Haliey Welch: The Viral Sensation and What It Means for Modern Fandom Join host Mike Lewis on this special episode of the Fanalytics podcast as he dives into the fascinating story of Haley Welch, the 'Hock Tua' girl who has become this summer's social media star. Explore how Welch's journey serves as a compelling case study for the current media environment and social media dynamics. From her rapid rise covered by Barstool Sports to the more nuanced perspective from Rolling Stone, this episode touches on the economics of modern stardom, the nature of viral moments, and what they reflect about contemporary American culture. Don't miss this intriguing discussion about the power of social media fandom and the future of audience economics. 00:00 Introduction to Haley Welch and the Hock Tua Phenomenon 01:21 Media Coverage: Barstool Sports and Rolling Stone 08:04 The Cultural Significance of Haley Welch 08:39 Economic Impact and Brand Potential 13:26 Fandom Dynamics and Cultural Relevance 18:31 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
00:00 Introduction to Haley Welch and the Hock Tua Phenomenon
01:21 Media Coverage: Barstool Sports and Rolling Stone
08:04 The Cultural Significance of Haley Welch
08:39 Economic Impact and Brand Potential
13:26 Fandom Dynamics and Cultural Relevance
18:31 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Haley Welch edition of the Fanalytics podcast with your host myself. Mike Lewis. All right. I'm looking forward to this one. This one's a little bit different because we're not talking sports. We are talking popular culture, Haley Welch, and I'm going to minimize the number of times.
I say this Haliey Welch is the Hock Tua girl. Right. So she is this summer's social media star. And look, I love it. I love it because. Well, first off it's fun. I don't know how anyone could dislike. Haley Welch. But it's also great as an educational vehicle. Haley Welch's story, the Hock Tua girl story. It is. An amazing case study. For the current media environment, the way social media works, the way fandom works. So we'll dig right in and, and basically there's going to be a quick episode.
So I'll talk a little bit about some of the commentary surrounding Haley Welch, and then dig into what Haley Welch really means for those of us interested in not just. Social media and Tik TOK stars, but what it means for the culture and for the study of stardom itself.
Okay. Media coverage. So I found two. I mean, there's numerous articles about Hailey. But I think the two that really kind of define the story are one, an article from Barstool sports. With the headline. Hock Tua girl's officially getting paid, starting with a $30,000 appearance at a Miami club in a, Tua Jersey.
Barstool is probably the ideal. Outlet to cover. The Haley Welch story. Right. And th and th this is not no joking aside, right? Barstool lives in the popular culture, right. Barstool. Reflects the popular culture. And so I think when these guys see something like the Haley. Welch story. They're completely in tune with it from the very beginning.
So a couple of quick excerpts from the article. Listen, I'm as tired of seeing the hock tour, girl is maybe the rest of you. But what, but what I can appreciate as an internet kind of store is a meteoric rise. Regardless of the way you get it. Bri, who I assume is one of their internal podcasters, got the first interview with her.
Thanks to her boyfriend who doubles as a mega star. And when I tell you it was legitimately the biggest piece of content we put out this year, I don't think I'm exaggerating. Okay. So it gives you a sense of how big a deal. Haley Welch has become very quickly. Continue with the article. Some people are saying one spit wonder.
Okay. Like I said, Barstool is perfect for this. Right. People might view that phrase is. crass offensive. No, it's perfectly on point. . Fanalytics this podcast is about studying the culture, right? Barstool is a part of the culture but what a perfect turn of phrase to kind of capture the beauty of whats, the amusement, the amusing elements of what's happening here. Some people are saying one spit wonder. You can only Hock Tua so far, yada yada. But whatever agency that Hock Tua girl signed with has started moving quickly two weeks too late, because she now has social media and 1.1 million followers in under a week. Okay.
So Barstool goes to the heart of this. The Hawk Tua girl has already signed with an agency. She is managing herself as a brand. And she has. amassed a sizeable and valuable audience. Okay. Continuing. Maybe she's so viral that she'll kickstart and influence and career for the next 10 years and make millions and millions of dollars. There's worse ways to become famous.
I think she already said that she wouldn't make an only fans despite cries coming from meek fills. Desk at Barstool. Okay. If she does four or five of those 30 K appearances at clubs and all of the sudden you're in a six-figure club. All right. So like I said, Barstool is going to the heart of it. She's making 30 K and appearance.
That's an important number for this story. The size of the audience is an important part of the story.
The second article I want to talk about came from rolling stone. Okay. Rolling stone has long been a magazine. Concerned with popular music and more broadly. American culture. So again, they're an interesting outlet for taking a look at the Haley weight weld story,
But their starting point is frankly strikes me as a little bit crazy. Bar stool lives in the actual environment. Rolling stone seems committed to trying to make this story. To say what this story means. At a depth. That probably is not warranted given what's actually happening. Okay. So we had, so here's the title of the rolling stone article.
We had breakfast with Hawk Tua girl. The national hero we need. She went viral for a sex joke, but Haley Welch is much more. Charming gen Z Dolly Parton. Who's rightfully becoming America's sweetheart. So right off the bat, you can see this effort to take this cultural phenomena. And try and. And try and make sense of it.
But you can tell they're coming from a perspective that's well, frankly, it's crazy. There is nothing in the Haley Wells story beyond having some Southern roots. That suggests he's going to have anything like a Dolly Parton like career. And again, this is an important part of the story, right? This idea of taking this. Kid from Tennessee, and comparing it to someone who is. You know, frankly, Dolly Parton may rank in the top 10 cultural figures. Um, entertainment or sing figures. In the 20th century in the last century of America. So Dolly, pardon is such a mega mega star. That this type of comparison is. It's just ludicrous.
Okay. Continuing on. It's a result of how she answered a question about a sex acts posed by her, by YouTubers, Tim Dickerson and Derrius Marlow. I don't know how big. Darious Marlo and Tim Dickerson show are, but it's. And I'm not going to look it up, but again, there's kind of a critical element. The launching pad for social media stardom is something that is. You know, for those interested in fandom analytics, an important part, right?
How do you get platformed? How do you grow that? Get that initial spark. So she's interviewed by these two YouTube, whereas late night in Nashville earlier this summer. And the quote that made her go viral. You got to give them that Hawk Tua. And spit on that thing. Welch said on camera summary, summary summoning, a guttural spitting noise. Okay.
Continuing from rolling stone, written out welch, his answer reads, raunchy and crass. But the way she delivers it. In the, in the clip ripples with innocence. Here was a giggling, smiling, fresh paced farm girl describing oral sex without a hint of sexuality. In the same, all shucks. Manner that assert and beloved country music legend makes jokes about our boobs. While she may not sing or write songs, the Hock Tua girl as she's come to be known. Exudes the charm and magnet magnetism. I have a gen Z Dolly.
Pardon? Wow. Rolling stone. I mean, there's some good and some important elements to the rolling stone article. But. Clearly coming at it from trying to make the story bigger than it is, and trying to make the story more nuanced than what it is.
All right. So what does this story mean to me? I look on a personal level, love the story. I find Hayley absolutely charming. The video is strangely compelling. It's an entertainment thing right after all, at the end of the day, I'm a human being and I can watch Tik TOK and I can appreciate. Maybe it's accidental, but accidentally great content.
When I think about this more from a academic perspective and really kind of break things down. Three things come to mind. Number one. The Haley Welch story is an important one in terms of thinking about how brands work in 2024 and how audience economics work. It's not 1990 anymore. There isn't essentially. Three networks, some assorted cable stations. And a few major publications that control the narrative. Now we have social media and if the social media algorithm. Allows you to break three. He'll break free and allows your content to go viral.
Then guess what? You now have a brand that potentially has an audience to be monetized. Right. You get to be. If, if American culture is a circus, you get to occupy one of the center rings at least for a short time. So when we think about Hailey Welch and think about the economics, and this goes back to some of barstools comments.
It is. Haley has an opportunity to. Change her life. And while, you know, you look at some of the internet commentary and the suggestion is don't quit your job. Well, we've got to think about what her job was. Hailey is a Tennessee factory worker. A quick Google search suggest that Tennessee factory workers make between about 1390, an hour and $19 an hour.
So if she was making $15 an hour, That's $30,000 a year. You got to remember. The Barstool article started by talking about how she was making $30,000 to host a pool party.
Annual wages in one day. That's an important number because you start to think through the potential value of the brand that C has been gifted with the audience that she has following her around. If she does. She does five appearances. At $30,000, that's 150,000. So let's say she does 10 appearances, 300,000.
So 10 times what she was making in a year. But there's more. Right. Audiences are also interested. Fan audiences are also interested in identifying themselves. So Haley has a reportedly sold about $65,000 in merchandise. So let's assume she gets a little bit more out of that. Let's say she sells a hundred K in merchandise. We're talking 400 K total.
Now in terms of gross revenues. Now. This audience 1.1 million folks on Tik TOK. It is an audience. Right. And what do we do with audiences and American media? We sell advertising. So what is, what is an influencer with an audience that size make per post? Let's call it two grand. Okay. So let's say Haley can make 25 posts.
He can monetize 25 posts. That's $50,000. So 300 K and appearances. A hundred K and merchandise, 50 K in, in Tik TOK and Instagram posts as 450 K. And remember she was making $30,000. So it's not inconceivable that she could be talking about grossing about half a million dollars, just over the course of the summer.
Now she's apparently already paying a team and maybe there's agents and publicists involved. But maybe she nets half that. 250 K for a fun summer is a lot better than 30 K for the year, working in a Tennessee factory.
The other thing to note about, and look, I think this is actually the important point. Is when we think about what audience size means as a comparison to Haley with a million plus followers on social media. ESPN recently reported that their morning show. There. They're essentially. The high point of their morning, the Mike Greenberg get up show. Generated about 380,000 viewers in March and April.
Okay. The viewership tends to be a little bit down in non NFL parts of the year. When Haley did a biographic post on Tik TOK. And look it's very well done. So you can tell that she's got some, some production people behind her. That generated 34.5 million views. All right. 34.5 million. You're talking about 10% of the American population.
382,000 for get out. You're talking about 0.1% of the population. So one of the real lessons in all this is that. If you have a brand that essentially has been platformed and you've got an audience. You know, barstools right. You got to monetize that. The second thing that's important about the story is we've got to knock, acknowledge it. The Hock Tua brand is fairly stupid. Right. It's kind of a one-off goof, right? It's unlikely to have serious staying power. It's a definite one hit wonder in terms of catchphrases.
But it beautifully illustrates something important about how fandom works. Part of the reason why? Well, and let me say this, I think fandom tends to be based broadly on two main aspects. First is. Fandom for the underlying product, for the, for the, whether it's a sport, whether it's music fandom, whether it's needle point fandom for the core element. You know, sort of what's fundamentally happening. And then the second part. And this is where Haley Welch lives. Is that fandom for essentially.
Being part of the conversation. And this is the old notion of someone being famous for being famous. And when you put in that, in those, in that context, it starts to sound like the Kardashians, right? Why are they famous? We've heard this for more than a decade. They're famous because they are part of the culture. Haley Welch's at least for the moment. Part of the culture. Right.
And being part of the culture is truly an important thing . The Haley Welch. The Kardashians, they may not seem to be important. But they are essentially the stories that we all share that society broadly shares. And so they actually become incredibly important because they truly define the culture at the moment.
So especially if you're looking at people under 30.
Haley Welch, the Hock Tua girl. May have a phenomenal level of awareness. Right there. If you look at the, you know, maybe you go under 20. I would not be surprised if more people know about the Haley. Welch, talk to a story, then know who the vice president is.
And so this is something where a fan of, and this is why fandom is important, right?
Because fandom is cultural passion and what people are passionate about and what people know and what they share this largely dictates what the culture is. Now this, this notion of being famous for being famous.
It. She's those particular flavor of that. I think we have to think about Hawk Tua it as a catch phrase, we've always had catch phrases. You know, the Fonz used to say a Bart Simpson would say, eat my shorts. And again, I'm talking about this stuff because I think it really clarifies the point. If you say, eat my shorts.
Most of everyone in society knows you're talking about Bart Simpson. If you say a, everyone knows you're talking about the fonts or at least people of a certain age group. In marketing, we've had a lot of this where's the beef, the Wendy's late. The Wendy's. Grandmother type in the 1980s. The Budweiser wassup campaign. I think about how something is silly as, as dumb is wassup. Tends to work through every office place in America, in every school. A bunch of guys.
See the ad on the Superbowl is suddenly everyone was saying what's up to each other. That's what Hawk Tua is. It's a point of connection that resonates across. Across society. And I know how strange that sounds.
The third thing.
This story. Is it very much a temperature check on American culture.
And in a lot of ways, I think the common reaction is to be. It's sort of the Pearl collectors out there to kind of be appalled that this is the thing that went viral, right. Going back to my last point, that this is a thing that connects society. I don't think it, and you can all. And you can almost hear him saying, and this is the problem with social media. Reality is I grew up in the eighties.
I remember MTV doing spring break. This is what kids will always love. Something a little bit raunchy. Something that is essentially forbidden. Right. Something that's a little bit bad, but when it's delivered by a pretty young lady, And who's exude some innocence in some charm. This is the kind of thing that maybe it spreads more now that we have social media and there's a mechanism for it.
Spreading bro broadly. But this is the kind of thing that youth culture has always has always embraced. It's also, but, but again, it's not just youth culture. It's a great story because it really clarifies. Just what American society responds to. I mean, before the, before the assassination of attempt president Trump, Maybe one of the pivotal moments or the most remembered moments of the presidential campaign. Was to senior citizens. Essentially challenged themselves, challenging each other to golf matches and then starting to bicker about whether or not they were carrying their own bags. This is. You know, the Hock Tua story is illustrative of. How American culture works.
Okay. So as a quick summary, Big three points on the Halle Wells story. Why this story matters and why it's absolutely fascinating for us to all watch play out. Matters at the cultural level. Okay. The response to Haley Welch, the Hock Tua girl. Is tells us something important about American culture. People can pretend they don't like it, but American culture has always embraced the circus.
The freak show, the scammers. It's also embraced a lot of conflict and contention. I think the reason why Haley works and why she resonates so much, particularly with youth culture is she's got some of the good parts, right? It's kind of amusing, it's kind of raunchy. It's kind of charming. And it doesn't seem to contain any of the hate in any of the contention.
Number two at the marketing level or the. The strategic level. If you want to think about marketing strategy. Her phrase Hawk Tua. It is a perfect marketing position for a brand in 2024. It's raunchy, but like I said, it's delivered with innocence and it's delivered with charm. It's essentially flawlessly constructed for the coming of age segment.
The problem is that there's nothing that actually seems to be behind the catchphrase or the brand.
So we can look at this as an exemplar of how to build a catchphrase, how to conduct marketing. But in terms of this case study, the open question is, is there anything to support the brand?
Like where's the beef Wendy's they had actual hamburgers, Dolly Parton, and again, I hate the idea of comparing. Dolly Parton this cultural icon with Haley Welch, but you know, Dolly was singing and Dolly was acting. All right. Number three.
Hayley's moment perfectly. Illustrates the new economics of audiences. We are not living in a world where audiences are controlled by TV networks and by newspapers. We are in the midst of seeing the shift to where audiences are controlled by the performers, by the content producers. This is the big thing to look for over the next coming few years. As, when you look at the size of audiences, we talked about ESPN and Haley Welch. When you look at the size of the audience of the platforms that superstar athletes and superstar entertainers have compared to their media partners, who used to be the gatekeepers. This is why the world is going to change rapidly.
We'll wrap this up here. As I said that the Haley Welch. Story is one of my favorite stories this summer. It contains. So much charm and it's such a fascinating thing to watch out. Watch, particularly as she is. Gone all in on this. It's a great. Living. Realtime case study. Of what's possible in terms of going with a fairly simple viral moment. In terms of what can this actually be turned into?
I don't have great optimism that she's going to find some substance to underlie, to underlie the brand. It seems like something that's going to fade fairly rapidly. But it's going to be fun to watch and interesting to watch how this proceeds over the next month or so. With that I'll close out today's episode as always more content on www.fandomanalytics.com.
And please, please check out the new fantasy Fanalytics sub stack. Out there as well for some longer form pieces. Right now there's long form pieces on WNBA and Olympic fandom. Thank you all.