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April 8, 2016

Branding Trend: Content by Fierce, Funny, Real Women

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Women are having an incredible online branding moment. More and more famous ladies in Hollywood have begun creating platforms that connect women to other women (and men too, in some cases!) around the world—not by branding how Pinterest-perfect their lives are, but how real. That realness can be by turns funny, stylish, painful, and maybe even a little gross at times. And it’s catching fire online.

Being a top female-owned company — and one focused on content marketing —ourselves, Delucchi Plus has major respect for content platforms curated by women. Here are three sites (and the powerful ladies behind them) that let new voices express what it means to be a woman in this era of tech-centricity.

Elizabeth Banks—WhoHaHa.com

Yes, The Hunger Games’ Effie Trinket has just created the female equivalent to Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s online comedy platform, Funny or Die. Banks’s WhoHaHa.com aims to showcase fresh, subversive female comic talent through video skits and segments aimed at a tech-savvy audience. The site has pulled Internet celebrities into its mix, collaborating on bits with the likes of YouTube celebrity Hannah Hart, of My Drunk Kitchen fame (which you should really watch, even if you’re not a millennial).

Asked about the meaning behind her site’s name in a recent Advertising Age article, Banks explained, “It’s about promoting female voices. It’s about the ‘who’ behind the ‘haha.’” And those voices are hard to ignore, with segment titles like “If Cat Calls Actually Worked,” “Sadstagram Is The App We Actually Need,” and “Ask A Badass.”

Banks also mentioned that this attention to female comic talent is not meant to deter male viewership. “We love boys and men and their eyeballs. There will be lots of boys and men on our site, just not as content creators.” Her latest venture is further proof that women can be just as prone to satire, outrageousness, and gross-out humor as the boys—and still be glamorous.

Ashley Tisdale—TheHauteMess.com

Sometimes it feels like there are two types of people in the world: stylish celebrities… and the rest of us. Ashley Tisdale (formerly of “High School Musical” fame) is trying to debunk that myth through The Haute Mess, her content platform that aims to empower 20- and 30-something women by promoting the art of imperfection.

The idea—or “editorial destination,” as Tisdale calls it—came about from the actress wanting to launch a blog that helped her connect to her social base of 20 million followers (as of the site’s 2015 launch), most of whom were young women. It has since spun into something much more powerful: a community of women connecting with, creating, and consuming content that can touch on anything from fashion tips for lazy people to steps for handling workplace anxiety. The site acts a refreshing reminder for young women that it’s still possible to have your life in order, even when it feels like it might be falling apart.

Felicity Huffman—What the Flicka?

Most bad romantic comedies would have you believe that falling in love, getting married, and having babies are all one needs to achieve perfect bliss in life. And actress Felicity Huffman has made it her mission to tear that belief to shreds. Her content platform, What the Flicka?, speaks to an audience more likely to have marriage and children on the brain. But that doesn’t mean it covers these topics politely.

The site has built a community of contributors that write about well-worn subjects among the mom demographic (recipes, parenting tips, marriage), and also offers in-depth guides on scenarios that are all-too common for mothers (e.g., potty training) but that no one else seems willing to talk about. Its frank writing is sometimes enough to make even a sailor blush—and that’s what keeps this familiar subject matter feeling sharp, fresh, and fearless.

Besides doling out ideas, humor, and advice, these sites all try to present the message that people can be more than what’s on the surface: the class clown can be glamorous, the fashionista can be a spaz, and the stay-at-home mom can drink whiskey at a bar with a biker gang. It all comes down to how you brand yourself, and we hold tightly onto that belief here at Delucchi Plus.