- Two of the most controversial creators on YouTube Tana Mongeau and Jake Paul got married last year, but broke up in January.
- They had a whirlwind open marriage, and nobody really knew if it was real or not.
- Getting together boosted their exposure to one another's audiences and has continued to help their careers rise. Mongeau recently released her own perfume, and Paul just followed in his brother's footsteps and won a professional boxing match.
- Insider asked online celebrity branding experts Marie Mostad and Stacy Jones how much Paul and Mongeau's eight-month relationship had increased their worth in terms of sponsorships and deals.
- Overall, Mongeau's worth could have increased 20-25% since April 2019, while Paul's could have increased by 5-10%.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
YouTuber superstars Tana Mongeau and Jake Paul called time on their brief open marriage at the beginning of the year, but since then, their careers have only been going upwards.
Mongeau just released her own perfume, which completely sold out in 76 minutes, and Paul beat AnEsonGib in a knockout boxing match that lasted less than a single round.
Mongeau seemed to particularly benefit from the high-profile relationship, increasing her YouTube following by 33% from 3.9 million in April 2019 to 5.2 million today. Paul, although already a superstar with 18.3 million at the start of their relationship, increased 7.5% to 19.7 million.
$605 million dollars of media value in 60 days
In the last 60 days, media monitoring service Critical Mention found that there have been 1,825 mentions of Paul and Mongeau on online, TV, and radio, although most of these were related to their breakup. According to Stacy Jones, the CEO and founder of Hollywood Branded Inc, this has resulted in a 7.75 billion audience reach, which translates to over $605 million dollars of media value.
Jones told Insider that Mongeau's increase in exposure is partly down to her celebrity romances and friendships, that include Bella Thorne, Lil Xan, and most recently, Paul.
"While Tana is a comic and musician, it is her inclusion in those celebrity platforms that have opened the doors to being exposed to a new highly engaged audience who seem to like what she produces," she said.
Her particularly high gain in recent months was aided by gathering new fans from Paul's platform, "as well as the massive media coverage that followed both the rise and crash of their overnight romance," Jones added.
"The media coverage provided certainly helped Tana Mongeau become a more familiar name than it did Jake Paul, as his name is already incredibly saturated in the marketplace due to his years of content production," she said.
Paul's increase of followers probably would have happened anyway, regardless of whether or not he was dating Mongeau, she added, "as there is a natural percentage uptick that continues if an influencer is actively producing content."
Numbers aren't everything
As Marie Mostad, the COO and co-founder of inzpire.me, pointed out, a rapid accumulation of followers isn't enough to increase someone's career worth. The number of people engaging with a creator's content better determines how much influence they have.
"As a general rule, the engagement rate of a profile typically starts to fall after a profile reaches 100,000 followers," she told Insider. "Which means these two are not necessarily able to engage more people even with a larger following."
On the other hand, people like to follow the lives of those they find interesting, and this intrigue is increased when a new relationship begins. This new exposure has the potential to allow both Mongeau and Paul to work with brands that weren't within their wheelhouses previously, Jones said.
"However, with no wedding bells actually ringing, no setting up house together and starting a family, those potential deals also didn't really have the opportunity to come to fruition," she said.
Mongeau has never been particularly brand-friendly
Mongeau is not seen as "safe" to brands, which makes her an interesting case study, Jones said. Despite the fact she has an incredibly strong female follower base of 79%, and most of her demographic is 20-24-year-olds that brands are eager to interact with, she's still seen as a risk.
"Tana is outspoken and crass, she's had negative feedback about commentary she has made, and the photos she splashes on Instagram are overtly sexual," Jones said. "She's not created a warm welcoming partnership opportunity for most brands with a female demographic to feel safe."
Her image also took a hit when she created her own influencer event in 2018, called TanaCon, which was supposed to rival YouTube's VidCon. It rapidly spiralled out of control with overcrowding and fans waiting in the blistering California sun, due to lack of organization.
"So even with an increase of fan following, and higher media coverage, the PR has certainly triggered brand marketers to learn more about her, but not likely to such a level to overwhelm her with new brand partnership deals in most cases," Jones said.
Mongeau has partnered with fast-fashion brand FashionNova, a company that often aligns itself with more outspoken women, Jones said.
"She absolutely will find more brands who are open to 'edgy' to partner within the months and years ahead," she said.
Overall, a single sponsored Instagram post from Mongeau may have earned her $20,000 to $30,000 in April 2019, while now it could fetch her $35,000 to $40,000, according to Jones.
"A full-blown campaign would net her six figures," she said.
Mostad estimated Mongeau's worth in terms of sponsorships and sponsored social media posts to have increased by 20-25% since April 2019.
Paul has his own controversies too
Paul has a much more even split of followers, with 47% male and 53% female, Jones said. He became a Vine star, largely thanks to his brother Logan's success. But he has had a controversial past just like Mongeau.
Disney severed ties with Paul in 2017, largely because of his obnoxious behaviour online and offline — he caused havoc in the LA neighbourhood where the first Team 10 house stood. Shane Dawson, a well-renowned YouTuber, even made an eight-episode long docu-series about whether Paul was a sociopath.
"His behavior often is challenging to brands who want desperately to engage with his audience, but fear negative associations as well," Jones said.
Despite this, Paul could now earn $100,000 to $500,000 for a brand deal depending on how comprehensive it is — a single post, an event attendance with multiple posts and stories, or a collab featuring all Team 10 members.
Mostad estimated his sponsorship worth to have increased 5-10% since getting together with Mongeau.
Both Mongeau and Paul have a tremendous amount of growth and income potential, Jones said. But there's a big caveat. Essentially, they're going to have to simultaneously stay popular with their fan bases and grow up at the same time. They'll have to find a way to keep their followers engaged as they become less controversial and dramatic to attract more sponsorships.
"Most brands just are not comfortable with risk, and both Tana and Jake are risky brand ambassadors," she said.
Read more:
Tana Mongeau opens up about her marriage to Jake Paul: 'The wedding night was just hell'
Jake Paul said he 'fell out of love' with his wife Tana Mongeau and 'in love' with boxing