Promotional Culture-project team 3: Jet Lag Free Kitchen

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Project Brief:

For this project, you will create a social media influencer profile that includes original video and social media content across multiple (3-5) platforms. As a group you must decide which area to focus in (e.g. fashion, gaming, beauty) and develop a coherent identity.

Introduction:

In this project, we create a social media influencer profile that includes 12 social media contents and five original videos across five different platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, Bilibili, Sina Weibo and Douyin (Tik Tok China version). Our group decide to focus on food area and develop a coherent identity named Jet Lag Free Kitchen. The name was inspired by our identity. Although we are Chinese students who are studying in the UK, we want to cross the jet lag, bring the delicious food from China to the audience around the world, so that they can feel a sense of companionship. We target our main audience at overseas Chinese students and anyone who is interested in Chinese food.

Presenting the project:

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Figure 1, Jet Lag Free Kitchen YouTube Channel

As mentioned above, we have employed cross-platform strategy (Whitmer, 2018), displaying different information and representation on different platforms, and use diverse platforms to attract potential audiences. In addition, we made two versions of the videos, using Chinese voice-over and English voice-over respectively for different regional platform. Although our main audience is Chinese overseas students, we can still attract more overseas audiences by putting English voice- over videos on YouTube. Besides, Bilibili is a Chinese video sharing platform similar with YouTube, but its core feature which is a real-time commentary subtitle system. Users can comment as streams of moving subtitles overlaid on the video playback screen. In terms of Douyin, it is the Chinese version of TikTok which gathers various short video. We choose Douyin is because short video platforms represented by Douyin meet the needs of Internet users to acquire information in fragmented time. In Douyin, we only provide four short versions. The reason why we chose Weibo is because this platform allows diverse interactive modes. For example, we send our posts to other famous bloggers, and they will forward the posts so that we are able to attract more potential audiences in this way. Besides, we have created our own hash tag #jet lag free kitchen# which allows our followers to interact with us under this topic. Finally, we only post pictures and social media contents on Instagram to tell audiences what we will have in next video and bring them to our main platform to watch the videos.

The five videos are 15.56 minutes in total, respectively are bubble tea (2.24 mins), Sichuan boiled beef (5.27mins), tomato dough drop soup (2.15mins), Chinese pancake (3.02mins) and stewed pork with Chinese cabbage & vermicelli (2.48mins). Viewers should watch our videos in chronological order (which is also the order presents here) from May 8th to May 12th. We posted one video per day around 10:00am UK time (5:00pm China time) in order to catch the traffic peak of food-related videos on social media platforms because it is the time just before the lunch (dinner) time. In Weibo and Instagram, we have 7 and 5 posts (45 pictures) respectively.

During the hard time, due to the influences of Covid-19, we did do some changes. Instead of doing everything together, our group have divided to two teams for the video shooting due to the pandemic. One team has four members in Southampton, and another team has three members in Winchester. At the beginning, we were planned to have two performers for our account in order to have more interactions and make the videos more attractive. However, two of our group members left UK around the end of March because of the emergency circumstances. We decided to shoot all food making footages before our group members left and change a different style later.

Initially, we also have planned several face-to-face events with our followers. For instance, we would like to invite lucky followers to eat hot pot with the influencers together in order to promote intimacy. Due to the lockdown situation, we changed the intimacy strategies to online activities such as send our handmade pearls to lucky fans, make the recipe that is recommended by fans or pick a recipe from the comments thread etc. For the rest of time, all works, or meetings were done online by seven of us individually.

Appendix: Video’s Scripts and About Us (English section only)

About Us section

Limited ingredients with unlimited taste!

We cross the jet lag to connect hometown with delicious food.

We are Chinese students who study in the UK and want to warm people like us by sharing tasty food.

No matter where you are, Jet Lag Free Kitchen will accompany you.

Video’s Scripts

1. Bubble Tea

Bubble tea seems to have become a “fashionable darling” in the food world. Do you still not know how to make milk tea? This video is just what you need, and the materials you need are also very simple. You can buy them in any supermarket downstairs. Quickly collect this video and do it!

2. Sichuan boiled beef

YouTube: Want something hot/ Make Sichuan boiled beef for yourself at home

Delicious food is like a gift that can bring people a double enjoyment in spirit and taste. So, it’s weekend, and I want to share a big gift for you- Sichuan boiled beef. This is a classic Chinese Sichuan cuisine, it looks complicated, but it is actually very easy to complete. If you like eating meat and prefer spicy taste, I highly recommend you try this dish, its deliciousness will not let you down. If you are interested, quickly collect this video and make your own gourmet version.

Ins: Sichuan cuisine is a great representative of Chinese cuisine. When it comes to classic Sichuan cuisine, this Sichuan boiled beef will definitely be recommended. It is really “hot”! Do you want to learn how to make such delicious and beautiful food at home? Follow our video and let us share it with you.

3. tomato dough drop soup

Weibo: Have you had a good breakfast lately? Are you tired of all kinds of bread and sandwiches? Do you want a different taste for breakfast? Well, you can try this tomato dough drop soup. Quick, nutritious and delicious. Let’s do it

Don’t forget that in our topic, you can share your “gourmet homework” and tell us what else you like for breakfast. Let’s enlighten each other. I look forward to your sharing~

YouTube: Have you had a good breakfast lately? Are you tired of all kinds of bread and sandwiches? Do you want a different taste for breakfast? Well, you can try this tomato dough drop soup. Quick, nutritious and delicious. Food is always so wonderful, and we want to share more of it with you in these videos. If you want to find out more, do not forget to follow our channel.

Ins: The name of this dish is tomato dough drop soup. Do you know how to quickly have such a nutritious and delicious breakfast? Follow our channel (YouTube: Lag Free Kitchen) and maybe the video we share will inspire you. The food is beautiful, and so is the cooking process. I hope you can watch our video and enjoy your own cooking.

4. Chinese Pancake

YouTube: A Good Day Begins with Eating – Chinese Pancake [English Editions]

Thanks M&S for sponsoring the chips, so that this pancake has a soul! After last tomato dough drop soup video, I received a lot of friends’ comments saying that they would like to have more breakfasts recipes. Hence! I decided to make A Good Day Begins with Eating as a series and share quick breakfasts recipes every week for you. This video is to share my new ‘invention’ – Chinese Pancake English Edition. The idea of this pancake is from, I wanted to fry an omelet one day and suddenly wanted to imitate the practice of Chinese pancake. I tried it many times, so I got the best and simplest version. Let’s try!

INS: I received a lot of friends’ comments saying that they would like to have more breakfasts recipes. Hence! I decided to make A Good Day Begins with Eating as a series and share quick breakfasts recipes every week for you. This video is the second video of this series and I am going to share my new ‘invention’ – Chinese Pancake English Edition. Follow our channel to see! (YouTube: Jet Lag Free Kitchen)

5. Stewed pork with Chinese cabbage & vermicelli

Do you know that Chinese cuisine is also divided into north and south? The features of diet are quite different from each other in east, west, north and south of China. Last time I have shared a Sichuan Boiled beef video, which is a kind of southern cuisine. This time I am going to share you a northeastern Chinese cuisine – stewed pork with Chinese cabbage & vermicelli. It is fair to say that this dish is a specialty of northeast China, so let’s try something different from the southern cuisine!

Reference:

Whitmer, J., 2019. You are your brand: Self-branding and the marketization of self. Sociology Compass, 13(3), p.e12662.

Figure List: 

Figure 1: Jet Lag Free Kitchen YouTube Channel (2020) [screenshot] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxNwgEnimM17etqfvATwCMg/featured [Accessed 3 May 2020].