
The Rise and Maybe the Fall of Influencers - DiabloD3
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/10/fashion/kendall-jenner-fyre-festival-pepsi-bella-hadid-influencers.html
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two2two
The available mega influencers (Jenner and Gomez) are scarce. The dilution of
brand image begins with conflicting brand associations with the same
influencer. While reach is far and wide, at a great cost, the better approach
would be to attach to lower level influencers that have smaller impact when
their image begins to misalign with the brands. I have a hard time believing
agencies haven't been utilizing multiple approaches to utilizing the varying
influence across the spectrum instead of putting all their eggs in one basket
with one mega influencer. I don't quite understand the point of the article
and how the utility of influencers could collapse? There will always be a new
face to exploit, no?

~~~
kenning
> I don't quite understand the point of the article and how the utility of
> influencers could collapse?

Some industries are ok with blatant sponsorship and some are not. Compare the
video game industry awards
([https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2016/12/02/the-good-
th...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2016/12/02/the-good-the-bad-and-
the-cringeworthy-of-the-2016-game-awards/#5aad60931f42)) to the oscars.

People can be fickle about these things as the industries are being
established. If fans decide it's unappealing to see obvious cash-ins, the
'influencer' industry may be overvalued. Whether or not they do probably has a
lot to do with whether these scandals are memorable.

~~~
makomk
Also, excessive promotional campaigns can eat into the reputations of the
people and brands involved, or even cause a broader loss of trust. For
example, Geoff Keighley will probably be forever known as the Dorito Pope
because of his over-the-top product placement for Mountain Dew and Doritos,
and every video game article, review, Let's Play or shout-out that is seen as
excessively positive attracts rumours that the person was paid or otherwise
rewarded for doing it.

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wyck
NYtimes questioning influencers because it undermines their own content, HA!

From the article: PewDiePie, a YouTube star who had signed deals with Disney
and Google and then was discovered to have made anti-Semitic statements.

...100% bullshit smear campaign by the WSJ not mentioned...

Influencers must create trust and manage their own base, just like any other
brand. The losers at the end of that stick are ad driven media outlets like
NyTimes and Google. People creating content is not going anywhere and neither
is the power of social media. Sure some top end influences are practically
just product pushing robots, but this landscape will even out to be more
genuine and niche based.

The long ugly decline of traditional media grasping at straws is not over, the
revenue will continue to plummet. The title should be "The continual fall of
the MSM as the internet continues to erode it's value."

~~~
oculusthrift
you realize NYT is having record profits? because they are doing real
journalism? And you also realize pewdiepie actually did make crude anti-
semitic jokes? yes, WSJ over-reacted but he wasn't guiltless. Writing
Holocaust/Hitler jokes isn't funny and shouldn't be tolerated.

~~~
wyck
No I don't realise that, because its not accurate.

NYTimes: Print advertising revenue in 2016 fell 16 percent, driving a 9
percent drop in total advertising revenue. For the quarter, print advertising
revenue declined 20 percent. Digital advertising revenue rose 6 percent last
year. Adjusted operating profit, the company’s preferred method for assessing
performance, fell to $241 million last year, from $289 million in 2015.
Operating profit dropped to $102 million, from $137 million.

^ Says everything you need to know about what is going on, and jokes, although
crude, are jokes.

~~~
oculusthrift
They had more subscribers added in the 3 months after trump was inaugurated
than all of 2015. So those numbers are essentially fake news

[https://qz.com/901684/thanks-to-trump-the-new-york-times-
add...](https://qz.com/901684/thanks-to-trump-the-new-york-times-added-more-
subscribers-in-three-months-than-in-all-of-2015/)

------
mc32
Who cares. Who cares if the face on vogue Germany isn't German, or the one on
vogue US isn't American. Get over it. Who cares if people become indifferent
to paid influencers.

It's part and parcel of globalism which lifted hundreds of millions out of
abject poverty and gave rise to middle classes in India and China. Course we
can go back to nationalistic tendencies.

