads and $13.6 million from in-app sales in its first quarter (The Kimpact: How Celebrity Apps are changing mobile gaming 2016). The money the game made in its first quarter was equivalent to 24% of the game developers, Glu Games’ revenue. This specific mobile game changed the gaming industry. It was now females who wanted to create and play games when the industry was previously so heavily led by males. Gamers preferred changing outfits rather than slaying dragons and it clearly showed with the success of Kim Kardashian Hollywood.

Financially, Kim Kardashian Hollywood has had significantly large success based on the earning the game as achieved and has been a great business move on Glu Games’ behalf especially approaching a celebrity with such a high celebrity status like Kim Kardashian. To partner with and create a mobile game suitable for her largely female audience and followers, it’s safe to say that she understood the assignment. She understood her audience and followers, their wants and needs and her understanding of how influential she is from her use of social media, and of course, let’s not forget Kris Jenner, they knew this would be the correct move to make. It was also a wise decision that Glu Games used the same mechanics as one of their previously developed games, Stardom Hollywood to use as the base of KKH.

Using the mechanics of an already existing game and rebranding the game to suit the celebrity was a simple way to have Kim Kardashian Hollywood live on the app store allowing for the downloads and ultimately the in-app purchases that accompany the game. Before beginning to analyse KKH, I mentioned I was questioning if the game was on-brand with Kim Kardashian as her aesthetic in all her other business and brand ventures has been neutral, simple but also sophisticated and at an initial glance, KKH looks like the opposite of her aesthetic.

Games aesthetics as I mentioned in my game aesthetics blog post, is a determining factor on if you continue to or stop playing a particular game. Game aesthetics refers to the sensory phenomena that the player encounters in the game (visual, aural, haptic, embodied). Game aesthetics also refers to those aspects of digital games that are shared with other art forms. Lastly, game aesthetics is an expression of the game experienced as pleasure, emotion, sociability, form-giving. (Niedenthal 2009).

Similarly, branding is important. Self-branding is a form of marketing that a person will use to develop a public picture or persona that exhibits their values and reputation and is very popular with celebrities (Fita, 2013). Often they translate this public persona into their ventures such as Kim Kardashian portraying herself as your celebrity mentor in the KKH game. She has also translated this persona in the way she markets and promotes her game on her social media platforms.

Social media marketing (SMM) is very important for the success of any business. SMM works by brands, in this case, Kim Kardashian, although she is a person, has also become a brand, engaging with existing customers (her followers) or reaching new and potential customers or followers to promote new or existing products, culture or missions through sites such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter (Hayes 2021).

Kim Kardashian has used her platforms to engage with her followers and 7 years later still promotes her game concluding that although she may have created this game intending to make money, the game has evolved to be more than just a game. It’s become a passion project she can pass down to her kids and followers to enjoy. The success of this game has to be attributed to her celebrity status and hence the financial benefits the game developers accrued as well as her portion of the profit. You can’t have finance without proper marketing.

References:

Fita, M 2013, What is Self Branding?, 36creative, 36creative, viewed 29 October 2021, <https://36creative.com/branding/1901/self-branding>.

Hayes, A,2021, What Is Social Media Marketing?, Investopedia, viewed 29 October 2021, <https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-media-marketing-smm.asp>.

Marshall, PD 2014, Celebrity and Power : Fame in Contemporary Culture, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. Viewed 29 October 2021], < https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uow/reader.action?docID=1762165>

‌Niedenthal, S 2009, What We Talk About When We Talk About Game Aesthetics, DIVA, DiGRA Online Library, viewed 24th September, 29th October 2021, <https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1408066&dswid=7801>.

‌Soehendar, TP & Widjayanti, EP 2020, THE MANIFESTATION OF KIM KARDASHIAN’S AESTHETIC AND GLAMOUR LABORS IN KIM KARDASHIAN: HOLLYWOOD MOBILE GAME | E-Journal of Cultural Studies, Unud.ac.id, viewed 29 October 2021, <https://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/ecs/article/view/70497>, <file:///Users/olivialopez/Downloads/70497-373-197105-1-10-20210210.pdf>.

The Kimpact: How Celebrity Apps are changing mobile gaming 2016, Mixpanel, viewed 29 October 2021, <https://mixpanel.com/blog/celebrity-apps-changing-mobile-gaming/>.