Logo for 2019 VidCon's 10th anniversary
(Logo courtesy of VidCon)VidCon, the giant annual gathering of online influencers and their vast herds of young fans (not to mention the online-video industry that caters to them), will push its 2019 Anaheim flagship event into mid-July, dodging conflicts with both ad confab Cannes Lions and school schedules, the company announced today.
The Viacom unit also announced its first London spinoff show, after two European shows in Amsterdam. The London show will run Valentine's Weekend, from Feb. 14 to Feb. 17, at ExCeL London. The company's second three-day Australian show, in Melbourne, ended Sept. 2.
Julia Maes, the U.S. show's executive producer, said the shift to July 10 through July 13 from the conference's traditional mid- to late-June window was forced by availabilities for the Anaheim Convention Center and several neighboring hotels that are incorporated into the event.
But the shift for the 10th anniversary show brings a series of upsides, too.
"We're finding we have a lot of benefits" from the schedule shift, Maes said.
First is that more teens and tweens will be able to attend without school schedule conflicts common in June. Last June's gathering attracted 74,000 attendees, about 60 percent of them from the "community" attendees. Those attendees are largely under 21 and skew female.
The show also expects to attract more top executives from brands, online video services, ad agencies and others who otherwise might have headed to the French Riviera for Cannes Lions. That huge international ad gathering is known as much for its rose'-fueled networking as anything, and overlapped again this year with VidCon, forcing executives to make some decisions on priorities. Without the conflict, Maes said VidCon hopes to see more senior executives from those industries journey to Anaheim.
The change also puts VidCon the week before yet another big marketing fest, San Diego Comic-Con, which runs from July 18 to July 22.
At the least, however, online-video, advertising and brand execs won't have to choose between rose' on the Riviera and the modest charms of the jam-packed Anaheim Convention Center, where they at least can directly tap into the vast Gen Z demographic through some of its most popular stars. For some, at least, that's a win.
"We always have a really strong showing from lots of different brands," said Maes. "But we're hoping to see a bigger push from that market."
This year's show attracted about 100 exhibitors, including lavish booths from brands such as Mars, Instagram, NBC, and corporate media cousins Nickelodeon and MTV. Viacom, which owns Nickelodeon and MTV, acquired VidCon earlier this year from founders Hank and John Green for an undisclosed sum. The exhibitors also included many influencers selling their own branded merchandise to ardent fans.
About 300 top-tier influencers were "featured" at this year's event, and another 300 were present in less official roles. All told, Maes said, more than 6,000 influencers attended this year's gathering, along with about 4,000 industry types.
As part of the show's tenth anniversary, Maes said the organization is planning a series of special events to mark the event's evolution from a basement ballroom in a Los Angeles hotel to its current sprawling footprint and attendance.
“This ecosystem has grown and widened in a way we didn’t know was possible a decade ago and we’re looking at some really wonderful ways to highlight all the innovations and connections this industry has given us,” Maes said. “It will be a special blend of veteran and new rising talent from all the major platforms, throwback activations (the internet loves a “remember when”), and all the future-focused programming and conversations VidCon is known for.”
All told, the organization expects to attract as many as 90,000 people to its three events over the next year, and is continuing to consider expansion into other markets, Maes said.
Viacom acquired VidCon last spring, part of a string of acquisitions that included celebrity influencer-marketing agency WHOSAY and digital-video production/distribution company AwesomenessTV. The company also led a round of investment in Pocket.watch, a children's online channel that now will be doing more programming with erstwhile competitor Nickelodeon.
