8 ms·

I wonder why the strategy of these "brand personalities" has to be limited to "luxury" type branding. For example, could you build a following traveling the co

by CamTin 8y ago

I wonder why the strategy of these "brand personalities" has to be limited to "luxury" type branding. For example, could you build a following traveling the country by interstate in a Fiesta, staying at Motel 6 and eating at Waffle House? It wouldn't cost Motel 6 and Waffle House almost anything to comp a few waffles and otherwise-unoccupied rooms as an experiment, if they aren't doing similar things already.

overcast 8y ago
People want escapism. Something out of their ordinary lives. Like movies. As someone who is heavily involved in Instagram marketing, I don't see the value for anyone other than dreamers. Which is why my focus is niche, local, and accessible to everyone. In return I send a TON of real customers to places that I choose to promote.
- Hnrobert42 8y ago
  Why do people trust your recommendations? I’m not saying you are untrustworthy. I don’t know you. But that is my point. Why do people trust “influencers”? I would feel like a tremendous fool even following a stranger’s account, much less going somewhere on their say-so.
  - smallnamespace 8y ago
    Well, why can people trust any other people at all? Well, here are some ways: 1. They have an incentive to be honest* (e.g. they would be punished if they weren't), e.g. lawyers, engineers, family members 2. They seem like just honest people, e.g. the Dalai Lama? 3. They say or do many other things that you agree with and your values seem aligned, e.g. politicians, athletes, some corporate leaders 4. They are a lot like you, except slightly different, so you trust them implicitly because you would trust yourself Influencers can hit a bit of all those notes. At this early point, it's probably easier as an influencer to actually find a place that they like and think are good, rather than just taking cash to promote something they don't believe in. Later on that may change. Influencers do have a reputation, if they keep sending people to garbage, eventually those people will notice, so they have something to lose. Some influencers are really good at certain things that people admire (e.g. game influencers), and a lot of influencers go for that 'just a regular person who is your friend and let's go on cool trips together' feel. But note that these same points are potential reasons to distrust, e.g. an influencer who has hit it big and plans to exit the business anyway may find it more worthwhile to start shilling since their future reputation doesn't matter to them.
    - sanderjd 8y ago
      > Well, why can people trust any other people at all? I trust (some) people I know, because I know them.
    - Johnny555 8y ago
      They have an incentive to be honest I think influencers have more of an incentive to be dishonest than to be honest. If they tell a hotel "I'll promote you to all of my followers if you give me a week's stay" and then they go on to tell their followers "This place is crap, stay away", that's going to reduce their future business. If they tell their followers to go to a crap hotel, then they can just say "Oh, it must have changed since I was there". And indeed, by revealing themselves to the hotel beforehand, they've tainted the experience, the hotel is going to treat them differently.
  - anigbrowl 8y ago
    Typically because they're attracted to them and want to either be like them or have sex with them.
  - oldcynic 8y ago
    They trust them for being being popular. Being popular has become the goal. Aspiring to be famous for something, like being a great musician, no longer seems to be thought a necessary component.
    - pessimizer 8y ago
      That's because under capitalism, salary is confused with talent and pricing with quality. the most famous musicians are not the greatest musicians, the relationship is largely arbitrary
  - overcast 8y ago
    I don't promote any food or drinks that I don't love myself. Even when working with restaurants, I make this clear. You can give me all the food you want, but if I don't think it's awesome, I'm not going to talk about it. So that removes any negative criticism, and it makes it greatly in their interest to serve good food. It's ONLY about the product. I'm completely anonymous, very few outside of the industry even know who I am, so I'm not wasting their time with dumb lifestyle pictures of myself. I don't need the money, I'm doing it for the networking, and growing the food scene. My followers recognize this, and is the reason I am the largest in the entire region.
    - microdrum 8y ago
      "You can give me all the food you want, but if I don't think it's awesome, I'm not going to talk about it." That's cool but the old world where if the food isn't awesome the writer will say "THIS FOOD WAS BAD" was probably better.
      - overcast 8y ago
        Nope, provides no value except for spreading negativity. I don't have time for talking about everything I put in my mouth. I'm not a critic.
        staticautomatic 8y ago
        What are you?
        overcast 8y ago
        Promoter.
        staticautomatic 8y ago
        Is that different from "influencer"?
  - pjc50 8y ago
    > I would feel like a tremendous fool even following a stranger’s account This sounds so 20 years ago, when people were afraid to type credit cards or personal information into the internet.
    - code_duck 8y ago
      I have spent the vast majority of my online time talking to strangers. All of you, for example.
  - im3w1l 8y ago
    Because you have a history of being trustworthy. I'd assume.
  - code_duck 8y ago
    People trust and are totally happy to be manipulated by completely fictitious, entirely fabricated depictions of individuals in advertising and programs on television.
  - CyberDildonics 8y ago
    It has little to do with that. The exposure is what counts. Put a picture of a nice hotel and say it's name. Now you have an ad that went out to 100k people. The person is mostly irrelevant, a hotel just wants people to know it exists.
    - dorfsmay 8y ago
      I can't help but wonder the percentage of those 100 k people who are likely to book in an expensive hotel.
      - CyberDildonics 8y ago
        How is that different from any other advertisement?
  - megy 8y ago
    You have to trust someone, either the company describing the product themselves, a rating website, or this person.
- bonestamp2 8y ago
  People also want to feel unique and special. If you can show them something they can have/do that everyone else is not doing or doesn't know about then that has value to them. Even if it's as simple as a restaurant that they already go to, but don't know about something great you can order or experience there.
- oliwarner 8y ago
  > People want escapism Do they really though? People are told and trained all their lives to want escapism. That their lives could be better if they drank X, drove Y and wore Z. It's a natural side effect of branding and advertising. It's not enough to sell to the people who actually need your product, you have to convince others that they want it too. Consumerism is not a natural human mechanism. It's a hack of commerce and something we've only really been exposed to —in any scale— for the last couple of hundred years.
ourmandave 8y ago
Ah, the ol' reverse psychology. By showing people what it's like to vacation in a Fiesta, Motel 6, and Waffle House you'll drive traffic to luxury hotels.
- s0rce 8y ago
  I've had some pretty good times in a cheap american car (not a fiesta, however), staying at motel 6 except the one in Crescent city near the supermax prison, and eating at generic American restaurants across the country.
- mieseratte 8y ago
  I'd go to a clean Motel 6 any day of the week. Unpretentious, a good value, and frequently you're dealing with locally-run operations so you're actually dealing with folks empowered to handle an issue and even sometimes give a damn. All of my experiences with mid-to-high end hotels seem like an exercise in bilking you at every turn so you can pretend you're wealthy, and hotel staff that are artificially polite at best, indifferent and uncaring at worst.
pmorici 8y ago
There are certainly people with channels that cater to camping or living out of a Jeep / Van. IAmJake for example on YouTube. [0] As evidenced by that I don't think a brand personality has to be luxury but it does have to have a point of view people can take interest in. [0] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbjw-VrJCUb8PTGoiDI2UMw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbjw-VrJCUb8PTGoiDI2UMw
- grecy 8y ago
  > living out of a Jeep Hey, that's me! 2+ years, 80,000+ miles and 35+ countries in Africa living out of my Jeep. I've just passed the half-way point and am really looking forward to the Cape to Cairo run North. http://instagram.com/theroadchoseme/ http://instagram.com/theroadchoseme/ http://theroadchoseme.com http://theroadchoseme.com
  - fabatka 8y ago
    Wow, so well documented trips! I really like how you could turn your life around and show others how this can be achieved. Definitely the most inspiring thing I started reading this year, kudos!
    - grecy 8y ago
      Cheers! Let me know if you have any questions about what I'm doing / how I did it / etc. I'm very happy to help in any way I can !
- prawn 8y ago
  I've collated a few of these here: https://vanspiration.com/social/ https://vanspiration.com/social/ You're right - there are all types. Glamorous, selectively documenting lifestyle types, and others focusing on the craft of it, and others on living that way full time. And there are dozens more trying the same thing all the time, motivated by the earlier batches. I find it all a bit fascinating.
  - toomanybeersies 8y ago
naturalgradient 8y ago
This is sort of what the report of the week ('reviewbrah' [0]) is doing, no? Reviewing fast food in a quirky manner. Million+ subscribers on youtube, really interesting to have followed this for 5+ years when he had a few hundred subscribers. Doing the exact same thing with very small refinements, over and over. It's not that glamorous, but I reckon at 1M+ subscribers he is doing quite a lot better than many obscure luxurious lifestyle personalities. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheReportOfTheWeek https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheReportOfTheWeek
- checker659 8y ago
  I'm from Nepal and I've been subscribed to reviewbrah since 2016. I suspect his viewership is much more diverse and widespread that you'd think. It's the internet after all.
orbitingpluto 8y ago
Pot bellied middle-aged bald white man drives to his Motel 6 in his Ford Fiesta, crosses the street to a Waffle House, gorges himself on waffles and syrup, and returns to his hotel room to cry and wonder where it all went wrong? Sounds great.
- chrissnell 8y ago
  Bill Bryson wrote a hilarious--but acerbic--book about exactly this: The Lost Continent . http://a.co/121JpWz http://a.co/121JpWz He was in a Chevette, not a Fiesta, and the hotels were off-brand but it's the same idea. A typical passage: Afterwards I retired with a six-pack to my motel, where I discovered that the bed, judging by its fragrance and shape, had only recently been vacated by a horse. It had a sag in it so severe that I could only see the TV at its foot by splaying my legs to their widest extremity. It was like lying in a wheel-barrow.
- nothrabannosir 8y ago
  I would create an Instagram account just to follow this guy.
  - zebraflask 8y ago
    Brilliant! I would, too.
    - pmuk 8y ago
      My Dad is basically doing this in the UK: https://www.youtube.com/motorhomeman https://www.youtube.com/motorhomeman :)
  - hammock 8y ago
    It exists, look up Glennyballs on Barstool Sports.
  - megy 8y ago
    Obviously you wouldn't or you would have done this already.
pessimizer 8y ago
> traveling the country by interstate in a Fiesta, staying at Motel 6 and eating at Waffle House The problem is that those things are not difficult to obtain, and so any following you would have would be shared by 100K people just like you. To be interesting, you'd have to have some unattainable quality in addition to eating at Waffle House, such as being a multi-billionaire, or an extremely successful actor/actress, or a Turner Prize winning artist. Of course, this would end up with custom $250K Fiestas, Motel 6 starting a curated luxury brand, and Waffle Houses with chefs and monthlong reservation lists. The reason why a flow of money for nothing comes from luxury branding is pretty obvious. The cash is coming from people who spend large amounts of money casually, in a way that can be significantly influenced by the people they follow on Instagram.
code_duck 8y ago
It all depends on how entertaining the person is. Could Rowan Atkinson do that? Absolutely. Could your average person? No, it would be awkward and incredibly boring. In between, though, sure, someone could make something interesting based on that. Some of the best TV shows have very thin plots after all.
mikec3010 8y ago
With the right technique: video production, writing (so much this), and acting you absolutely could game this concept.
kop316 8y ago
To an extent that was what "Anthony Bordain - Parts Unknown" did. He frequently was in very nice places, but he would also go to hole in the wall places that always looked incredible.
- Mediterraneo10 8y ago
  They looked incredible because he had scouts and fixers setting up the places before he went there. If you know some of the developing countries he filmed in, it is quite obvious -- and rather disappointing -- just how inauthentic his local encounters were.
  - kop316 8y ago
    Heh, interesting. Do you have a source for that? I would be curious to read more into it.
    - burger_moon 8y ago
      He actually talked about it a lot when he was on the Joe Rogan podcast years ago. If you search for it on youtube you'll see it. I recently watched it after his death so it's fresh on my mind.
      - kop316 8y ago
        Thanks for the follow up! I'll look it up.
billdybas 8y ago
Have you heard of the Fiesta Movement? [1] Ford essentially did that back in 2010. With the right brand, right audience, and right production value, anything's possible. Influencer marketing can be finicky, though. A successful campaign requires authenticity – most audiences can see right through paid promotion. I think there's a different dynamic when a brand approaches a creator vs. a creator approaching a brand. I think a lot of these self-proclaimed "influencers" seek out "luxury" type branding in an attempt to get free stuff they otherwise probably couldn't afford or to create content around a lifestyle which seems unattainable to their audience and therefore draws more views/clicks/shares/virality ("If only I could live like that one day") – mostly Internet junk-food. [1] https://hbr.org/2010/01/ford-recently-wrapped-the-firs https://hbr.org/2010/01/ford-recently-wrapped-the-firs
wastedhours 8y ago
You could, but it misunderstands luxury marketing. The difference between "luxury" marketing and even "premium" (or mainstream) marketing are the former's efforts to influence people who are never going to buy or use the product. A lot of a luxury good's status comes from the "halo" given to it by all of us who'll unlikely use it - thus giving it the allure to the people who have the money. So, in essence, it's more important for a luxury brand to have mass market penetration, than it is for a premium product. For example, Aston Martin needs you to know it's an unattainable symbolic brand, and does that through mainstream marketing (like Bond product placements, YouTuber videos etc...) more than BMW does (who're selling to a premium audience who will buy on product rather than perception). TL;DR: perversely, it's in everyone's interests to use influencers more for the luxury industry than the rest of the industry, and why it's seeing the abuse it is.
dsfyu404ed 8y ago
So basically Roadkill if Roadkill was sponsored by Motel 6 and Waffle House instead of Dodge?

by CamTin 8y ago

overcast 8y ago

People want escapism. Something out of their ordinary lives. Like movies. As someone who is heavily involved in Instagram marketing, I don't see the value for anyone other than dreamers. Which is why my focus is niche, local, and accessible to everyone. In return I send a TON of real customers to places that I choose to promote.

Hnrobert42 8y ago
Why do people trust your recommendations? I’m not saying you are untrustworthy. I don’t know you. But that is my point. Why do people trust “influencers”? I would feel like a tremendous fool even following a stranger’s account, much less going somewhere on their say-so.
- smallnamespace 8y ago
  Well, why can people trust any other people at all? Well, here are some ways: 1. They have an incentive to be honest* (e.g. they would be punished if they weren't), e.g. lawyers, engineers, family members 2. They seem like just honest people, e.g. the Dalai Lama? 3. They say or do many other things that you agree with and your values seem aligned, e.g. politicians, athletes, some corporate leaders 4. They are a lot like you, except slightly different, so you trust them implicitly because you would trust yourself Influencers can hit a bit of all those notes. At this early point, it's probably easier as an influencer to actually find a place that they like and think are good, rather than just taking cash to promote something they don't believe in. Later on that may change. Influencers do have a reputation, if they keep sending people to garbage, eventually those people will notice, so they have something to lose. Some influencers are really good at certain things that people admire (e.g. game influencers), and a lot of influencers go for that 'just a regular person who is your friend and let's go on cool trips together' feel. But note that these same points are potential reasons to distrust, e.g. an influencer who has hit it big and plans to exit the business anyway may find it more worthwhile to start shilling since their future reputation doesn't matter to them.
  - sanderjd 8y ago
    > Well, why can people trust any other people at all? I trust (some) people I know, because I know them.
  - Johnny555 8y ago
    They have an incentive to be honest I think influencers have more of an incentive to be dishonest than to be honest. If they tell a hotel "I'll promote you to all of my followers if you give me a week's stay" and then they go on to tell their followers "This place is crap, stay away", that's going to reduce their future business. If they tell their followers to go to a crap hotel, then they can just say "Oh, it must have changed since I was there". And indeed, by revealing themselves to the hotel beforehand, they've tainted the experience, the hotel is going to treat them differently.
- anigbrowl 8y ago
  Typically because they're attracted to them and want to either be like them or have sex with them.
- oldcynic 8y ago
  They trust them for being being popular. Being popular has become the goal. Aspiring to be famous for something, like being a great musician, no longer seems to be thought a necessary component.
  - pessimizer 8y ago
    That's because under capitalism, salary is confused with talent and pricing with quality. the most famous musicians are not the greatest musicians, the relationship is largely arbitrary
- overcast 8y ago
  I don't promote any food or drinks that I don't love myself. Even when working with restaurants, I make this clear. You can give me all the food you want, but if I don't think it's awesome, I'm not going to talk about it. So that removes any negative criticism, and it makes it greatly in their interest to serve good food. It's ONLY about the product. I'm completely anonymous, very few outside of the industry even know who I am, so I'm not wasting their time with dumb lifestyle pictures of myself. I don't need the money, I'm doing it for the networking, and growing the food scene. My followers recognize this, and is the reason I am the largest in the entire region.
  - microdrum 8y ago
    "You can give me all the food you want, but if I don't think it's awesome, I'm not going to talk about it." That's cool but the old world where if the food isn't awesome the writer will say "THIS FOOD WAS BAD" was probably better.
    - overcast 8y ago
      Nope, provides no value except for spreading negativity. I don't have time for talking about everything I put in my mouth. I'm not a critic.
      - staticautomatic 8y ago
        What are you?
        overcast 8y ago
        Promoter.
        staticautomatic 8y ago
        Is that different from "influencer"?
- pjc50 8y ago
  > I would feel like a tremendous fool even following a stranger’s account This sounds so 20 years ago, when people were afraid to type credit cards or personal information into the internet.
  - code_duck 8y ago
    I have spent the vast majority of my online time talking to strangers. All of you, for example.
- im3w1l 8y ago
  Because you have a history of being trustworthy. I'd assume.
- code_duck 8y ago
  People trust and are totally happy to be manipulated by completely fictitious, entirely fabricated depictions of individuals in advertising and programs on television.
- CyberDildonics 8y ago
  It has little to do with that. The exposure is what counts. Put a picture of a nice hotel and say it's name. Now you have an ad that went out to 100k people. The person is mostly irrelevant, a hotel just wants people to know it exists.
  - dorfsmay 8y ago
    I can't help but wonder the percentage of those 100 k people who are likely to book in an expensive hotel.
    - CyberDildonics 8y ago
      How is that different from any other advertisement?
- megy 8y ago
  You have to trust someone, either the company describing the product themselves, a rating website, or this person.
bonestamp2 8y ago
People also want to feel unique and special. If you can show them something they can have/do that everyone else is not doing or doesn't know about then that has value to them. Even if it's as simple as a restaurant that they already go to, but don't know about something great you can order or experience there.
oliwarner 8y ago
> People want escapism Do they really though? People are told and trained all their lives to want escapism. That their lives could be better if they drank X, drove Y and wore Z. It's a natural side effect of branding and advertising. It's not enough to sell to the people who actually need your product, you have to convince others that they want it too. Consumerism is not a natural human mechanism. It's a hack of commerce and something we've only really been exposed to —in any scale— for the last couple of hundred years.

ourmandave 8y ago

Ah, the ol' reverse psychology. By showing people what it's like to vacation in a Fiesta, Motel 6, and Waffle House you'll drive traffic to luxury hotels.

s0rce 8y ago
I've had some pretty good times in a cheap american car (not a fiesta, however), staying at motel 6 except the one in Crescent city near the supermax prison, and eating at generic American restaurants across the country.
mieseratte 8y ago
I'd go to a clean Motel 6 any day of the week. Unpretentious, a good value, and frequently you're dealing with locally-run operations so you're actually dealing with folks empowered to handle an issue and even sometimes give a damn. All of my experiences with mid-to-high end hotels seem like an exercise in bilking you at every turn so you can pretend you're wealthy, and hotel staff that are artificially polite at best, indifferent and uncaring at worst.

pmorici 8y ago

There are certainly people with channels that cater to camping or living out of a Jeep / Van. IAmJake for example on YouTube. [0] As evidenced by that I don't think a brand personality has to be luxury but it does have to have a point of view people can take interest in. [0] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbjw-VrJCUb8PTGoiDI2UMw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbjw-VrJCUb8PTGoiDI2UMw

grecy 8y ago
> living out of a Jeep Hey, that's me! 2+ years, 80,000+ miles and 35+ countries in Africa living out of my Jeep. I've just passed the half-way point and am really looking forward to the Cape to Cairo run North. http://instagram.com/theroadchoseme/ http://instagram.com/theroadchoseme/ http://theroadchoseme.com http://theroadchoseme.com
- fabatka 8y ago
  Wow, so well documented trips! I really like how you could turn your life around and show others how this can be achieved. Definitely the most inspiring thing I started reading this year, kudos!
  - grecy 8y ago
    Cheers! Let me know if you have any questions about what I'm doing / how I did it / etc. I'm very happy to help in any way I can !
prawn 8y ago
I've collated a few of these here: https://vanspiration.com/social/ https://vanspiration.com/social/ You're right - there are all types. Glamorous, selectively documenting lifestyle types, and others focusing on the craft of it, and others on living that way full time. And there are dozens more trying the same thing all the time, motivated by the earlier batches. I find it all a bit fascinating.
- toomanybeersies 8y ago

naturalgradient 8y ago

This is sort of what the report of the week ('reviewbrah' [0]) is doing, no? Reviewing fast food in a quirky manner. Million+ subscribers on youtube, really interesting to have followed this for 5+ years when he had a few hundred subscribers. Doing the exact same thing with very small refinements, over and over. It's not that glamorous, but I reckon at 1M+ subscribers he is doing quite a lot better than many obscure luxurious lifestyle personalities. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheReportOfTheWeek https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheReportOfTheWeek

checker659 8y ago
I'm from Nepal and I've been subscribed to reviewbrah since 2016. I suspect his viewership is much more diverse and widespread that you'd think. It's the internet after all.

orbitingpluto 8y ago

Pot bellied middle-aged bald white man drives to his Motel 6 in his Ford Fiesta, crosses the street to a Waffle House, gorges himself on waffles and syrup, and returns to his hotel room to cry and wonder where it all went wrong? Sounds great.

chrissnell 8y ago
Bill Bryson wrote a hilarious--but acerbic--book about exactly this: The Lost Continent . http://a.co/121JpWz http://a.co/121JpWz He was in a Chevette, not a Fiesta, and the hotels were off-brand but it's the same idea. A typical passage: Afterwards I retired with a six-pack to my motel, where I discovered that the bed, judging by its fragrance and shape, had only recently been vacated by a horse. It had a sag in it so severe that I could only see the TV at its foot by splaying my legs to their widest extremity. It was like lying in a wheel-barrow.
nothrabannosir 8y ago
I would create an Instagram account just to follow this guy.
- zebraflask 8y ago
  Brilliant! I would, too.
  - pmuk 8y ago
    My Dad is basically doing this in the UK: https://www.youtube.com/motorhomeman https://www.youtube.com/motorhomeman :)
- hammock 8y ago
  It exists, look up Glennyballs on Barstool Sports.
- megy 8y ago
  Obviously you wouldn't or you would have done this already.

pessimizer 8y ago

> traveling the country by interstate in a Fiesta, staying at Motel 6 and eating at Waffle House The problem is that those things are not difficult to obtain, and so any following you would have would be shared by 100K people just like you. To be interesting, you'd have to have some unattainable quality in addition to eating at Waffle House, such as being a multi-billionaire, or an extremely successful actor/actress, or a Turner Prize winning artist. Of course, this would end up with custom $250K Fiestas, Motel 6 starting a curated luxury brand, and Waffle Houses with chefs and monthlong reservation lists. The reason why a flow of money for nothing comes from luxury branding is pretty obvious. The cash is coming from people who spend large amounts of money casually, in a way that can be significantly influenced by the people they follow on Instagram.

code_duck 8y ago

It all depends on how entertaining the person is. Could Rowan Atkinson do that? Absolutely. Could your average person? No, it would be awkward and incredibly boring. In between, though, sure, someone could make something interesting based on that. Some of the best TV shows have very thin plots after all.

mikec3010 8y ago

With the right technique: video production, writing (so much this), and acting you absolutely could game this concept.

kop316 8y ago

To an extent that was what "Anthony Bordain - Parts Unknown" did. He frequently was in very nice places, but he would also go to hole in the wall places that always looked incredible.

Mediterraneo10 8y ago
They looked incredible because he had scouts and fixers setting up the places before he went there. If you know some of the developing countries he filmed in, it is quite obvious -- and rather disappointing -- just how inauthentic his local encounters were.
- kop316 8y ago
  Heh, interesting. Do you have a source for that? I would be curious to read more into it.
  - burger_moon 8y ago
    He actually talked about it a lot when he was on the Joe Rogan podcast years ago. If you search for it on youtube you'll see it. I recently watched it after his death so it's fresh on my mind.
    - kop316 8y ago
      Thanks for the follow up! I'll look it up.

billdybas 8y ago

Have you heard of the Fiesta Movement? [1] Ford essentially did that back in 2010. With the right brand, right audience, and right production value, anything's possible. Influencer marketing can be finicky, though. A successful campaign requires authenticity – most audiences can see right through paid promotion. I think there's a different dynamic when a brand approaches a creator vs. a creator approaching a brand. I think a lot of these self-proclaimed "influencers" seek out "luxury" type branding in an attempt to get free stuff they otherwise probably couldn't afford or to create content around a lifestyle which seems unattainable to their audience and therefore draws more views/clicks/shares/virality ("If only I could live like that one day") – mostly Internet junk-food. [1] https://hbr.org/2010/01/ford-recently-wrapped-the-firs https://hbr.org/2010/01/ford-recently-wrapped-the-firs

wastedhours 8y ago

You could, but it misunderstands luxury marketing. The difference between "luxury" marketing and even "premium" (or mainstream) marketing are the former's efforts to influence people who are never going to buy or use the product. A lot of a luxury good's status comes from the "halo" given to it by all of us who'll unlikely use it - thus giving it the allure to the people who have the money. So, in essence, it's more important for a luxury brand to have mass market penetration, than it is for a premium product. For example, Aston Martin needs you to know it's an unattainable symbolic brand, and does that through mainstream marketing (like Bond product placements, YouTuber videos etc...) more than BMW does (who're selling to a premium audience who will buy on product rather than perception). TL;DR: perversely, it's in everyone's interests to use influencers more for the luxury industry than the rest of the industry, and why it's seeing the abuse it is.

dsfyu404ed 8y ago

So basically Roadkill if Roadkill was sponsored by Motel 6 and Waffle House instead of Dodge?