I REMEMBER on a night out in Durban, a girl, in a her waitress uniform ran up to Hlanga and said “Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, is that Hlanga Vena?’ at that moment I understood how popular Vena’s work is.
The humble content creator downplayed the interaction with the waitress by saying, “Ah that’s Victoria man, she’s my homie.”
Hlanga has almost six thousand followers on Instagram and almost three thousand subscribers on his YouTube channel, VenaVlogs.
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Vena’s adventurous blog has a very international aesthetic to it. From the lovely transitions in his editing, the soundtrack and the finest views you could find in Cape Town.
“Vena Vlogs was inspired by my passion of creating content that inspires people to live life on their own terms and chase their dreams no matter how small or big,” say Vena.
His vlogs evoke a lot of emotions, as light-hearted as they are, it’s inspiring seeing a young black creative pave his own path.
Vena has featured famous rapper, Nasty C and Olympic swimmer/model, Calvin Justus on the same blog; he thinks a different vlog was more exciting to shoot.
“Episode 10 of Season 3 was the most fun to shoot as we were lucky enough to spend a couple days in a luxury villa in camps bay with some of my best friends who also create content. The fact that all our different talents had brought us to a place where we were able to create freely in an environment like that was a really cool feeling.”
VenaVlogs narrates a large part of Cape Town’s youth culture very well, but the Westville native has no plans of creating content in his home city yet.
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“I think Cape Town is the creative hub of the country and is just in a different lane in comparison to Durban. The youth culture in Durban has its own identity, which is different to the direction I want to take with my vlogs. I don’t plan on producing extensive content in Durban unless there are like-minded individuals who want to work and collaborate, or for a job.”
Being original is the challenge
Vena’s work requires a lot of collaboration and he sees a lot of value in that. “The most rewarding thing from it is the fact that you can learn and advance your skills so much by collaborating and spending time with other creatives. The network allows for you to have help with work or even gain new clients and jobs from other creators offloading or recommending you to clients.
“One struggle is always keeping your work original and authentic, as it can get easy to naturally produce similar work,”said the content creator who feels as if his industry is saturated.
“In 2020, it’s every kid’s dream job (to be a content creator/influencer) and the meaning/term “influence” has been watered down. Brands have lost the ability to create organic relationships with influencers and their audiences and it has become inauthentic in many ways.
“I still think it does have the power and rightfully should be the brands’ majority ad spend. TV is dead and the internet isn’t going anywhere so if brands want to talk to our generation, then “influencers” are the way. Being original and authentic is hard for creators so the more “influencers” there are, the harder it becomes to be original,” he said.
Vena has collaborated with brands like Office London and MVMT and is currently working on an exciting project, “Internet Friends is a project that is bigger than myself or my vlog. It is going to change not only my life, but the next generation of digital talent in South Africa. Internet Friends bridges the gap between passionate audiences and brands. This is done through providing world class digital content and tailored influencer marketing campaigns. The end goal is to disrupt traditional media and integrate into pop culture with our talented YouTube group, gamers, tiki tokers, musicians and many more,” Vena said.
Here’s a quick vlog to get to know Vena a little more : click here
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