The A to B of ‘people are more likely to buy something recommended by someone they admire’ has taken us to some weird places in the last few years.
Kentucky Fried Chicken’s Colonel Sanders is no longer the elderly, profane weirdo who would wander unbidden into KFC kitchens and say mean things about the gravy long after he surrendered control of the company to a conglomerate. No, the Colonel is now a CG smokeshow who Instagrams thirst traps with inspirational captions. In fact, there’s a whole coterie of ‘virtual influencers’ that’ve got people scratching their chins raw trying to figure out what it means. Sometimes it’s our noses full of hot air, but sometimes it’s 21st-century minstrelsy appearing in our Instagram feeds.
Giving someone a couple of bucks to say something nice about a product on social media can now involve mediation through online marketplaces or brokers who, of course, take a cut. And these cuts are getting larger as the influencer tail starts to wag the marketing dog.
It’s a world where a marriage proposal needs a pitch deck as well as a ring. Where mentioning the wrong chewable vitamin can make world news.
So is there a way to do influencer marketing without the high drama of accounts with eight-figure followings? Can we get the word out by cultivating relationships rather than executing transactions? Can authenticity hold the line against the fatigue and cynicism that the aspiration-industrial complex creates in its profitable wake? How can brands stay as far away as possible from the inevitable suggestion that we put influencers on the blockchain?
We’re out of luck with that last question because it has, of course, already happened. But Cass Navarro—artist manager, DJ, club promoter and editor of our street culture publication Acclaim—can answer the others. We caught him between launching digital covers and publishing interviews with musicians who are more meme than man to ask him for his thoughts.
Cut out the paste
To Cass, it’s about “homing in on niches, tapping into the tastemakers within the communities you’re trying to service. Rather than looking at follower counts, you should look at real-life value and target influencers who are actually doing something influential as opposed to simply posting.” The epithet hurled at progenitors of modern influencer culture like Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian was always ‘famous for being famous’ and, perhaps, that has given way to ‘influential for being influential’—which isn’t a criticism of the nature of such fame per se, but it does suggest that shooting for maximum reach isn’t the way to access the credibility of creative communities. Now, Cass says, you have to be “a little bit more considered in who you’re seeding your product to and who your brand ambassadors are”.
But we can’t take that as a case for engaging a million people with ten followers rather than ten people with a million followers. “If you’re blanket-emailing influencers and telling them all to post the same thing and say the same thing about the same product,” Cass says, “it’s going to be pretty obvious you don’t have real relationships—you only have transactional ones. People can always smell a copy-paste.”
How to win friends and influence people
If we want to build these real relationships, we need to consider the needs of both the poster and the posted. Cass explains: “If somebody’s in a position of influence in their social circle and creative community, they’re going to be protective of that position and they’re not going to do anything that might jeopardise it. If you’re a cool DJ or artist, you’re not going to do something that your audience is going to think less of you for.” Maybe the maxim that every person has their price is true, but if we’re tenting our fingers and thinking it to ourselves as we search for Instagram brand-buzz, we can all agree the quest has taken some wrong turns.
“Brands often make the mistake of thinking they’re offering an opportunity.”
So what turns are better? Cass finds that “it’s always beneficial when brands try to integrate what people are already doing” into their campaign’s content “and give them the resources to keep on doing it”. A cheque buys a post; a platform creates a partnership.
This kind of reciprocal-mindedness can be expressed in small but meaningful ways. Take, for instance, Cass’s example of an apparel brand “giving somebody who has to tour some clothes to wear on that tour. It’s still a way to support what they already do so you’re not pulling them out of their context just to sell your product. You’re integrating your product into the context of the influencer.”
It’s about brands acknowledging why they’re approaching people in the first place and realising they’re having something done for them—not the other way around. Cass sums it up: “Brands often make the mistake of thinking they’re offering an opportunity, when the way I would approach it would be to ask [the influencer], ‘Are you interested in this? Do you care about this product at all? Does this mean anything to you?’ And if the answers are ‘No’, then why push somebody to do something they don’t want to do?”
Want cultural insight without the marketing jargon? Want it in your inbox once a month? Sign up to our newsletter here.
