Influencers Are Being Paid Big Sums To Pitch Products and Thrash Rivals on Instagram and YouTube (wired.com)

"Influencers" are being paid big sums to pitch products on Instagram and YouTube. If you're trying to grow a product on social media, you either fork over cash or pay in another way. This is the murky world of influencing, reports Wired. Brands will pay influencers to position products on their desks, behind them, or anywhere else they can subtly appear on screen. Payouts increase if an influencer tags a brand in a post or includes a link, but silent endorsements are often preferred. An excerpt from the report: The suggestions started early. Months before Lashify had officially launched, one of her investors, who had ties to the cosmetics industry, pulled her aside. He told her to prepare to pay influencers to speak positively about her lashes on YouTube and Instagram. She thought he was being dramatic. He wasn't. Lotti recalls the investor saying that if she wanted Lashify to succeed, quality didn't matter, nor did customer satisfaction -- only influencers. And they didn't come cheap. She was told to expect to shell out $50,000 to $70,000 per influencer just to make her company's name known, an insane amount for a new startup. There was no way around it; that's just how things worked.

Comments

The hell you say!

[Kohath]

Next you'll be telling me that celebrities doing product endorsements aren't genuinely enthusiastic about the products and are just doing it for money.

My faith in the purity of ad content is shaken to the core.

Re:The hell you say!

[rmdingler]

Celebrities also used to do this more subtle endorsement where they'd be paid to use products publicly without running commercials.

I think we're splitting hairs where we're willing to say a celebrity's compensated public use of a product doesn't classify as commercial; although subtlety is an important component of advertising, since we all think we're too smart to be influenced by advertising.

Influencers is an interesting tag, and speaking for myself and me only, I've also never quite understood why people who can act in movies are somehow qualified to make important contributions with their opinions that suggest preference for candidates and political positions.

Re:The hell you say!

[grep -v '.*' *]

I've also never quite understood why people who can act in movies are somehow qualified to make important contributions with their opinions that suggest preference for candidates and political positions.

(Frowning.) Really? OK then, let's watch some TV. (Movies are OK but TV have more airtime; movies have more emotional action and excitement.) What's on? Doctor shows, lawyer shows, cops, news, comedies, "Reality" (HA!), and others. Let's take a doctor show. I'd use Doctor Kildare but most of y'all wouldn't know him. Let's take Grey's Anatomy. Confession: I hadn't seen ANY of them. Zero. But I can tell you what some of the shows are about: standard doctor prototypes.

Doctor fights against unknown disease and cures it, or not and learns a lesson. Doctor fights against differing opinions and is finally proven right. Doctor fights hospital / insurance for dying patient and eventually wins. Caring nurses accidentally provide clues to save patents. And on, and on. Same for cop shows and the rest. Make it interesting, have some personal conflict appear to the main / supporting characters, all that.

THE POINT BEING: You now have a relationship with the characters on the screen. You like the nice caring ones who buck the system in order to save the day. If they flub their lines they'll redo the take, so they're always "perfect." Sometimes you disagree with their choices, but be assured there won't be many of those times or they wouldn't be loved. But they'll be SOME conflict.

Now that relationship is *two* sided, both ways. The show keeps coming on and you keep watching it, and watch the characters interact and perhaps grow a little. But not much or you couldn't miss random shows and pick up where you left off. The on-screen characters will never turn YOU off because they can't. It's their JOB to keep you watching and interested; they couldn't turn off your TV if they wanted too. Oh, and those conflicts? Adrenaline to get you excited and aroused. Not like *THAT*, but just a slight hit that you'll want more and come back NEXT WEEK for the adventures of ...

So you have your favorite characters you like and who "like you" since they keep on speaking to you, telling you about their lives and so on. And then you see "Doctor John" aka Real Life Actor, and your sub-brain says, "That's a friend, a good guy, trying to do the right thing. I better listen to what they're saying." And you do, and maybe you like it or maybe you don't. But you're going to disassociate the news with the person with all of the OTHER information coming in, and eventually just remember someone said something, and "oh yeah that was a smart guy and maybe there's something to that, and I'm smart too so that's probably right" and quit thinking about it because someone's already done the idea-chewing and processing for you, so all you have to do is remember and occasionally regurgitate it.

If you stop and consider the facts maybe you'll agree or not. But there's initial your starting point, the opposing view(s) now have a larger hill to climb. THAT is how Famous Media Stars influence people -- not when you're actively paying attention, but when you're NOT.

Psst -- and remember, the actors are just coughing up lines some writer somewhere else wrote. They're not THINKING that at all (well, Method Acting), just hitting marks and cues and talking emotionally when needed.

Lassie! Calm down, what's up? Little Timmy fell down a well? What, again? I know, let's run to the house and both have a nice steak supper and let him think about the choices he's made recently. And then we'll go to bed and if we remember, go pick him up on the way back from the store so he can help carry things. And if he's not alive, well then that's just More For Us!

Sounds like extortion

[DaMattster]

This sounds like extortion for the digital era. What's left unsaid, but clearly implied, is that if you don't fork over big money to influences, your product will be trashed.

I can’t believe it

[93 Escort Wagon]

I am sitting here on my amazingly comfortable B&B Italia sofa, casually reading Slashdot while I enjoy a delicious Jimmy Johns sandwich with a Diet Cherry Pepsi. But I have to say - I simply can’t believe anyone would behave this unethically. From the tip of my Stetson hat to the heels of my Doc Martin shoes, I am 100% convinced that people, left to their own devices, will only recommend products they use and love.

- Typed on my 12.9” iPad Pro

I think there is a way around it

[SuperKendall]

She was told to expect to shell out $50,000 to $70,000 per influencer just to make her company's name known, an insane amount for a new startup. There was no way around it

At that kind of rate, knowing you would need at least a few "influencers", what I would do instead is build up my own cadre on influencers - find some kids just starting out YouTube with some makeup sense and make them offers for recording gear and a lot of makeup and vastly less cash.

The idea that you need to pay a series of influencers $80k each comes off as really seeming like a scam. Sure at the top level the elite of YouTube are truly influencers - but at the mid tier where you would pay $80k? I don't think so.

Read this great summary of someone that tried to use middle-tier YouTube celebs to drive sales. It did not work at all. Granted it was a different field but the approach seemed sound given the assumption that YouTube videos really influence people.