Plus: What a potential new TikTok app means for brands; report shows local journalists are disappearing.
A beloved series has lost its place in the Nickelodeon kingdom.
When “The Tiny Chef Show” creators Rachel Larsen and Ozlem Akturk learned the news that Nickelodeon was canceling the show, featuring a stop-motion vegan chef who enjoys teaching school-aged children fun recipes, they wanted fans, and the chef himself, to be aware.
Instead of quietly walking away, the creators instead dropped a video in which the chef receives a phone call from “Mickelfodeon” telling him he’s fired. The minute-long clip shows Tiny Chef receiving the call, attempting to plead with the company (“But we won an Emmy!”) and then resigning to his fate and sitting down to shed some tears.
Since it was posted on YouTube two weeks ago, the clip received over 1.2 million views and sparked a public outpouring calling for the show to keep going, the New York Times reports. This effort also spawned a funding page for Tiny Chef that has amassed $140,000 from fans and the relaunch of the character’s “Fwiends Club,” a paid subscription that has already drawn 10,000 members.
“The crowdfunding had helped cover some of our overhead, enough that we feel comfortable moving forward and filling that gap with brand deals” — sponsorships that will appear on the Chef social feeds, Larsen told the Times. “I want the public to know it literally did work.”
Why it matters: Creators are finding that big networks aren’t the only mainstay for success. Sometimes even the most valuable and beloved content can conflict with a network’s bottom line. This puts mass amounts of pressure on creators to perform, even sometimes changing the direction of their project.
While “Tiny Chef” found success and fame with Nickelodeon, his ousting doesn’t have to mean his downfall. What Larsen and Akturk did by sharing their character’s sadness with the viral YouTube video demonstrates the power of creators to bypass traditional distribution outlets and make appeals to fans in a way previously impossible.
There’s an opportunity here to capitalize on the moment and create something that places Larsen and Akturk at the helm of the controls.
Brands and even journalists are finding more independent ways to continue sharing their content and finding success through brand loyalty and building a following. This may have some risks, but as “Tiny Chef” shows, it may also have some truly valuable advantages.
Editor’s Top Picks:
- The sale of TikTok is looking more imminent and that could mean a new app for U.S.-based users, according to CNN. Mounting pressure to oust ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, from operating in the States has given rise to speculation on what a new version of the app would look like. From the article: “First, there’s the matter of TikTok’s ‘secret sauce’ — that is, the algorithm that powers the mega popular For You page. The Chinese government has repeatedly said it would block any transfer of the app’s algorithm to a new owner, meaning any new, separate American TikTok would need its own algorithm, possibly built from the ground up.” Brands who’ve long been established on TikTok may need to rebuild their strategy entirely, which could be daunting with the unknowns of how an American-built TikTok would work. Will brands lose their following or reach? How will the algorithms change the pace of what creators are used to seeing? Without knowing specifics, it’s difficult to say exactly how organizations should prepare for this, but creator partnerships may completely shift —and users may head for other apps without that magic algorithm.
- Researchers from Rebuild Local News and Muckrack found that one out of every three counties in the U.S. may only have the equivalent of one fulltime journalist. “The shortages of reporters are more severe, and I would say more widespread, than we thought,” Steven Waldman, the founder and president of Rebuild Local News, told Nieman Lab. “We knew there were really egregious pockets, but this shows it’s everywhere. It can be a big city or a suburb or a small town and you could have a real shortage of reporters.” Even major metros are “severely under covered.” For organizations looking to get their content in the media, the competition will continue to increase. This means that companies will need to get more creative and use a variety of channels to share their message, while still fostering relationships with existing journalists. We’ve seen this trend for some time, but the study highlights just how difficult it may be to get the right media for the right audience today. Instead, organizations should look to how they can use social media, Substack and other rising platforms to retain and grow their visibility.
- Citi is among the companies that mandated a partial RTO policy earlier this year, bringing people back to the office at least three days a week. In a recent memo to employees, Citi said it opted to balance the move with an option to work from home for two weeks in August. Business Insider reports that the memo said, “Because we know how much you value the opportunity for flexibility, we are pleased to share that colleagues in hybrid roles will have the opportunity to work fully remotely for two weeks of your choosing in August.” The memo also describes why August is a prime time for this (“It’s typically a quieter time for business”) and offered a section at the end that lists FAQs about the decision as well as its WFH policies. Citi was transparent about why August is optimal for everyone and said it wanted to be flexible by giving employees the option to choose which weeks they worked from home. Offering a FAQs section can help address concerns or any remaining confusion over the policy. Two weeks may not be a total win for employees who disagree with RTO policies entirely, but Citi is attempting to offer an olive branch of sorts and boost its company culture and employee morale.
Courtney Blackann is a communications reporter. Connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at courtneyb@ragan.com.
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