We created a painted billboard featuring Grace, which became gradually weirder based on fan suggestions.

First, we painted a standard portrait of Grace Helbig on a wall in Brooklyn. Grace tweeted a photo of the wall and gave her fans options of what should be added to the picture. Over the course of the week, Grace was adorned out with a full-body snuggie, a mess of chinese takeout, and a hyperactive dog. By the end of the week, Grace’s avant-garde ad was being posted by fans on Twitter and Instagram, helping it build the campaign organically.

Grace’s tweets reached 1.2 million followers, and earned hundreds of replies and retweets from fans on Twitter and Instagram. Fans posed with the mural, shared it to their social networks, earning reach far beyond the purchased wall placement.

YouTube stars aren't like traditional celebrities. Their online community is a two way street between creator and fan. So when advertising creator channels, getting the fan community involved is essential. When promoting comedian Grace Helbig, we activated the fans to make a community-created.

YouTube’s creator marketing strategy is all about authenticity. The goal is to understand the special relationship that the creator has with his or her fans, and bring that to life in a dramatic way. It’s not enough to just show the channel: we need to show the relationship that makes YouTube magic.

Comedian Grace Helbig is one of YouTube’s biggest stars. She and her 2.8 million subscribers have a bond based on a shared love of awkwardness and weirdness. YouTube wanted to promote Grace as part of their ongoing creator marketing campaign. Our challenge was to show the bond that Grace has with her fans in an authentic way.