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Pick your battles, one at a time

Hashtag Daily – the first soap opera airing on Instagram and Tiktok

Please introduce yourself and your startup Hashtag Daily to our readers!

Hi I’m Anna Juliana Jaenner and I’m showrunner of Hashtag Daily – the first soap opera airing on Instagram and Tiktok in a vertical format on your cell phone. Pleased to meet you

How did you get the idea of Hashtag Daily?

I’ve been working as an actress in german soap operas ever since I was 18 and I’m a huge fan of social media, so when IGTV launched it was the first idea that came to my mind. A lot of us loved watching soap operas and being close to our stars journey when we were teenagers, the young generation is just closer to their stars via their cell phones and apps. 

Why did you decide to start with Hashtag Daily?

There is always this moment when you have to decide if the idea is good enough to put in a lot of effort and to accept that your life will be more like a rollercoaster in the next years – even though right now in times of corona crisis we all learned the hard way that you can’t plan anything. For Hashtag Daily that moment came after shooting the first camera test with our head of creation Saskia Töpfer and the amazing images she created. I was 100 % sure in that moment that we will create something that will entertain a lot of people and build a platform.

How difficult was the start and which challenges you had to overcome?

The start was crazy. We shot the first 20 episodes with the most talented people – mainly friends of mine, amazing actors, all famous from TV already – but we were creating something totally new, so we made a lot of mistakes and I’m still so grateful that they all trusted the process. The tech department had to find different solutions so we could film the soap opera vertical. We then found a partnership with Berlin based tech rental 25p to help us figure things out. Publishing the first episodes was a challenge too, as we were filming at the same time and screwed some things up, especially in PR

Hashtag Daily soap opera on Instagram Tiktok
Copyright Tom Medici

I’m so happy that I know a lot of people from my network already, that helped me with funding, mentoring and listening when I didn’t know where to go – like Patric Palm or Mali Baum or my former colleagues from Target Global VC.

Who is your target audience?

We mainly address a young female audience so we also work with a lot of brands for product placement, that address a young audience. 

What is the USP of your startup?

We create high-quality-content that builds a bridge between TV and Influencer marketing.

Can you describe your typical workday ?

We are usually in pre- and post-production of a season at the same time. So if we are not shooting episodes that day I’m busy with developing storylines together with our influencers and the brands that we include as product placement. The creative team that edits the episodes work more independently, like the developers team in a tech startup so I usually just talk to them a few times a day and help them pick some new songs that we will use for the next episodes. I’m also putting a lot of effort into posting and developing new content ideas for the different channels together with one of our influencers chris.boom.official. 

Where do you see yourself and your startup Hashtag Daily in five years?

Well let’s rephrase this question for once. NO ONE knows where we will be in 5 years right now in terms of corona, world economy or new possibilities but I’m planning to adapt to every change that might come in the next 5 years and make the best out of it. Hashtag Daily had more traction in the last 8 days than in the last 5 months. In acting we have this saying that while playing a scene the character never knows what the next page in the screenplay will say. Let’s find out what the next chapter of Hashtag Daily is about. 

What 3 tips would you give to founders?

  1. Pick your battles, one at a time. Ask yourself what is the most important thing right now and prioritise. 
  2. Learn to forgive yourself easily if you make mistakes, move on quickly and make the best out of it.
  3. This might sound cheesy but it is the most important one for me: TRUST YOUR INSTINCT – sometimes it might not make sense to me at the very moment but it always makes sense afterwards. You have this crazy intelligent system of gut feeling, intellect, mind and emotions – USE IT!
  4. Ok and I have to give one especially to the ladies out there: just do it! People will always ask you if you are sure or if you feel like you can handle it or maybe you are doubting yourself like I did for years. Just ignore that and get things moving.

Titelpicture Copyright Matthias Toepfer

More information you will find here

Thank you Anna Juliana Jaenner for the Interview

Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.

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