TikTok and Instagram star Matt Giffen spoke to the ECHO in an exclusive interview about his first visit to Liverpool, quitting his job in Canada and how a date changed his life forever
Matt Giffen spoke to the ECHO in an exclusive interview about his content creation journey and his viral visit to Liverpool
If you’re from Liverpool and have opened a social media app over recent weeks, then it’s highly likely you’ll have enjoyed one of Matt Giffen’s videos. The Canadian content creator conquered our TikTok and Instagram feeds with a viral video series documenting his first ever visit to Liverpool.
The 29-year-old from Toronto’s enthusiasm for our city struck a chord with Scousers, as the clips wracked up millions of views and became a huge talking point due to the way they perfectly captured what makes our city so special. The content creator has been sharing travel related content as a Canadian discovering UK culture for the past 18 months, but admitted he has never had a reaction quite like the videos he filmed in Liverpool.
He told the ECHO in an exclusive interview: “I was actually about to make a video on the response from the Scousers because I’ve never seen anything like this. I’ve been to 50 countries around the world, and I’ve never gotten the love that I’ve seen from Liverpool.
‘I’ve gained over 50,000 followers in a week and I’m pretty sure 50,000 of those are Scouse. People are so proud of where they come from. It made the experience for me that much better. I’m going to a new city for the first time in a country that I’m not from and it can be a little intimidating and daunting, but the people of Liverpool made it so warm and welcoming.”
Matt’s trip to Liverpool was arranged by Lipton Ice Tea so he could film content around a pop up bus that was in the city centre. However, he wanted to truly experience everything Liverpool had to offer and extended his stay in Merseyside so he could properly explore.
Matt tapped into the unique aspects of the city’s culture as he enjoyed salt and pepper spring rolls from Chiu’s, a bowl of Scouse from Ma Boyle’s and even got accosted by a bullish seagull on Bold Street. The social media star credited the advice from his followers as to why he was able to enjoy a thoroughly Scouse experience.
He said: “I like to dive in to cultures of different places. So when I went to Liverpool, I wanted to find out what you guys eat, where do you guys drink, what music do you listen to, what it is that makes somebody Scouse.
“I made a video saying, ‘I’m going to Liverpool’ and if that taps into the right algorithm, then you just have thousands of comments of recommendations of where to eat and what to do. So when I’m there for the first time and I’m on Lark Lane, I’m eating at the café everyone goes to, or walking around the park that everyone goes to, I think it really resonates with people because, not only does it make people feel heard, but they know I’m in their culture.”
The most widely viewed video was Matt’s day in Aigburth as he declared, with an infectious enthusiasm, how the route from Lark Lane into Sefton Park was “heaven on earth”. He said: “I’m not exaggerating, a thousand people told me to go to Lark Lane and I was like, ‘How good can this place really be?’
“Then I got there and I was like, ‘Holy s**t’, this is amazing.’ When I walked down Lark Lane, a lot of people recognised me, which made my experience so much better. You guys are so friendly, so a lot of people were saying ‘Hi, offering me meals, coffees, beers and drinks’. I was walking to the park alone, but taking photos with people. It was such a nice experience.
“I rarely give 10/10s. I’m very optimistic but I never describe somewhere as perfect, but that place was literally perfect.” He added: “It was hard to leave. I’m not going to lie.”
Matt’s content inspired memes when he pointed out how the building that houses Press Bros. Coffee looked like a castle. He explained part of the appeal of his videos is the way his outsider perspective draws attention to things locals may take for granted.
He said: “I have this overall thing with every city I visit in the UK that there’s just so much more history than Canada. When you go somewhere like there, I’m just in awe of everything I’m seeing.
“There’s a coffee shop and there’s a castle on top of it. I was like, ‘What is going on here?’ That just doesn’t exist where I’m from. Another cool part of my videos and what I do is when people in the comments say, ‘I’ve lived here for 30 years and I’ve never noticed that’. We get so robotic and we don’t realise things until someone with fresh eyes comes in and says, ‘That’s so cool’.”
Matt was blown away by the welcome he received in Liverpool and said the wholesomeness of the people here reminded him of his native Canada. He added: “It was very much like it’s offensive if you walked past someone and didn’t acknowledge them. That’s what it is like in Canada as well. If I’m walking my dog and I don’t smile at the person walking by, they’re thinking, ‘Oh what did I do wrong?’
“Liverpool was so much like that. I don’t know if it’s because they recognised me or just because they were so nice. I figured out by the end of it that everyone was just so friendly. If I looked a little lost, they would ask ‘where are you going?’ and ‘What do you want to do?’ The energy and overall feel of it was very similar to Canada.”
He added: “I said in one of my videos that if I were to raise a family in the UK, it would be in Liverpool, just because of how wholesome it is.” Although Liverpool has claimed a place in Matt’s heart, Canada will always be his true home and he envisions he will one day move back over the Atlantic to start a family with his influencer girlfriend, Summer Fox.
It sounds like the plot of a Hollywood romantic comedy, but Matt’s now long term girlfriend is how he got into social media content creation. He had been fired from his job in Canada in marketing as a result of the pandemic and decided to come to England to watch a football match with his friends.
When he was here, he matched with Summer on dating app Hinge, who decided to film a video ahead of their meeting which changed the course of both their lives forever. He told the ECHO: “Neither of us did social media, but she posted a video on the way to our date on the train. For whatever reason, that video went insanely viral overnight. It got like 10 million views.
“Then she recorded our first date. She was like, ‘Hey this is so crazy, but this video I made of us is going viral. Do you want to be on a TikTok for our first date?’ I said, ‘Yeah, ‘f**k it, why not?'”
The two hit it off and didn’t let the long distance get in the way of their blossoming romance after Matt had to travel back to Canada. Followers on social media had become invested in their romance and they decided to use their savings to go travelling around the world together. He added: “We met up in Thailand. She kept filming content and TikTok became her full time job from all the buzz on that.
“After that, she moved back to Canada for me for the last two years. She was living with me in Canada and I was doing a full time 9-5 job. I would always come home and she was making 10 times the money I was making in my 9-5.”
Last year, Matt quit his job in e-sports marketing and moved to London with Summer, when he came up with the formula for the popular travel videos that have made him such an internet success. Matt is now looking forward to the future of his content creation journey as he vowed to return to Liverpool for a new idea he is working on, exploring Premier League football grounds to determine which team he is going to support.
He said: “I’m hoping to get back up to Liverpool this season and I’ve got a few more things I want to check off.” One of them is to take a look around the Albert Dock – and also have curry sauce with his salt and pepper chicken after he was called out by people in the comments for his order at Chiu’s last time.
He laughed: “They were flaming me for no sauce, asking ‘Are you not cutting your mouth, it’s so dry.’ Sometimes when you’re in the process of filming trying to get this good angle, ordering some food and talking to the gentleman, you forget the sauce sometimes.”
But no matter what Matt gets up to during his next visit, he knows he’ll have a good time, as he shared his advice for anyone visiting the city that has captured his heart. He said: “Don’t be afraid to speak to people because the people are willing to talk to you, they want to help you. Clearly from the response to my videos, they want you to have a good time because that’s just how you guys are.
“Don’t be afraid to dive into the identity. I’ve been to so many countries around the world and never once have I gotten a bad vibe from someone for just wanting to indulge in your culture. Really just embrace it and when you do that, you will have the best time.”