Sign in with Google This edition of Creator Spotlight shines on Hope Allen, the mind behind HopeScope, a rapidly growing YouTube channel that blends Y2K nostalgia with extreme shopping challenges. Her most dedicated fans have been watching since her early days as a leggings reviewer.
Today, Allen and her partner in business and marriage, Tyler, have a fully staffed production studio, 7.3 million YouTube channel subscribers, and hundreds of polished long-form episodes. Here, they share what they wish advertisers knew about creators.
Think with Google: Tell us about your first videos.
Hope Allen: I started posting in 2017 as a side hobby, all different types of videos, with a focus on athleisure. One of them was a legging review that got a few thousand views in its first week! I found a really great niche of people who loved fitness and fashion. Over the next few years, I became the “Legging Queen.”
In the four years I spent reviewing leggings, I grew the community to about 400,000 subscribers, but it got to the point where, if I had to review one more pair of leggings, I was going to lose it. That was when I decided to pivot.
YouTube creator Hope Allen, known to her fans as HopeScope, grew her following by paying attention to her audience’s preferences and interests.
I looked at common trends in my videos and realized: It wasn’t about the leggings. It was about how I connected with my audience over our shared passions and interests. People really liked when a celebrity was tied to a brand that I was reviewing, so I thought, “What if I bought the Kardashians’ used clothes and reviewed them?” That video resonated just as well as my other content.
How has your approach changed since then?
Hope: At first, I felt like I had to be loyal to clothing, since that’s where everything started. My first breakout video that wasn’t fashion-related was about buying lost luggage. Retention was still really high on those videos that weren’t about clothing, which gave me permission to pivot.
It was the same with my videos about products from the 2000s. It started out with clothing, but I’d sprinkle in makeup or gadgets and notice a lot of comments about those items. Then I’d dedicate a video to just those items.
Creator Hope Allen compares vintage products with new, updated versions on her YouTube channel, HopeScope.
I did one travel story where I tested unrealistic Pinterest vacations, and it was such a fun video. My audience absolutely loved it. But it cost us so much money. That’s the type of video the right travel brand could amplify. If they did, we could do more of them, bigger and better.
How would you describe your audience?
Hope: The majority are young women in their 20s, but I have a ton of thirtysomething moms and tweens watching too. My community actually named themselves “the Hopefuls” — obviously a play on my name — but it also represents what the channel is: an escape.
My favorite videos are the ones inspired by nostalgia. Trying to find every Barbie Dreamhouse was very difficult. We had to search all these different resale websites to try to find them, and some cost astronomical amounts, but it was so satisfying once it all came together, because it brought together every generation.
I had 70-year-old women commenting that they remembered some of the very first ones, and I had little girls commenting from their parents’ accounts, “Oh my gosh, I hope I get the 2024 one for Christmas!” It was just the coolest thing to see women and girls from all backgrounds, all ages, come together over this video.
Allen gives her viewers a peek at the evolution of the Barbie Dream House over seven decades.
Tell us a bit about where YouTube fits into your platform strategy.
Hope: YouTube is definitely our main priority when it comes to content creation. We look at the other platforms as supplemental brand awareness.
Tyler Allen: I view the level of connection with the audience as a differentiator. The more time we’re spending with them, the more connected we get. YouTube is the best place to spend the most amount of time with our viewers.
Hope: I know this is different from creator to creator because, for some people, short-form is their main focus, and long-form is their way to more deeply connect with those core fans. But it’s the opposite for me. The majority of my viewers are watching my long-form content. My shorter-form videos are for the superfans.
YouTube is definitely our main priority when it comes to content creation.
A couple years ago, we started to notice the shift from people watching on mobile devices to watching on TV, which definitely impacted how we made content. We made sure to start shooting in 4K and made the content a little bit longer. And, when telling the audience to subscribe, I make sure to say, “And if you’re watching on TV, make sure to grab your remote, swipe up, and click.”
How do you navigate brand partnerships while preserving trust?
Hope: One thing about my channel that helped me grow right from the start is that I was very honest about whether I liked something or didn’t like something. Of course, there are some brands that are like, “We’d love to work with you, but first, sign this agreement that says you won’t say anything disparaging.” And I’m like, “Oh, that’s a problem, because that’s why people watch my videos.” Not that I’m ever mean or awful, but if I don’t like something or I think something could be better, I want to say it.
I’ll say, “OK, I’ll totally do this deal with you, but I have to be able to say whatever I want.” A lot of them say yes.
Tyler: Pairing Hope and her content with the right brand has been really key. We just bought all the Labubu mystery boxes for a video, but instead of partnering with [Labubu manufacturer] Pop Mart, we partnered with a live shopping app called Whatnot. Most people are going to buy them on resale platforms like Whatnot anyway, because they’re sold out in stores. There were resellers on Whatnot that had great prices, and it was such a natural, easy integration. The numbers were off the charts: We had 45 days to reach our initial goal, and we reached it in four! So pairing up with the less obvious brand made the connection between Hope and the content stronger.
Hope: Because it’s a live shopping app where people sell collectibles and thrift, Whatnot enhanced the content and kept it authentic. That’s the bottom line for me when it comes to brand partnerships. Is the product something that would make my audience’s life better? Do they need it? Is it a good value for them?
And of course, the obvious question: Would I use it? There have been times when Tyler’s said a brand reached out, I’m like, “Oh, I would never use that product.” And he says, “Great, we’ll shut it down.” I can’t fake excitement about something.
My favorite part of any brand partnership is creating the content itself, especially when a brand is open to some fun storytelling — a challenge or something funny that can enhance my content as a whole. That’s when I have fun and feel like it can really shine.
Switching gears to your brand partners’ goals, are seasonal moments something you address in your content?
Hope: We try to focus on shopping moments that are global, big ones like back-to-school, the holidays, that appeal to people internationally.
Tyler: Back to school, for example, there’s a lot of problems to be solved. What am I going to wear? What am I going to do with my hair? How am I going to get to school? What am I going to drive? Around those times, we’re giving brands a way to offer to solve those problems.
I can’t fake excitement about something.
What’s your advice for brand marketers who are writing their holiday plans right now?
Hope: My advice to brands is, don’t just look for one-off opportunities. Frequency boosts familiarity. That familiarity, seeing it on my channel over and over, helps build trust over time. Every time we do a Whatnot deal, engagement actually ramps up.
If a brand can work with a creator prior to the holiday season on some smaller campaigns, and then do something really big for the holidays, that will drive amazing results.
The trust is already built. So when there’s a killer deal, it’s a no-brainer for the audience to participate.
Have you noticed a shift in how marketers think about creators?
Tyler: Not as much as we would have liked, honestly. The brands that get it get it. And the ones that don’t have absolutely no clue how beneficial it is.
When brands realize that creators have their own authentic styles and relationships with their audiences, they’re willing to let us do something a little more unique.
More ad spend is being allocated. The CPMs [costs per impression] are going up every year, so more advertisers are moving into the space. But the big ad money has not entered the chat yet. It’s starting to, as some companies see the potential. Poppi, obviously. Ridge Wallets? Absolutely crushing it. Gymshark. All of these companies were built on social media and YouTube. As more of the big companies have success, the attention grows.
What’s one thing you wish more brands understood about creators?
Tyler: They should think about creators as more connected, faster-moving production studios.
We have an entire production company. We can take talking points and craft a story around them. We can put together a 30-minute piece of content in a few weeks that will generate multiple millions of views and tens of millions of impressions, and can drive hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue.
Hope: I wish more of them understood that we’re creators. We’re not just the talent. When they want us to feed very specific lines to the audience, it’s clear they want a commercial, not content, which is completely different. When they realize that creators have their own authentic styles and relationships with their audiences, they’re willing to let us do something a little more unique.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
