Trend Hunter has officially reached 100 million views… Yee Ha! Thanks to all of you for making it happen. In particular, thanks to all of the Trend Hunters who have fueled our community into what it has become today!
As we reach this milestone, I can’t help but be nostalgic, which is partially why I am so happy to be writing this article at 4am EST.
It seems like only a year ago that I was working full time at Capital One and working on this little website during the wee hours of the morning… But actually, it was a year and a half ago. ;)
We’ve been lucky to grow so quickly and I suppose that’s a testament to the fact that we’ve been so passionate about Trend Hunter. Also, Sarah Palin helped.
For each of us who write, program, or contribute, Trend Hunter is our baby, and it is exciting to see her growing.
For me, Trend Hunter is not a job, it is a hobby. I feel like I’m retired and working on what I love… Thanks for making that all possible.
Here are some of my favorite memories:
- The first day we had a million views in one day.
- Getting on the front page of Yahoo.com three times.
- Pee and poo dolls.
- Hot Vice Presidents (1,100,000 views, etc)
- Ranking #7 for "Britney Spears pictures" when she shaved her head.
- Watching the site go offline because apparently a lot of people look for Britney Spears pictures.
- Meeting Bianca and letting her convince me to hire her before I quit my own job.
- Spending a whole dinner trying to convince Jacob to join, only to learn that he was already going to accept… He just liked getting sold again.
- Having access to Marissa on speakerphone speed dial.
- Ayman. For all of his ideas and passion for the site.
- Sixty. For being awesome.
- Cowbag. For being relentlessly shocking and creative.
- Getting our first office.
- The day we switched from legal disclaimers that I made up to stuff written by a lawyer.
- Getting an ad agency.
- Terror fashion.
- Getting Trend Hunter in the news.
- Being interviewed by WIRED.
- Getting into the ECONOMIST.
- When TheEnd 102.7 asked if we were related to MilfHunter (the answer is that we aren’t).
- Our second episode of THTV (Shockvertising).
- Getting banned in China.
- Guy Kawasaki’s interview.
- When MTV said, "Find out what’s cool before it’s cool, at TrendHunter.com."
- When someone at a conference came up and sincerely thanked me for providing Trend Hunter and told me that his ad agency uses us very day.
- Our first 60 trend day.
- Celebrating when GoingLikeSixty hit 1000 trends… Also, creating his avatar.
- Making Eva Mendes day, to blatantly get more traffic.
- Meeting Pearl, Elsa and Vincent in real life.
- When Tom Kelley of IDEO said people should get the Trend Hunter newsletter to open their minds and become more creative.
- When Kanye West sourced us in his blog.
- When Ashton Kutcher tweeted that he loved us.
- When HotForWords sent us a video intro (not released yet).
- When Auto Tune the News sent us a video intro.
- Auto Tune The News in general (unrelated to this list, but man I love that stuff).
- Playing the drums on Entertainment Tonight.
- Getting invited by Ford to fly private planes, race trucks down the public highway with police escorts, and watch a Nascar race from the pit.
- Jacob’s expression when we had to replace our dev server with a $400 laptop.
- Launching the Trend Report with Bianca in NYC.
- Tomorrow, and whatever fun it will bring.
Feel free to add your own memories!
Trend Hunter Reaches 100 Million Views
PLUS, Top Memories Along the Way
Trend Themes
1. Community-driven Content Creation - Trend Hunter's 100 million views milestone shows the potential for successful community-driven content creation, emerging as a possible tool for consumer engagement and promotion.
2. Nostalgia Marketing - Nostalgia marketing is a viable tactic, as evidenced by Trend Hunter's nostalgic article, which further humanizes and provides relatability to any brand and fosters an emotional connection with the audience.
3. Thought Leadership Building - Reaching a major milestone can present the opportunity to showcase a brand's industry expertise and assert thought leadership status through publishing nostalgic content and memories.
Industry Implications
1. Marketing and Advertising - The marketing and advertising industry can utilize community-driven content creation, nostalgia marketing, and thought leadership building tactics as effective strategies for engaging consumers and promoting brands.
2. Publishing and Media - The publishing and media industry can utilize Trend Hunter's success of reaching 100 million views to showcase its expertise in generating popular, community-driven content at scale, and for emotional engagement.
3. Technology - Technology industries can invest in tools that enable user-generated content, leveraging the passion and expertise of communities to drive engagement and create viral, high-volume content.