Monday 25 March 2024

Technological changes: how does Zoe Sugg use algorithmically influenced business practices to address her audiences?

To what extent does Zoella/Zoe Sugg use YouTube algorithms in order to manipulate her audiences?

An algorithm refers to an automated routine or process that allows digital technology to function without outside influence 




  • Buzzwords here include retention and engagement. Engagement refers to the raw amount of time spent interacting with a digitally convergent online products. Higher engagement means higher profits. Yet often this is done in a manipulative and even exploitative way 
  • To what extent does Zoella use YouTube algorithmic business practices in order to manipulate her audiences?
  • An unrealistic lifestyle expectation is encoded through every thumbnail image, through glamorous MES and a perpetually poised existence 
  • Sugg’s face is performatively happy, and her closed mouth statistically performs better. Sugg has a routine and a strategy that clearly works
  • A stereotypically feminine font is universally used to construct a brand identity that not only distinguishes ‘Zoella, but also refers to other successful accounts
  • Sugg’s style in many ways codified the generic elements of the vlog 
  • The MES of huge shopping connotes a consumerist ideological perspective, and allows Sugg’s to monetise her videos with commission from affiliate links
  • The heavy use of keywords (Haul, brand names, look etc) allows Suggs to maximise her audience through making her videos as easily search for
  • Her name is her brand identity
  • Selection of thumbnails position and target particular audiences in a cynical and manipulative fashion
  • Her facial expressions are clearly selected in order to maximise her appeal to her young predominantly female target audience, and suggest happiness, excitement, and function as both hermeneutic and proairetic codes
  • Her image is defined by a white outline, which emphasises her face even in a big mass of thumbnails
  • Heavy use of makeup, in particular heavily defined red lipstick, along with her trademark side parting constructs a clear brand identity 
  • A hyperreal mode of address that constructs an inviting way of life 
  • Her video titles are crammed with keywords, including ‘reacts’, ‘ASOS’ etc, all trending key words that capture public trends
  • Links to video. Product placement is made clear, and therefore, profit can be maximised