• I was just on the panel this week. Something like this came up. One of the panelists was saying how they're a content creator and they're passionate about what they do. They were going on and on about this, which is all true. It came to me, and I don't remember exactly what the question was, but I jumped in and I was like, "The second you take money, you're an advertiser. You're not a content creator anymore. Your job is to fucking sell product, move product." I think that shift is going to be a big part of the shift in the influencer space in the coming year.

    There's going to be billions of dollars spent next year in influencer marketing. The stakes get a lot higher. This staff needs to work better. Part of the reason I don't think it works well is I think a lot of brands how to do it effectively. I think a lot of the influencers aren't doing a great job driving value. I think a lot of influencer pricing is inflated. I think there's going to be a big shift away from follower counts to reach impressions numbers. That's something we are already doing with verified reach and other things. That's going to be a fairly seismic change in the industry.

    I think those influencers that can actually drive real quantifiable value and action for a brand are going to be the ones that continue to stand out. Continue to be a separation between audience and influence. I think something we're seeing is that a lot of people have built followings off of like a cult of personality, that they're just big personalities.

    Some people are really good at changing, taking a really interesting personality or life and being able to drive action from that. I'd say, look at Chrissy Teigen. She's just a huge personality and people love her so much that they will listen to her, and they'll buy the things that she buys, and she is very influential. A lot of people don't have that ability to bridge the gap between personality and purchase but that gap is really important. I think that influencers have to get better.

    You have to understand the value that you're driving for brands more effectively. You have to understand that this is business. This isn't a game. This isn't just, just because you have a following, doesn't mean you deserve to be paid. You need to actually drive value. When we take brands’ money, there's expectations. If we don't meet those expectations, well, that never happens. We always exceed the expectations but in a world where we didn't meet a brand's expectations, that's a breach of contract. We don't get our money.

    There needs to be more accountability in the influencer space and there's only so much pressure we can put in from the outside, from brands, agencies, platforms, things like that.

    We’ll continue to put pressure on the influencer space to get better to evolve, to grow, to improve but that pressure also has to come from the inside, and influencers have to take up-- They have to take up some of the slack and say that we need to do better.

    It is a very competitive world out there for advertising dollars, and if there is a recession, God forbid, this world is going to be a lot different because if we can't prove it works and there's a recession, everyone's fucked because the first thing they're going to cut is the budget that they can't prove is effective and that is going to be influencers probably. Everyone needs to buck up and do a better job driving value or we're all going to be at a very difficult place if the economy ever dips. Please don't make me give up. My Tom Brown and Drake's, don't make me give up being able to go on vacations because the industry falls away from us because we couldn't prove that it was effective. We all need to push a little harder.
    Episode #122
    - Improving Engagement, Future of Influencers, Staying Grounded