A Growth Engine for Europe

In 2008, a young Italian make-up artist called Clio Zammatteo set up her first YouTube channel, ClioMakeUp, with nothing but a $90 video camera. Today she is a major player in Italy, with more than 740,000 subscribers, a staff of 20 and over 149 million channel views. As a newly established online personality, Zammatteo has agreed merchandising and licensing deals with leading players in the cosmetics and personal care sector, written three books and set up an award-winning blog. And she’s in no doubt about where all this success came from. “YouTube has allowed me to have a zero-cost ‘TV’ channel and become a content provider,” she says. “It’s put me in the public spotlight and enabled me to create Italy’s leading online community dedicated to make-up, without needing professional advice. YouTube has been more than just a launch pad, but also a facilitator of relationships: it’s helped me to communicate on a human level.” Elena Dominique Midolo, Talent Manager of ClioMakeUp, adds: “Clio has become a teacher of others. Professionally, she's gone from being a make-up artist who lends her voice to particular brands and products to one who communicates and engages in dialogue with people and invests in relationships.” And Zammatteo concludes: “YouTube is like a fertiliser for businesses that want to grow.”