Blippi
Blippi
Stevin John (born May 27, 1988), better known by his aliasBlippi, is an American children's entertainer and educator on YouTube and Amazon Video. The Blippi videos are intended to be educational and appeal to young children, as John's Blippi character is portrayed with a childlike, energetic and curious persona; always dressed with his blue and orange beanie cap, blue shirt, orange suspenders and a bow tie.The videos have attracted billions of viewers on YouTube, seen in 139 countries, and have been in the top 100 performing self-published shows every month since going live on Amazon Video. [1][3]
Background
Stevin John grew up surrounded by tractors, cows and horses, in Ellensburg, Washington, and has stated that as a child he wished to be a limousine driver and a fighter pilot.John has a background in brand development, digital content creation and online marketing, and has worked as a dishwasher, courtesy clerk, waiter, SEO Specialist, cameraman and is a former United States Air Force serviceman, serving as a C-17 Loadmaster with the 4th Nuclear Airlift Squadron. John chose not to re-enlist in the military and moved to Los Angeles, California, to begin his career in internet marketing and video creation.
Blippi
The idea for Blippi came to Stevin John after moving back to Ellensburg, and witnessing his then two year old nephew viewing low-quality videos on YouTube. John decided to make his own fun and educational videos for his nephew, creating the Blippi character with the familiar blue and orange costume made by his mother. The first Blippi video was published on January 27, 2014, with John starring as Blippi and doing all of the filming, editing and graphics himself on the initial videos. Taking inspiration from children's educators and entertainers before him, such as Mister Rogers, John wished to portray Blippi as educational, but also as thinking and acting as a child would, stating: "Blippi to me is a heightened energy, a different version of me, but as a child. Whenever I am thinking about what videos I should make, what Blippi should do, I think about what I would have wanted to do when I was a child. And I always, always, want children to feel like Blippi is their friend."
The videos would eventually garner a huge following with over a billion views on YouTube, with an entire team of creative talent now behind the show.
The Blippi concept would expand from YouTube to become a top show on Amazon Video as well.
The team behind Blippi would also begin producing videos in Spanish, establish Blippi Toys, and begin offering DVDs and digital downloads from the Blippi website.
Although Blippi's childlike demeanor has met with much success from children, some parents have questioned the simplistic nature of the character in regards his tone and repetitive songs about things such as garbage trucks, fire trucks and pizza.
Others praise Stevin John as a creative professional, not only in regards to his content, but his online-marketing skills; also complimenting the work he has put into the details of the character, such as going through 800 variations to come up with the Blippi name, as to be easily pronounceable and catchy to young children.
John has stated that he is currently in talks with Netflix in regards to a regular Blippi show, is working on a smartphone app and hopes to begin touring with a live Blippi production sometime in the near future. John has also been an active participant in the Make-A-Wish Foundation, with his Blippi character frequently requested by children.