#12 - Influencers Part 2: CLOUT CHASING

• FYRE FESTIVAL -- EXUMAS

  • January 12, 2017 -- Video

    • Bella Hadid, Emily Ratakowski, Hailey Baldwin, Elsa Hosk, Allessandra Ambrosio ...and more 

      • paid $20k MINIMUM apiece

      • Kendall Jenner later posted an ad on social for it for 250k

      • None were tagged as ads

      • Tickets were in the thousands

      • Largest post-event class action lawsuit $100 million

  • Festival was supposed to be April 28 - 30, 2017

    • Never happened

The good influencers are what you can call true “thought leaders.” 

• Elinor Cohen (writing in Medium) on this topic

“The ‘Authenticity’ behind influencer Marketing has lost its meaning”

• Auro Trini Castelli writing for The Drum:

  • Andy Warhol once predicted that “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes”

Many times, influencers don’t even have a message--they just have existing social clout around them

• Leads to inauthentic follower-chasers who provide no real value

• Can get brands into trouble

  • Lori Loughlin Daughter, Olivia Jade Loughlin - Amazon Prime Student

    • Partnered before the big college admissions scandal that sent her parents to prison

  • Vanity Influencers pushing weight-loss supplements or Dr. Fucking Frankenstein cosmetic procedures

And Clout chasing is a BAD problem

• It’s EVERYONE too--including existing celebrities, experts, respected members of society, etc.

  • Media,

  • Athletes

  • Scientists

  • Politicians

  • Foreign Governments

  • NY Times Report on Devumi

    • Twitter Followers, Youtube Views, Soundcloud listens, etc.

  • Notable Names Caught:

    • Michael Dell

    • Kathy Ireland

    • Steve Mnuchin’s wife Louise Linton

    • The Chinese State run News Agency, Xinhua

    • Lenin Moreno, President of Ecaudor

...And it’s all built influencers a culture and reputation of flat-out self-obsession, complete lack of self-awareness, and entitlement

• They’re so blinded by their next “great” 30 minute-newscycle content

• Wedding Photographer Example

  • Anonymous author on Smart Insights

• Los Angeles CVT Soft Serve Ice Cream Truck Owner, Joe Nicchi

  • Influencers pay double

• Jack Wagner, Host of the Yeah But Still Podcast

  • Influencer Troll King

  • Builds fake Instagram Influencer wall in LA with Security Guard overseeing it

• Marketing Insider

  • 52% of millennials no longer trust influencers

• Stylist

  • 33% of women continue to follow influencers who make them feel worse about themselves

And why do we even follow them at all? -- Blogger Zulie Rane on Medium

• Social influencers show us perfection--that, even if unedited, is the finished product. It doesn’t show all the work, investment, or process that may have had to go into it

  • We look at it and then blame ourselves instead of them for our reality being not as good.

    • It’s called upward social comparison