How An Instagram Influencer With Over 2 Million Followers Made $0 From Her Failed Product Launch (Warning).
Meet Arianna Renee.
She’s an influencer with over 2.6 million followers on various platforms.
In March 2019, she decided to monetize by launching a clothing line. She poured thousands into photoshoots and models and hired a studio for the day.
She launched but couldn’t even sell 38 t-shirts.
Her order quantity was so low that she couldn’t meet the minimum order to manufacture her t-shirts. She abandoned the whole project and wrote about it on Instagram, which sparked an online debate.
Here’s what I learned from her experience.
The birth of a flawed business model
The early 2010s influencer model was:
- Create entertainment-based content.
- Build a massive audience on a platform.
- Monetize through brand deals, sponsorships, and merch.
You can see this in early influencers like David Dobrik.
But while David Dobrik was able to pivot into more sustainable monetization models such as a Pizza shop, many other influencers did not. Ava Green was one of them.
