Picture this, you’ve just come home from indulging in a major shopping spree … yes us girls are guilty of this from time to time. What is the first thing you do? The majority of us would not answer hang it up in your closet straight away. Rather we’re sending snapchats of our recent purchases to our best friends or modelling our new goodies to our mum. Upload this to YouTube and the concept of “Haul Videos” is formed.
A haul video in simple terms is a recording of someone going over a collection of purchases (2). Generally, the influencer has received or bought a range of clothing items or accessories from a particular brand and creates a video showcasing these items. The video usually consists of the person giving their initial impressions of the item, modelling the products, going into detail about what each item is, and their shopping experience as a whole (2).
YouTube has become an increasingly popular platform for social media influencers to share their most recent fashion and beauty purchases with their online communities. There are now hundreds-of-thousands of videos related to hauling which have been uploaded to YouTube. Some of the more popular videos have been viewed millions of times which shows the reach haul videos can have in influencing consumer buying behaviour (2). Evidence has shown that people have watched 50,000 years of product review videos in two years on mobile alone (1). These haul video reviews help people form opinions about what they wish to consume as consumers want to hear from people who apply it to everyday life. Haul videos are essentially a form of word-of-mouth marketing, due to this these influencers opinions are viewed as being more trustworthy because they are not coming directly from the business (3). A recent study has found that 74% of consumers identify word of mouth as a major influence in their purchasing decisions (3).
Researching this topic I thought it was necessary to watch some haul videos myself to truly understand the hype surrounding them. One which really stood out for me was by youtuber Anneka Madgett. Her video was showing a range of Zaful bikinis. The video, although lengthy, gave me an insightful look into the design and fit of their products which previously I had been sceptical about. It’s a safe bet to say I’ll be watching more of these haul videos in the future #hooked
Resources Used
(1) Chi, C 2019, ‘51 YouTube Stats Every Video Marketer Should Know in 2019‘, viewed 9th March https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/youtube-stats
(2) Jeffries, L 2011 ‘The Revolution Will be soooo Cute: YouTube “Hauls” and the Voice of Young Female Consumers’ Studies in Popular Culture, Vol. 33 (2) pp. 59-75
(3) Warren, M 2019 ‘Word of Mouth Marketing in 2019: How to Create a Strategy for Social Media Buzz & Skyrocket Referral Sales’ viewed 9th March https://www.bigcommerce.com.au/blog/word-of-mouth-marketing/?fbclid=IwAR1031pXlw-DerNU94x3KvY-S7KiX4hFEIae1UKJw_uUz8k00OSnuTdElv8#what-is-word-of-mouth-marketing
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