It is the age of influencer marketing!
Now consumers have shifted in their opinions on celebrities selling us stuff and now we look to people "just like us" telling us if products or services are good.
The rise of YouTube and Instagram stars has create a new form of celebrity and super influencers. From makeup tutorials to teeth whiting sets it is a gold mine for product placement and sponsored content.
Is it because we relate to these everyday infulencers? Or is it because the illusion that they are being paid to sell to us is greater.
Let’s be honest. The day that an alien life form lands on Earth and we have to explain about ‘that time we bought a coffee machine because actor George Clooney recommended it’, it’s going to be pretty embarrassing. We’re not going to look the brightest. So when celebrities began losing sway to bloggers, vloggers and the eventually rebranded ‘influencers’… we were trending in a better direction, right? I remember the mixed reaction of the marketing industry upon the realisation that influencers were actually a thing that was here to stay. Some cautious excitement around the flexibility of these new channels alongside uncensored confusion and outrage as to how that was going to decimate the traditional PR plans which we’d based our careers on. Still, in retrospect, it could be said that this was the start of a movement towards seeking out expertise. At least these individuals had an ambition to claim a space or subject to be regarded as knowledgeable in.
http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2017/10/17/the-rise-the-expert-and-fall-celebrity
