With tens of thousands of followers on her Instagram alone, Anja Ellam has quite the reach as an influencer. Her followers consistently head to the videos she is featured in, and eagerly await a new episode of a web series she has helped write. Social media is one of Ellam’s fortes, and that understanding has led to her enormous success not only as an influencer, but as an actress and writer as well.
Ellam’s work can be directly linked to the success of all of the projects she has worked on. She wrote the award-winning film The Woods, which has seen success at many of the world’s most prestigious film festivals. She also has written, hosted, and been an influencer for viral videos and popular web series, like her work with YouTube star DangMattSmith, AwesomenessTV, and the new streaming service Go90. When ArsenicTV was looking to build up their brand and launch a daily Snapchat story, they knew just who to turn to, and contacted Ellam through Instagram.
“It’s funny, I really get the most recognized off the ArsenicTV Snapchat story than anything else I do. Whether it’s someone I know or someone asking me at a party if it was me on the Snapchat. It was crazy to me at first how many of my friends were followers of their Snapchat,” said Ellam. “I love meeting new people when there’s a lot of influencers on set and I love how fun and crazy their channel can be.”
Ellam’s role at ArsenicTV is an influencer and host for their Snapchat segments. They have worked together over ten times on scripted, unscripted, and promotional content for their Snapchat story. While hosting different Snapchat segments, she has been able to represent the brand in a positive and influential way, helping to build both their brand and her brand. She has received a lot of positive feedback from followers as well as producers.
“Working with Anja is a lot of fun. She’s a really outgoing person which is why we loved having her represent the brand. Anja is really creative and understands this new media platform really well, which is very important,” said Producer Steven Goldfried.
The ArsenicTV Snapchat show gets over 500,000 daily views. As a host and influencer, Ellam is often working with a script, or else she is improvising everything. Although she enjoys both, she says her favorite segments are when she is doing the competitive and completely improvised scavenger hunts. She recently did a scavenger hunt called Arsenic Made Me Do It, which was extremely popular.
“The scavenger hunt always has me doing hilarious things I would never do, like asking strangers to chug a Starbucks drink or starting a dance party on the sidewalk. It’s always an exciting time,” she said. “I like how fun it is there and how you really get to be yourself. They like you to put your own spin on everything and you get to do things you normally wouldn’t, like meeting new people or trying a new activity. For the Snapchat Spectacles promotion I got to go on all this roller coasters after the park was closed. It was really fun.”
ArsenicTV has differently segments daily, and sometimes multiple a day. They have everything from photo shoots, events at the office, branded segments, games, just to name a few. Using Snapchat is very different from other social media platforms because each clip can only be ten seconds, but you have to use that time to tell a captivating story.
“This is a completely social media platform so using influencers is vital to their content. Before I do a ‘takeover’ as they are sometimes called, I promote on my Snapchat that I'll be on their Snapchat so that my followers will go and watch. I'll be doing something different and more entertaining than I normally do on my own Snapchat, which is more just a personal thing of what I'm doing that day,” explained Ellam. “It’s a lot of fun and definitely different from the other platforms. Because it’s Snapchat, you do everything on a phone. It is easy to redo something if you mess up, but sometimes it’s hard because you don’t want to miss something that happens in the moment. Hosting for their different segments is always a different experience. Sometimes you’re not at the office, so you’re communicating with producers via text. All the producers are so nice and welcoming and their office is very fun and has a great energy. They’re very laid back but they make sure everything still runs smoothly. I’m glad I’ve got to work with them so many times.”
Ellam’s work as an influencer for ArsenicTV has been extremely successful, just like everything she does, and has led to them being one of the most watched brands on Snapchat. Without her, none of this could have been possible. She truly knows the importance of being an influencer in today’s world
“You’re representing a brand from both sides. My followers want to see more of my life and what I'm working on, so if I promote the videos on my social media outlets, more people will go and watch it. It also works the other way; the producers know I'd work well on the show because they know I already have a similar audience to the one they want,” she concluded. “It is just fun.”