Back in October 2008, US ex-pat Maria MacDonald, now 26, launched an email newsletter service for Buenos Aires called Yo Que Vos (If I Were You). The newsletters, sent out twice weekly, each contain one fashion, beauty, gastronomy or entertainment tip, sometimes including a readers’ discount for the particular product or service. The emphasis is on concision: the recommendation is explained in 200 words or fewer and accompanied by a photo. The first of these emails was received by 500 people; today, Yo Que Vos has over 30,000 subscribers. Here Maria tells The Argentina Independent her story.
What first brought you to Buenos Aires?
I’m originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota and attended college in Los Angeles. I came to Buenos Aires to study abroad during my junior year – Spanish was one of my majors and I came wanting to make the leap from almost fluent to fluent. That’s when I fell in love with the city. I was only supposed to be here for a semester but I took some time off from college and extended my stay to 13 months. I then returned to California but, two months after graduating in 2007, I was back here. I couldn’t stay away!
Maria MacDonald (Photo: Andy Donohoe)
Where did the idea for Yo Que Vos come from?
I was working for a New Yorker who’d started a luxury leather bag company. The bags were beautiful but it was the wrong kind of business for this economy – too expensive for locals and for tourists who’d chosen Argentina because it was a cheap destination. I learnt what it was like to have a company in Argentina. My boss had been developing a concept modelled on a successful email newsletter in the US – www.dailycandy.com – and she asked me if I wanted to invest and be the one to bring the idea to Argentina. I now have three business partners but I’m the acting decision maker.
Why have the newsletters become so popular?
Yo Que Vos is a new way of spreading information and we’re very selective about our content. We don’t accept money for what we write about – we write about things because they’re cool. The newsletter is aimed at Argentine women aged 25-40, mostly college-educated professionals who live in or close to Buenos Aires. Our readers like to have fun, appreciate art and music, have a little bit of extra money to spend and want to do different things rather than go to the same café every night. The website, where we put our archives, is all in Spanish. I didn’t want to do another thing for ex-pats. I’ve always wanted to be Latina! One of the most popular sections on the website is Look of the Day. We have a photographer who goes round the city searching for women who are wearing interesting clothes and taking a picture of them. They get given a little card that says “we love your look” and the website. That’s made the number of subscribers snowball.
How is the website funded?
It’s funded from banner advertising and three times a month we send out a promotional email written in the same format and tone as our regular tips. We don’t say yes to any advertiser, only to those which make for interesting content, such as the Nike 5km women’s race which we recently featured. I would never publicise a cigarette company. Once in a while we sell products and work with the brand to make a cut on them. For instance, we’ll say customers can buy a certain brand of purse half price over three days. That’s been very successful and we’ve sold hundreds of items in a few days.
Is there a difference between the products and services on offer here and back in the US?
One of the articles on Yo Que Vos
Argentines are very creative and very entrepreneurial. I don’t know if that comes from a need to create jobs when they’re hard to find here. Argentine women are more image-conscious than American women. There’s always something new to help your cellulite and I get ten emails a day from image consultant services. I think there’s a little too much of it. We like to promote things that make you feel good about yourself as you are. Another thing is that things seem to be more expensive here.
How do you discover new tips for the newsletters?
We have four women called ‘cool hunters’ – fashionable, in the know people. They keep their eyes and ears open for cool creative content. Also, we have a button on the website that says ‘Envia tu tip’, so I get probably 30 tip ideas from readers each day. The hardest part is choosing eight or ten per month but we have a rule – if it’s already been in any major newspaper or magazine, we don’t write about it.
Which aspects of the job do you most enjoy?
Definitely finding the content – my favourite is the entertainment section which includes gallery openings and puertas cerradas. I also love interacting with our subscribers. We held an event to celebrate our first year – it was a high-end outdoor fair with white tents and 50 of our favourite brands from Yo Que Vos newsletters. We had massage tables, a juice bar and natural food. Three thousand people came along! It’s one thing to see numbers go up on your computer screen but it’s great to actually interact with the people.
What would you like for the future of Yo Que Vos?
I’d love to expand to other cities. It’s always been a dream. I don’t believe that there’s anything else really like it yet so going to Chile or Brazil would be amazing. I think it would work – where there’s cool stuff happening, there are women wanting to find out about it. I’d love to expand to men too (currently 2% of subscribers are male). It would really work with Argentina as men are just as big consumers as women. But our goal for this year is never to jeopardise our content and to continue putting ourselves in the shoes of our readers. We’ve finally got to a place where we’re making money and growing in subscribers so we can enjoy it without working crazy, 17-hour days. We’ve found our rhythm.
No comments:
Post a Comment