It all started with a sex tape…
LOL imagine if all fairy tales started like that.
This isn’t your typical Cinderella story, in fact, it is the story that crushed the enchanting fantasy of fitting into a little glass slipper, having a fairy godmother who makes all of your wishes come true, and becoming a princess alongside prince charming in a land far far away.
The tale of Kim Kardashian and her 4 not-so-ugly sisters has rewritten the narrative of the princess dream for young girls, replacing those fantasies with #goals of owning houses with closets devoted solely to Jimmy Choo pumps and Balenciaga trainers, having a “momager” who creates and then resolves all of your problems, and becoming Instagram famous with more followers than that of the population of a large country.
And yes, it does begin with a sex tape.
In February 2007, a sub-par (to say the least) sex tape of the infamous Kim Kardashian, who was nothing but a mere sidekick to the even more infamous Paris Hilton at the time, and artist Ray J was “leaked” to the press.
This trivial moment marks the the birth of the Kardashian empire. And also one of “momager” Kris Jenner’s proudest moments.
Over the past decade the famous family has risen to the top of the social hierarchy. Their empire is vast and spans across multiple industries, reaching, quite literally, the whole world. They are the epitome of 21st century celebrity.
Unlike traditional fairy tales, wherein the likes of a wave of a magic wand is often a catalyst for the archetypal damsel in distress turned princess transformation, the Kardashian story relies on no such fiction. Instead, it was (and still is) the tap of a few buttons and strategically devised keystrokes that led the family from rags (well, not quite) to riches.
The Kardashian’s are the Kweens of a social media empire. With a collective following of over 300 million people and their consistent posting on various social media platforms, it is hard not to keep up with the Kardashians these days. They were early adopters of social media and were quick to familiarize themselves with the new online world. It did not take long for the family, specifically “momager” Kris Jenner whom many acreddit their business strategies*, to recognize how to leverage their fame and growing online presences into lucrative amounts of money (and more fame).
It all started with sponsored posts, remember waist trainers and the “skinny tea” that was supposedly magical? Posting what looked like a candid selfie with an inconspicuously positioned branded box of tea and a caption proclaiming its many benefits could earn any one of the sisters upwards of six figures per post. These hard to distinguish advertisements work, as each post is carefully curated to look like we are seeing a spontaneous glimpse into their everyday lives, we quite literally buy into the lifestyle that they are selling.
In recent years, the Kardashians have declared their love for hundreds of brands and products like, Lumee phone cases and Protein World, getting paid anywhere between $100,000 and $500,000 each time, a high price tag, but worth it for the many companies whose products become instant sell-outs after one Instagram post. According to Michael Heller, the CEO of digital-marketing firm Talent Resources — the company that arranges many of the family’s deals — social media posts now significantly contribute to the Kardashians’ wealth, making up “about 25 percent of their income” (Karmali, 2017). The exorbitant amounts of money that they are able to command per post can definitely be attributed to their large followings and omnipresence across various platforms, however, their success is not just about followers (neither is life!! Or your self-worth for that matter).
What sets the Kardashians apart from any other celebrity with an Instagram account these days, and further, disproves the claim that they are “famous for nothing”, is the way in which they use social media. The Kardashians have cultivated not only a large following, but an engaged and responsive one as well. They are able to engage with their audience on a personal level, using photo captions or Tweets as a means of creating the illusion of an open dialogue between them and their followers. By intentionally wording content in ways that appeal to the ethos of their readers, it seems as if the Kweens are actually talking to you, opposed to at you. Now I could explain this by quoting textbook marketing theory, but that’s boring and I am definitely not here for it (neither are you, I can assume). So, here goes my brief #creativeindustries explanation:
What do you think of when you see this photo?
Here’s what I think:
Objectively, it’s a weird selfie of Kourtney Kardashian posing with a bag of tea.
Subjectively, it’s probably a sponsored ad and I don’t even drink tea.
Either way, I don’t care, scroll past it, probably not even gonna ‘like’ it.
Now, take a look at the actual post:
After reading the caption, what do you think of?
For me,
Objectively, it’s still a weird selfie.
But subjectively, it reminds me of my annually renewed new year’s resolution that I never uphold…and the fact that Kourtney is a mom but still manages to have a killer body…tea isn’t that bad.
Who’s joining you, Kourt? Me!!! Me! I wanna be just like you, Kourtney K!!!
This comparison exemplifies how the syntax of Kardashian content is imperative to their social media strategy. It is a known fact that average people often aspire to be like the celebrities that they look up to, making us susceptible to the influence that these influencers hold over our heads and rub in our faces. The way in which the Kardashians, and the influencers that they have influenced, use direct language to ‘include’ their audience in their everyday lives has a great impact on the way their messages are received. From a marketing standpoint, their strategy not only drives sales, but creates tons of buzz for the companies that the famous sisters promote, making the hundreds of thousands of dollars that they dish out for these posts totally worth it.
Social media marketing is a new age phenomenon that the Kardashians have mastered. Not only are they pro salespeople, selling us things we only want because they have and they only have because they got them for free, but they are also pretty impressive business women. Using that same large scale personal selling strategy to sell their own products, such as Kylie’s Lip Kits, Khloe’s Good American Jeans, their numerous makeup line extensions and fragrances (the list goes on), they are able to make specialty products, like makeup and jeans, which usually require extensive (and expensive) advertising campaigns, sell themselves. Take Kylie Cosmetics for example, the cosmetic line created by Kylie Jenner in 2016 which raked in $420 million in its first 18 months and “broke” google analytics due to overwhelming website traffic. According to the young CEO, “Social media has been a really big blessing to me because I don’t pay for advertising. All the advertising I do is literally on Snapchat and Instagram” (Mejia, 2017).
Kylie regularly posts videos featuring mouth-watering swatches of each shade of her lip glosses, eyeshadows, and highlighters, as well as plenty of pictures of her and her famous friends, like Jordyn Woods, rocking fierce makeup looks. Now, I could use my own aforementioned argument to say that Kylie’s business has done so well because, well, she’s Kylie. There are millions of people who aspire to look like the 20 year old MILF and jump at the chance to use her products in hopes of imitating her perfect pout and contour (another great marketing stunt in and of itself because do you actually think she does her own makeup? YA RIGHT. It’s all @makeupbyariel). Seeing as makeup is the cheapest and most accessible way for people to achieve a celebrity standard of beauty, this may be true to an extent. However, the cosmetic industry is saturated with lines created and endorsed by celebrities, I mean, have you even heard of Flower Beauty by Drew Barrymore or Kora Organics by Miranda Kerr? I hadn’t until literally two minutes ago, and both of those women are equally as #goals as Kylie Jenner. Again, I will reiterate, it is how the Kardashians use social media that makes them so successful. Kylie’s daily, borderline annoying, five minute long advertisements disguised as Snapchat stories are undoubtedly attributed to the success of Kylie Cosmetics, and not to mention, the reason for which the company will never have to see an advertising expense on its income statement. I mean, what is the point of an ad in Vogue when her Snap stories get more views than they have readers?
Among the many products and brands that have thrived as a result of the Kardashian’s ingenious social media strategy, it is quite obvious that their most successful (and valuable) commodity has to be themselves. Before social media, celebrities relied on scandals, like having a public meltdown and shaving your head, to get people talking about them and on paparazzi to keep people talking about them. Now, the notion of bad publicity being better than none still stands true, and is another area of Kardashian expertise. The same way you and I use social media to feel relevant, the Kardashians use it to stay relevant. They (Kris Jenner*) are their own paparazzi in the sense that they (Kris Jenner*) make sure that there is always something to talk about and that that something is always being talked about.
Remember when Kim “broke the internet” in 2014 with Paper Magazine’s glossy, fully nude, cover photo of her perfectly Dr. 90210 sculpted ass? As if it were the first nude photo on the cover of a magazine, let alone of Kim K, who is famous because of a sex tape and has been featured in Playboy on various occasions. Everyone and your little brother has seen Kim’s famous curves, yet, the photo still made news headlines, became the subject of countless memes, and perpetuated the ongoing conversation about Kim’s ‘internet breaking body’ that we still continue to have today.
A further example, one of their (Kris Jenner’s*) most masterful social media tactics thus far has to be Kylie Jenner’s, literally show-stopping, pregnancy announcement. Late last year, the star went ghost on her millions of followers. This uncharacteristic break from social media caused an uproar of speculation surrounding her relationship with her ex Tyga, her new man Travis Scott, and the possibility of her being pregnant. Given, it is not unfounded or uncommon for a pregnant celebrity to want to stay out of the public eye, especially if you are as young and popular as Kylie Jenner, but is a social media hiatus really the way to do that? Kylie’s defences were clear: pregnancy is a private event in one’s life and it’s her choice to keep it private, so much attention is not good for her or her baby, and she got fat. However, being as young and as popular as she is, Kylie’s silence only made us talk about her more; fans and the media kept the gossip mill turning until the news was eventually leaked that the barely 20 year old celebrity was, in fact, pregnant. Finally, just when we thought her safeguard-silence was coming to an end and people began to find other things to talk about (because you can only be pregnant for so long, right), we were hit with the actual stunt.
On Super Bowl Sunday, while 103.4 million people were watching the big game (CBS, 2018), 107 million people received a notification from @KylieJenner for the first time in nine months (ironic?). The new mom broke her silence (and the record for the game’s lowest ratings since 2009) with a heartfelt birth announcement on Instagram followed by a carefully choreographed 11-minute YouTube video documenting her pregnancy. Not only did Kylie (and Kris) find a way to stay totally relevant on social media for nine months without actually using it, she managed to infiltrate a whole new industry, giving a new name to the most anticipated Sunday of each year: Stormy Sunday.
While we’re on the topic of pregnancy and staying relevant, just a few days ago Khloe Kardashian also gave birth to her first child with Tristan Thompson. But, with like 100 Kardashian kids born over the past year, another Kardashian is just a nuisance, and there are no globally broadcasted events in April to interrupt that could possibly beat Kylie’s game changing announcement, so, how was Khloe supposed to make her pregnancy relevant? (“Oh! I know!” said Kris Jenner) Just a few days before she went into labour, video footage of Tristan cheating on Khloe surfaced.
People went ballistic, posting all kinds of nasty comments on his Instagram, memes, you know the typical online harassment that comes with getting caught cheating on a pregnant celebrity. Even after the baby was born and it was reported that the couple is, “only looking forward, not backward” according to ET Online, the scandal is still being talked about. Who really knows if the hella suspicious timing of the leak was merely a coincidence or just another page out of Kris Jenner’s playbook. Nevertheless, there is nothing more that the media and millennials love to hate than a cheater and nothing that they love to love more than a pregnant socialite. In the end, Khloe’s entry into parenthood warranted all the attention that a Kardashian pregnancy deserves. Scandal or no scandal, the Kardashians know how to stay relevant. As long as people are talking, tweeting, vlogging, or posting about them, they are making money. (Kylie neglected promoting Kylie Cosmetics during her hiatus but did the company flounder? No. You get my point.) As long as they are relevant, they are rich…and really, that’s all that matters.
It is rare that a day goes by where I don’t see at least three out of the..how many are there now? Kardashians on at least three of my various feeds. Maybe this is due to the filter bubble that I have been placed in, or maybe it’s straight up just Kris Jenner’s master plan to take over the world unfolding in front of my eyes. Regardless, the way the Kardashians have revolutionized social media amidst a social media revolution is pretty cool and definitely grounds to shut down the “famous for nothing” claim. They are at the forefront of social media marketing and not to mention, practically pioneered the notion of “Instagram fame”, albeit are not famous because of Instagram, their use of social media definitely influenced others — who are now “Insta famous” — to commodify themselves and become influencers. Love them or hate them, the power of Kardashian is a force to be reckoned with.
This is only just a summary of the first few chapters in the saga of the Kardashian’s social media empire; Kim, Kourtney, Khloe, Kendall, and Kylie are no where near done (they each respectively, minus Kendall, have at least 10 years left of Insta-MILF status, that is if Instagram lasts that long) and Kris always has something up here sleeve. To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if their next big move was a Disney movie on their life.
Not to mention, there is a whole new generation of Kardashian kids ready and waiting for the day they turn 13 and can run their own accounts.
All in all, this is definitely a story that you want to keep up with.
***I put onus on Kris Jenner because she is the brains behind it all, apparently
See this NY Times article and this MTV article linked above
References
CBS. (2018). Super Bowl LII: Ratings for football’s biggest game lowest since 2009. Cbsnews.com. Retrieved 16 April 2018, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/super-bowl-lii-tv-ratings/
Karmali, S. (2017). This is how much the Kardashians get paid for one Instagram post. Harper’s Bazaar. Retrieved from https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/culture/culture-news/news/a40474/this-is-how-much-the-kardashians-get-paid-for-one-instagram-post/[
Mejia, Z. (2017). How Kylie Jenner turned her $29 lipstick business into a $420 million empire in 18 months. CNBC. Retrieved 16 April 2018, from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/14/how-kylie-jenner-turned-kylie-cosmetics-into-a-420-million-empire.html
