Why Vice Is Trying to Build a Community—on OnlyFans

In a first for publishers, Vice Media started an OnlyFans channel for Munchies, its food vertical, charging fans $4.99 monthly to access exclusive weekly videos. Vice is no stranger to pushing boundaries. After all, its name is a gesture toward the edgy and uncouth aspects of life: sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll and the rest. This latest act has something to do with sex, but a lot more to do with food. OnlyFans is one of the biggest tech success stories from the pandemic. At its core, OnlyFans is a subscription platform not dissimilar to Patreon—hosting artists, musicians and fitness gurus alike. But it’s best known as the platform du jour for sex workers. The publisher debuted on the platform on Dec. 16, posting 10 videos including recipes for fried avgolemono rice balls, chicken fricassee and cheesy orzo. Adweek caught up with Clifford Endo Gulibert, Vice’s executive producer of digital video, who explained to us why the company is turning to OnlyFans and how he’s thinking about content and building a community for Munchies on the site. Adweek: Munchies is now on OnlyFans. My first question is, why OnlyFans, a platform known for adult content? Clifford Endo Gulibert: Any platform that is growing at a rocket-like pace, as is the case with OnlyFans, which gains 500,000 users per day, deserves a look from digital publishers. OnlyFans does have a history with adult content, which we all know, but there is a fairly sizable contingent of nonadult content on the platform, from personal trainers to chefs and celebrities. When OnlyFans put out a call for chefs and food creators to join the platform, it set our gears turning on how a brand like Munchies could enter the space. After exploring the platform and talking to other creators, we found that the opportunity to connect with fans on a more intimate level that comes with an OnlyFans page aligned with how we see our engagement strategy evolving. The pandemic has created a crowded digital space where locked-down audiences can face screens that are overwhelming and noisy with an overload of content. With all of our publishing platforms, we account for fans as well as passive viewership, but we wanted to make something just for the people who love us. Instead of always going big, we're taking advantage of this moment to get more targeted and create a sense of engagement that you don't find elsewhere. How will these videos be distinguished from ones Munchies might post on other platforms like YouTube or Facebook? Are Munchies' OnlyFans videos going to be, well, more seductive? Are you taking the term "food porn" too literally here? Our content on OnlyFans is a departure from anything we’ve done before and exclusive to our fans on the platform. Even though as a brand we always try to not take ourselves too seriously, we didn’t want to make this just a gimmick—we wanted to take the work seriously. We wanted to provide an actual experience that is worth a paid subscription and special. The recipes we’re sharing on OnlyFans have not been published anywhere else, with each going through our standard thoughtful development and testing in our test kitchen. While some of the content may be cheeky, we filmed it with an idea of stripping down what a standard food show typically looks like. This concept led us to create videos with no faces of chefs, no talking, no text on screen, and all close-up shots, that make sight and sound as the focal point. As a result, the viewer feels immersed in the recipe: It feels intimate, it’s not overly polished. It’s real, homemade food content that relies on the visceral moments of cooking to guide the viewer through. We’re also taking the idea of OnlyFans quite literally by giving our fans additional behind-the-scenes content, like moments that we thought were interesting, funny or something that our fans would be into that a passive viewer wouldn’t. We also will be interacting with fans and answering subscriber questions through our OnlyFans messages to deepen the connection with those who follow us, which is something we really don’t get the opportunity to do on other platforms. On Twitter, the reaction to your announcement was mixed. Some people said that publishers crowding out OnlyFans is bad for sex workers who depend on the platform. “Please leave OnlyFans for sex workers and get a Patreon I'm begging you” one person tweeted. Vice does a great job covering issues like sex work, so it feels necessary to ask: Why not Patreon? Like I said, OnlyFans does have a history with adult content, but it was created for—and used by—creators of all types. The key difference between Patreon and OnlyFans is in the user experience. You can go to Patreon, and without even signing up, type “food” in the search bar and get a list of Patreon food personalities and an idea of their content. The site UX has topic searchability, and you can still move in a lateral fashion across content creators. OnlyFans, on the other hand, is direct, linear and compartmentalized: It’s a private space carved out for those who you want to bring in, and they find you by knowing you outside the platform first. Having an OnlyFans page and offering it to fans is like knowing where a secret hot spot is and having the password to get past the door man. It’s deeply personal and emits its namesake: This is a space for fans only, and that’s the draw over a Patreon. We’ll be in a completely separate lane from sex workers, helping to expand the OnlyFans ecosystem. We aren’t going to get caught up in searches for their content, and they aren’t going to get caught in algorithms for ours. It’s interesting that Vice, which is mostly on ad-supported media, is launching a subscription product on a third-party platform. In a year where Substack and OnlyFans have dominated the media headlines, what’s the value of a professional publication—rather than an individual creator—tapping into a platform like this? Joining a hot emerging platform like OnlyFans as a publisher helps us push forward the industrywide experiment with paid subscriptions and finding what resonates with our audience. Munchies is a perfect vehicle for this experimentation because at its core, it’s a small team of creators, working with a topic that’s rooted in personal connection, just like other OnlyFans creators. The best way to connect is over a plate of food, and this is about connecting those who make the brand happen with those who are fans of it. We are not on the platform to be the biggest page on OnlyFans—we are here to experiment, have a dialogue and engage with our audience on a personal level in a way that no other food publisher has done before. From a business standpoint, what are the markers for whether this experiment is a success or not? Right now, the question is not “can we make money?” but “can we build a sense of community?” Yes, there is a paywall to see the content, but that is solely to help offset some of the costs and time that a project like this takes on top of our typical Munchies content. We want to create something personal and special, and success is building a community that gets that and appreciates it.