“Goodbye YouTube,” ang bungad ni Erwan Heussaf sa post niya sa kanyang Instagram account nito lang. Inakala tuloy namin ay tuluyan na niyang iiwan ang pagiging vlogger hindi pala kundi palalawigin pa niya ito. Ibig sabihin ay hindi na solo ng hubby ni Anne Curtis Smith-Heussaf ang YouTube channel niya dahil may mga makakasama na siyang ibang content creators o magiging malaking network na.
Base sa kuwento ni Erwan, “I’ve been creating videos online for about 11 years now and it’s been the craziest ride.
“After 6 years of being a one man team, in 2015 I opened my first kitchen/studio, The Red Light, to shoot my content in, but I still wasn’t confident enough to go all in. From that we started gaining traction, so I invested more in the content I made. First by working with other production companies to produce my videos, but when that stopped making sense financially, I created my own production company. In 2018, I went full time and opened The Fat Kid Inside Studios (TFKI).
“We are currently a small team of 14 people who focus on creating narrative digital video content for ourselves (on various platforms), for brands, networks and for other creators.
“YouTube and Facebook, can be quite toxic. You are only as good as your last video. And if you’re like me and you don’t have a viral personality, you need to focus on the value that your viewers are getting. Moreover, YouTube and Facebook don’t actually pay you as much as you think, unless every video I make has millions of views, I wont even be able to cover the salaries of our employees, let alone the rent and our overhead expenses. That’s the reality and that’s why its so important for me to focus on the business side of things and produce more content vs just hosting a lot of it. By focusing on producing, the team and I will be able to do more.
“Moreover, we will be able to finally become the platform that I have always dreamed about, where we can work with different hosts, subjects and just tell other people’s stories. Creating more shows, series and documentaries, centred around Food, Encounters and TRavel. Featuring the Philippines and beyond.
“Starting today on YT and FB, we are no longer under Erwan Heussaff, we are now FEATR. And moving forward on FEATR, you will be able to watch everything you’ve loved about this channel and so much more. We are opening our doors and minds to other creators, brands and production companies, if you’ve been wanting to do something within these themes and have been looking for a production company and platform, drop us a line.
Thank you for the support!”
Samantala, nakuwento rin ni Erwan na nakapag shoot siya ng 20 videos simula ng makabalik sila ng Pilipinas at planong mag-shoot ulit ng another 30 videos pero hindi natuloy dahil limitado ang kilos pag work from home dahil sa Covid-19 lockdown.
Dagdag niya, “Since coming back to Manila, we’ve shot about 20 new videos, something that would have taken me about 10 weeks in Australia.
“We were supposed to shoot an additional 30 this month, but we had to cancel all shoots given the situation. Unfortunately, our Production Team is very limited working from home, we can basically only focus on post production and I can go back to shooting myself in my home kitchen, albeit at a much slower pace. So I usually focus on what I can achieve from home vs thinking about what I could be doing if we were in the studio. At least I’m lucky enough to still be able to work. One step a day.”
At para makaraos din sa pang-araw-araw ay nasa online na rin ang food business ni Erwan.
“We moved our food business online. Previously, e-commerce in the PH was still lagging behind most of Asia, due to the low credit card penetration rate and the lack of strong online wallet solutions.
“Building an online shop, e-commerce business for Chingolo was always an after thought for us, something we knew we wanted to do eventually, maybe 2 years down the line. Now it’s one of the only ways we can sell our products.
“I’m sure this story is familiar to a lot of other businesses in the F&B industry, from restaurants to importers and distributors. Even previously B2B food suppliers are now moving into the food retail market.
“Going online isn’t as simple as opening a website, you really need to think through your whole digital customer/journey experience, but they have to find your first.
“I talk about a couple of things we’ve learned along the way in this video.
“Branding for me has always been extremely important and one of the cornerstones of that is our packaging. We are not there to talk to our customers while we serve them food, so we need to make sure that through our presentation, they can feel the care and thought we put into our products.”
Bukod dito ay maraming online endorsements si Erwan na malaking tulong para sa vlogs niya.