Content Virality – Since I joined Viki in September of 2014, user engagement on Viki’s social platforms has increased dramatically. Facebook shares have grown by nearly 10x and Twitter retweets have surged by more than 3x. I’ve made compelling content and social sharing the focus of our marketing strategy to capitalize on the free advertising we receive by turning our fans into an army of brand advocates who spread our message and content to their friends, family, and beyond.

Instagram Growth – In today’s marketing landscape, content is key. So as Social Media Manager, I made high-quality content the centerpiece of our Instagram strategy. This was met with open arms by Viki's audience as our Instagram following grew from 7000 followers to almost 150,000 in just over a year.

Social Media – I developed the marketing and social media plan for the Hollywood premiere of Viki's first original series, Dramaworld. This included pre-promotion leading up to the premiere, creating and capturing viral content during the event, and releasing marketing materials after the night was over.

In the days and weeks before the premiere, I worked to ensure a steady drip of promotional content – teasers, trailers, and materials meant to excite fans about the first TV show in history to be in both Korean and English.

During the event, we engaged fans with the help of interactive channels such as Facebook Live, Periscope, and Snapchat. I organized my team so we were in prime position to capture the cast interviews, Q&A session, and memorable red carpet moments.  Judging from the overwhelmingly positive audience response, our social media coverage achieved its aims of immersing fans in the grand atmosphere of the evening.

Once the event was over, I joined forces with our PR team to amplify the reach of the premiere in news outlets throughout the world and take advantage of this fantastic branding opportunity.

Red Carpet Hosting – While certainly not in my job description, I was thrilled to host the red carpet ceremonies at The Theatre at Ace Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. With the help of my co-host, I conducted interviews with the celebrity cast, crew, and producers that were recorded and later made available on our website and marketing channels.

I seized the opportunity to get out from behind my computer, step out of my comfort zone, and help the team in an entirely unique way. And really, how could I pass up the chance to break out my new suit?

Viki’s YouTube channel and strategy has long been a subject of debate. After years of being passed back and forth between teams, I assumed ownership of YouTube in 2016 and presented my plan to revitalize our presence on the leading online video platform. I was given free reign to implement the changes necessary to grow our already sizable audience of approximately 300,000 subscribers.

My first order of business was to dive into YouTube’s analytics dashboard and try to make sense of the heaps of data about video views, ad completion, demographics, etc. After some digging, I discovered that an overwhelming majority of our video views came from users plugging in keywords in the search bar. With this in mind, I turned away from labor-intensive original content and instead built our strategy around videos related to the most frequently searched keywords. With YouTube’s status as the second largest search engine on the web, it was apparent that if we focused our efforts on the highest-volume search terms, we could maximize the impact of our limited time.

With SEO at the heart of our new YouTube game plan, we saw across-the-board growth for most video and channel metrics (see Phase 1 on the graph above). Encouraged by the positive trend and potential for further development, I took the overhaul one step further by purging low-quality videos, re-working tags and playlists, and optimizing video thumbnails and titles. Significantly, we saw the biggest spike in performance soon after I pushed for more long-form videos and monetization of our exclusive content (see Phase 2 on the graph above). This led to a surge in video engagement and transformed our YouTube channel into a real revenue source.

The YouTube overhaul was a massive undertaking for Viki and only possible thanks to collaboration with many different teams – the Content Acquisition team to get the scoop on license agreements for geo-filtering and usage rights, the Product team to improve integration between Viki and YouTube’s content management systems, and the Finance team to run analysis on the channel’s revenue potential.

I’ve managed many social media advertising campaigns in my time at Viki, taking advantage of the various platforms' extensive data sources and robust targeting capabilities to drive mobile app installs, video views, follower growth, and conversions.

Recently, as part of a company-wide initiative to drive growth in the key North American market, I worked on a series of paid media campaigns to target the Asian American audience. We teamed up with a full-service advertising agency that specialized in multi-cultural marketing to help us build detailed audience profiles, develop top-notch creatives, and map out the ideal advertising mix (paid social advertising, out-of-home advertising, radio, and events, among others).

As part of the paid social media advertising component, I reached out to our target demographic on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The user response was positive from the very beginning and we were continually driving toward lower CPMs, higher conversion rates, and better ROI. After finding success with our initial campaign targeting Korean Americans, we applied what we learned to campaigns targeting other Asian diaspora groups.

Influencers – I have forged partnerships with several YouTube influencers in order to both strengthen Viki's connection to our core audience and to expand our reach to new users.

We teamed up with special effects makeup artists Ellimacs (500,000+ subscribers) to create a Halloween costume makeup tutorial that has been viewed nearly 200,000 times to date. Soon after, we partnered with JuNCurryAhn (900,000+ subscribers) to co-produce a holiday-themed viral video entitled "Tis the Season to K-Drama” that racked up more than 75,000 views on YouTube and well over 250,000 on Viki’s website.

I've also initiated partnerships with several long-tail influencers and bloggers to expand Viki’s reach to the all-important niche communities that form the foundation of the web. With YouTuber MeiKCJ (25,000+ subscribers), for example, we offered one free month of our subscription service (Viki Pass) in exchange for a branded video about Viki’s content. We’ve also partnered with various bloggers to produce sponsored articles in exchange for co-promotion and premium subscriptions. As an added bonus, these influencers often use the promo codes to run giveaways with their fans, which directly engages them with Viki's brand and gives us brand new subscribers to boot!

Brands – In addition to working with influencers, I’ve also formed partnerships with other brands and companies.

Viki collaborated with subscription snack delivery service, SnackFever, to develop the Viki Binge Box, a box full of Korean goodies meant to fuel our fans’ late-night binge-watching. Viki branding was prominently displayed both inside and out. The package itself was covered with Viki brand elements, such as our color scheme and logo. And inside each box were stickers, postcards promoting our Viki Originals, and promo codes for a free trial of our subscription service. In addition to the branding benefits of the partnership, we negotiated a revenue-sharing model so Viki received a portion of proceeds from each sale.

In 2016, we partnered with Viber, a communications and media company best known for its instant messaging and internet communication app. Considering our substantial audience overlap, we were eager to team up with Viber and take advantage of their Public Chat product, essentially a live, free-flowing conversation between users about anything under the sun. Up to 100 chat room participants drive the conversation, but an unlimited number of Viber users can view, like, and share the posts, images, and videos.

Normally, a brand’s Public Chat is run by its employees to ensure a steady stream of activity and appropriate brand positioning. However, for Viki’s Public Chat, instead of having our employees doing all the talking and our fans merely as spectators, we decided to flip the script. Our Public Chat is designed to have our users take an active role as the contributors and drivers of the conversation. We realized that no one could do a better job evangelizing our brand than our fans themselves! Viki’s fan-powered Public Chat is the first and only one of its kind, and epitomizes the user-oriented nature of our company.

During my time at Senda Athletics, in order to reach potential high-value customers, I wrote Senda’s Amazon Seller Success Story editorial piece featured on Amazon.com. The editorial chronicled Senda Athletics' mission to provide the highest quality product while maintaining a steadfast commitment to Fair Trade.