rise of the red hair - a marketing case study

Instructions

i'm sure the majority of us know thea @lychiez. starting her journey on scratch almost nine years ago, she has seen a recent rise in popularity that can rival many of the "it-girls" of older generations. but how did she do it? what factors led to this skyrocketing attention and name recognition that took her so long to build? and how can you-yes, YOU-apply her story to your own s-pop career? well, dear reader, that's what i'm here for. i'm jiyeon, s-pop idol for 2+ years and aspiring professional in marketing, and today we'll be discussing the rapid rise of lysithea karamalis. quick note: all information in this project was gathered by me. i found thea's old accounts by digging through comments and projects on the accounts i knew about, and i did not hack anything or do anything not allowed by scratch in gathering this information. other note: all accounts, links, etc will be provided at the end of the project! THEA'S HISTORY thea began her scratch journey as many of us did, making simple coding projects on @-EmojiAnimations-, with an alt @emojixoxo. her most popular animations ended up receiving hundreds of views, with one even crossing 2,000. also on this account, her oc was first created. it looked very different from how we know thea today, having more of an old-scratch style and lacking her iconic red hair. she remained on this account until may of 2023, when she made her first move to @_squidiot. she continued making animations on this account, refining her oc and eventually getting into the s-pop and vscratcher communities. while here, she had many side accounts, including @acidburnx, @ellienomoto, @_agent8-, @lvcistry-, and @eleanor_shiraki. in around april 2024, she moved again, to . during this time, if you were in s-pop you may have heard her in her two original songs "FINISH LINES or "as the world ends". during late september / early october 2024, thea then moved to the account we all know and love her on, , and the rest is history. WHAT HAPPENED? so how did thea go viral, and what made it work so well? as we all know, virality is a dangerous thing. it can give you the attention of hundreds of people, but it can take that attention away just as fast. how did thea present herself so that this virality would last, catapulting herself to the top? i believe there are a couple main reasons, and i'll cover them all today. 01. HER ICONIC HAIR okay, i know, you might have seen this term before and thought it meant nothing. but the truth is, branding, and a personal brand can really make the difference between unknown and celebrity status. think about it. what do you think of when you think of thea? my guess is you'll think of her oc's lipstick-red hair. that's the power of a personal brand. if you have something concrete that your fans can identify you by- like sabrina carpenter's bangs, or zara larsson's glam and colorful makeup look, you create a way for people to recognize you. if you don't know thea all that well, you'll know her hair. "oh yeah she's that spopper with the red hair", you might say. dani's recent project just goes to show. you look at rubie's slide and think "oh yeah that's exactly rubie" or you see simon's and go "this is so accurate, i do associate simon with these things". this is the power of a brand in action. you associate these artists with these colors and objects, and that keeps them in your mind. 02. HER BREAKING OF BOUNDARIES there's no doubt that thea has pushed and broken boundaries in all aspects of s-pop. she is the creator of ERIS, an s-pop group that is not only enjoying success across multiple generations of the community but is continuously evolving and challenging the norms of s-pop. additionally, she was one of the first s-poppers to also be in the vscratcher community, which brought it to many people's attention. and third, her originals break boundaries in their own way. not only are they self-produced, self-written, and self-released without an s-pop company behind them, but they are now being placed on streaming services as well. this is an achievement that very few idols have managed, and it played a large role in jump-starting thea's career. she got her first taste of the popular life with her song 'PRESENT TENSE', which although it was not produced by her, was self-written, a rarity of its time. from here, she began to self-produce her songs before most people had even began writing their own. she's been ahead of the game for months, which caused her to gain interest from people wanting to check out this girl who was producing her own music. 03. HER CONSISTENT BRANDING throughout her time on , thea has maintained a consistent thumbnail style and typing style, allowing people to again, associate those styles with her. she combines her original songs with covers, art, and fun projects to give enough variety that people don't get bored. thea knows who she wants to be seen as, and everything she says and does conveys that. (cont)