Dixie D’Amelio is a singer-songwriter and one of top 10 most followed TikTokers in the world—with over 57 millions followers on the app—and an additional 35 million followers across Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter.
As you likely know, Dixie is the elder sister of Charli D’Amelio—the second most followed TikToker in the world with over 144 million followers—who is known for her viral dance videos. Following suit, the entire D’Amelio family, including parents Marc and Heidi, quickly shot to fame.
The sudden, unexpected online attention appears to be a double-edged sword—turning the D’Amelio family into a millionaire dynasty but adding immense pressure onto the sisters. They’ve been open about the anxiety they have as a result of constant online criticism and threats toward the young stars and their parents. Regardless, today the D’Amelio family continues to work together on lighthearted content, behind-the-scenes vlogging, a docuseries about the challenges of fame, and marketing campaigns with huge companies.
After amassing millions of followers, Dixie began pursuing a public music career. In 2020, Dixie released her first single “Be Happy.” Since then, she has gone on to collaborate with artists like Wiz Khalifa, Liam Payne, and Rubi Rose, and she recently finished a tour opening for Big Time Rush. In June, she released her debut album titled “a letter to me.”
On July 11, Dixie released a music video for one of the songs on her latest album, “Someone to Blame.” The video was made in partnership with Videoleap, a paid-subscription video editing app developed by Lightricks. For the partnership, Dixie invited fans to use her templates on Videoleap to create videos with the chance of getting featured in the “Someone to Blame” music video. According to Lightricks, more than 100,000 fans submitted videos for consideration.
The entire D’Amelio family began partnering with Lightricks earlier in the year. Lightricks is a technology company primarily known for its subscription-based photo and video editing tools for creators, like FaceTune and Videoleap. In addition, it offers a link-in-bio tool and a platform which connects brands to creators for marketing campaigns. Zeev Farbman, CEO of Lightricks, told Passionfruit the company has been engaging with creators of varying audience sizes to determine the needs of different creators and translate those needs into new products and services.
“Specifically with the D’Amelio’s, they’re kind of huge, so that’s also interesting to see—once you’re already a business, what are your needs? How do you proceed with brand deals? How do you figure out what’s okay, what’s not, right? Because brand collaborations are very tricky for creators. They want to maintain their freedom, they realize they can’t spam their feed, you know, posting about a product everyday. The more successful guys are actually really mindful,” Farbman said.
Farbman said it was important to craft out a win-win situation if Lightricks wanted to work with the D’Amelio family.
“To make sure that whatever we’re doing with them it’s also really kind of on their path, how they perceive their advancement as a kind of a brand as a family, the personal brands of the family members, et cetera. So we kind of brainstormed a lot with things that make sense,” Farbman said.
For Dixie’s partnership, the idea was to take a concept of video templates and do a special fan-engagement twist. Fans could download Videoleap, use special Dixie-themed templates to create videos, and some lucky fans would have their videos featured in Dixie’s latest music video.
In an interview with Passionfruit, D’Amelio discussed how the Lightricks partnership ties into her music career; how she decides on what to promote; why she’s involving fans in her new music video; her advice for other creators partnering with brands; and more.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Can you describe your overall career strategy? How does this latest partnership fit in?
Music is something I love and what I put my heart into, so I love the learning process that this stage of my career has helped me experience. Connecting with my fans is something I love most about TikTok, so it’s been really cool to work with Lightricks and engage my fans in a way that makes it easy for them to use Videoleap and be a part of what I create. Keeping that connection is important to my growth as an artist.
How do you decide which companies you’re going to work with, and what made Lightricks a good fit?
I like to work with brands that do fun things or something I believe in. I love creating content and connecting with people, and Lightricks helps make that an easy and fun experience, something I want to share with my followers so they can find success in creating content too. Like with this new feature, they can download Videoleap and get inspired by the templates in the app to start creating fun content and share it with the world.
When testing out the products Lightricks offers, how did you decide if you’d like to promote them?
It was a decision we made as a family. We liked knowing that we could work together to help other creators and get tools that helped us create content or connect with people better. I loved the custom link-in-bio tools they made for me, and Lightricks’ products like Videoleap let me tap into my creative side. I like playing with templates too and seeing how other people flip what I share into their own version, so it’s great to be part of the process for a new wave of creators.
For the partnership, you’re allowing fans to participate in your latest music video. How does this fit into your overall fan engagement strategy?
I love my fans so much. They’ve helped me get to where I am today and I want them to be involved in my growth as an artist and musician. I want everyone who hears my music to feel like they learned more about me, and this is a great chance for the people who’ve followed me to be part of it. Fan engagement is one of the best things about social media, so letting them be a part of this next part of my journey is exciting.
Bouncing off that last question, as someone with such a massive audience, what is it like to manage your relationship with fans? What tips do you have for other creators who are trying to connect in a healthy way with their audience?
I think every creator needs to give themself room to breathe! It’s always important to take a step back from social media for your mental health and not get caught up in trying to post all the time. It’s important to build a relationship with your fans and find creative ways to connect with them, so do it in a healthy way. Share your journey with them but also be honest. If you build that connection, fans will support you.
What advice would you give other creators looking to work with brands?
Work with brands that are true to your values and what you’re interested in. If you don’t love the brand or what they’re trying to do, working with them won’t be as enjoyable. Choose brands that you’re excited to work with and strengthen the connection you have with your fans and passions.
Are you a creator announcing your latest partnership? Email grace.stanley@dailydot.com for a chance to get featured in an upcoming newsletter.
