How the TikTok Influencer Collab Home Wave Home Makes Cash

  • The Wave House caused a sensation at TikTok last year with viral demasking videos. Then it disappeared.
  • Now the British influencer Collab House is back for the second season with 4 million TikTok followers.
  • Wave House is based on reality TV and wants to be TikTok’s “island of love”.
  • You can find more articles on Insider’s business page.

Wave House, a British influencer collab house that dubbed itself “the most extravagant creator’s mansion”, was a viral sensation when it debuted on TikTok last fall.

The house arrived with a bang on TikTok. The first member reveal video got more than 50 million views and within two weeks the house account had 2 million followers.

The group of creators continued to publish lush content. For example, when one viewer said, “Get a kart track and dress up like Mario Kart characters,” they did – and received over 3 million views. Wave House’s TikTok site was a great success.

But instead of continuing to post videos, the account went silent for two months after “eliminating” members one by one in December.

Now the Wellenhaus has something new to do. The house started the “second season” in March, which will last three months.

Wave House is one of the few TikTok collab houses that have adopted a seasonal development model to build sustainable businesses. By creating content at specific times of the year instead of 365 days a year, homes (and their stars) have time to reset, plan, and cut costs. In free time, there is no rent for the villas these creators move into.

HoneyHouse, a group of millennial creators, is preparing for season three. It launched in Los Angeles last summer and has since moved locations and introduced a new cohort of members. Other houses have also adopted a rotating membership model, where TikTok talents are swapped as they come and go.

“If we were just here for a full year and it was like three videos a week, every week, for a year, you’d run out of things,” said Zack Fairhurst, a member of Wave House.

Seasonal homes like Wave House have taken a page from Reality TV’s playbook. They make the “house” a production rather than a place where TikTok stars live together indefinitely.

The break between seasons can also leave audiences on a cliff top and wanting more, Fairhurst said.

“It’s like your favorite television shows,” said Eloise Fouladgar, co-founder and member of Wave House. “When the season ends, you say, ‘Well, I can’t wait for the season to come out.'”

Between December and March, Wave House members and co-founders, Fouladgar (2.9 million TikTok followers) and Jimbo Hall (1.3 million followers) were looking for new talent to join their crew.

Three new members were introduced in the second season: Ehiz Ufuah (9.9 million followers), one of the UK’s largest TikTok developers, and Fairhurst (3.4 million) and Reagan Yorke (2.9 million), two American TikTok developers Stars.

While Fouladgar and Hall found new members, the Yoke Network, the influencer marketing agency that helped start and start the house, was busy planning the house’s return.

To support the production of the second season, Wave House and Yoke Network have partnered with Brave Bison, a social content studio and media network. In addition to the TikTok content, the house increased its YouTube presence and introduced a weekly series of “reality show” episodes. The house has also launched a Snapchat series and has a documentary in the works.

In a March press release announcing the start of season two, Yoke Network CEO and co-founder Jidé Maduako described the house’s reality show as rivaling Love Island, but for TikTok fans.

Wellenhaus TikTok YouTube

Wave House creates episodes of a “reality show” series every week.


Screenshot / The wave house

A “massive” difference between the seasons

The Wave House relaunch was more than just a new member and mansion. The months between the first and second season gave the founders time to critically evaluate what went right, what went wrong and where they could improve.

“The difference between this season and the first is enormous,” said Fouladgar.

“I think the last time it was a lot more of a spectacle,” said Maduako. “But the second season is about who the creators really are, somehow getting to know them.”

While the first season spectacle worked – Wave House now has 4 million followers on TikTok, 60 million likes, and almost every video breaks 1 million views – it came at a high cost.

The house spent thousands of dollars on the eye-catching stunts for season one. A bright red helicopter landed in the front yard of his property for one of the exposing videos. That helicopter cost the house about $ 7,000, Yoke co-founder and chief technology officer Mustafa Mohamed told Insider last year. Wave House even built a roller coaster in their yard for a video, and another TikTok video featured a Batmobile.

But season one “taught us a lot,” said Fouladgar.

“You don’t need money or a big budget to make successful, good TikToks,” she added.

The house has a pretty flexible budget for season two, but instead of investing money in extravagant props, Yoke Network is spending on content aimed at building a closer relationship with the audience that Wave House has already built, and that is a bit more reliable (while still luxurious, in keeping with the brand of the house).

“This is much more sustainable in my opinion,” said Maduako.

Still, running a content house is an expensive investment regardless of the additional production costs like Wave House stunts. The upfront investment on the house cost Yoke Network about $ 200,000 each season, Maduako said. Yoke Network fully finances the home, pays the rent for the property, and receives the group’s branded offerings.

During Wave House’s first season, the group worked on sponsored content with two fashion brands: PrettyLittleThing and Zalando. As with many other content houses, branding agreements and sponsorships play an important role in the funding of Wave House.

Participation in these home business is part of the requirements to be a creator at Wave House. Yoke Network gets 80% of its private label sales and the makers 20%, Maduako said. For personal branded deals, Yoke Network reduces 20% and the developers 80%, which is typical for management companies. All of this helps Yoke Network pay the bill for the cost of production.

Last season the house was “pretty balanced,” and his sponsorships helped repay Yoke Network’s investment, Maduako said. But now Yoke is considering how to make Wave House profitable and a project with longevity.

“For it to be sustainable, it has to be financially viable,” said Maduako.

Turning a Collab House into a Business

From brand partnerships to paid music placements, sponsorships help pay the rent. For sponsored content, like brand partnerships, the house typically strives for five-digit deals (with multiple results), Maduako said.

However, building a business beyond sponsorship is part of the plan for Yoke Network and Wave House.

Here are some other ways Wave House is funding the house and trying to make a profit:

  • YouTube AdSense: The house is making increased efforts to expand its YouTube channel (with 26,000 subscribers) and upload its reality show episodes there. YouTube offers developers the opportunity to earn money through the YouTube affiliate program, which shares a commission from ads placed by Google on videos.
  • NFTs: Wave House is also trying to capitalize on the craze for NFT (Nonfungible Token). Last week the house unveiled a collection of NFTs.
  • Fan shop and E-commerce Opportunities.

And for the creators themselves, living in the house brings its own business opportunities.

“I think when I was at Wave House in season one, I made most of the money I made on social media,” said Fouladgar. “And then when I got out of Wave House it really slowed the brands down, and now I’m back and it’s picked up again.”

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