Marketer Kesi Gardner Talks About Jamaican Youtubers To Watch In 2020 At Kingston Creative’s Artwalk

Marketer Kesi Gardner has been working in the advertising industry for over sixteen years. She was invited by Kingston Creative to speak at their Artwalk on Sunday, November 24th about YouTubers to Watch in 2020 and some of the trends that are forecasted locally in the market. She’s been writing about digital media including the YouTube and blogging community for the past seven years on her personal blog www.kesigardner.wordpress.com.

According to the We Are Social Hootsuite Digital Report released in January 2019, YouTube is the second most visited social media platform  by Jamaicans with over 1.9 million visits every month.

Some of the YouTubers she mentioned were a part of her blogging/influencer network, Love Not Likes, which she started in July 2019.

“ The name was inspired by the song by Chronixxx, but also that most of these content creators do this because of the love and not so much the likes. I wanted to inspire these content creators (micro-influencers) who are making dynamic content but might not actually getting the recognition they deserve to continue.” she said. Micro-influencers are people who have 10,000 or less followers on IG.

“Micro-influencers are considered to be more authentic than the more popular influencers, and are usually more affordable to hire, but they also make the effort to build their communities.” she said at her presentation at F&B’s parking lot, in Downtown Kingston.

Some of the YouTubers mentioned were members of her community such as Jamaican-Canadian Annesha Adams who recently moved back to Jamaica, University Student Shelby Bradshaw (@andimshelby) and Montreal-based Sarah Miles of @milesguide.

Some of the trends included families and couples vlogging about their personal life such as the Carter family, a U.S. based Jamaican couple. Another trend were IG influencers trying their hand at YouTube such as Shanzi and Nino.

Moving foward, Kesi Gardner continues to build her database of creators so that she can provide them with opportunities to grow their personal brand, such as paid opportunities, masterclasses, and resources.

The entire presentation can be listed on her blog, www.kesigardner.wordpress.com