The shocking reality of Instagram’s biggest and richest stars… From lawsuits and trolls to risking accidents
They might have followers in the millions and bank accounts to match, but it looks like the tide could be turning against the darlings of Instagram. Fabulous investigates
EARLIER this year, Kendall Jenner’s Instagram read: “So hyped to announce my G.O.O.D Music Family as the first headliners for @Fyrefestival. VIP access for my followers…”
While the post racked up a staggering seven million likes, look for it now on the 21-year-old reality star’s Insta feed and you won’t be able to find it.
That’s because the festival Kendall was reportedly paid £197,000 to plug was a disaster.
It also threw unexpected shade on the glossy world of influencers – AKA people with large social media followings who plug products for fees or favours. Until then, influencers were the unrivalled kings and queens of social media.
Coming at us in the form of bloggers, writers, vloggers and Instagrammers – or more likely, all of the above – the movement includes the likes of Australian fitness blogger Kayla Itsines (7.1 million followers on Insta), as well as Kendall (82 million followers) and fellow model Gigi Hadid (34 million), both of whom can earn up to six figures per post.
Meanwhile, in the UK we have superstar beauty vloggers Sam and Nic Chapman (AKA Pixiwoo, who have 2.1 million subscribers on YouTube), plus Zoe Sugg (Zoella) and her boyfriend Alfie Deyes, who have a combined subscribership of over 17 million on YouTube. And it’s a multimillion pound industry.
“Social media is the new TV,” explains Sara McCorquodale, founder of CORQ, a consultancy that helps brands partner with social media stars.
“Influencers are like TV channels with potentially millions of people tuning in every day. Brands will partner with an influencer to get their product in front of that audience.”
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Those partnerships might mean anything from Chanel sending a hot model their latest handbag, which will appear in her feed to her 500k followers, to a tech brand like Samsung paying a podcast presenter to use their latest phone and talk about it to their listeners.
“Influencer marketing is basically word-of-mouth advertising,” explains Dr Tim Hill, lecturer in marketing at the University of Bath.
“Followers are getting a recommendation from a person they trust – which is the most powerful form of advertising.”
Rory McClenaghan, editorial director at We Are Social, a social media marketing agency that works with brands such as Netflix and Adidas, adds: “Traditionally, social media was a medium where we connected with friends to see what was going on in their lives – and it’s retained that element. When you’re reading someone’s social media feed, even if they’re famous, you generally expect it to be coming straight from them.”
Influencers are like TV channels with potentially millions of people tuning in every day. Brands will partner with an influencer to get their product in front of that audience.
Sara McCorquodale
And it’s clear some Insta-stars are tapping into this and making mega bucks in the process.
Case in point: when YouTube star Zoella vlogged in 2015 about her Tutti Fruity bath products for Superdrug, they became its fastest-selling beauty range to fly off the shelves.
It’s a world 26-year-old blogger and social media influencer Roxie Nafousi knows all about.
“When you’ve partnered with the right brand and come up with some really interesting content, such as a make-up tutorial video using Charlotte Tilbury products, it does feel good knowing you’re inspiring other women to try new ideas,” she explains.
“Especially when a whole line of something sells out because you recommended it.”
Roxie’s lifestyle blog Rawan.com has been going since 2014, as a sideline to her styling business. She now has a 53,000-strong following on Instagram and works with brands such as Clinique, Schwarzkopf Live and Jo Malone.
“It took a few years before my following grew,” she admits.
It does feel good knowing you’re inspiring other women to try new ideas, especially when a whole line of something sells out because you recommended it.
Roxie Nafousi
“At first, I was so pleased to get even 10 likes! It took two years of diligent posting to get the numbers up. People come to expect content from you, so you have to post regularly.”
Beauty blogger Michelle Phan, 30, who lives in Massachusetts, US, kicked off the influencer movement around 10 years ago with one of the first beauty blogs.
She created Michellephan.com in 2005, , became an advertising partner in 2012, and now has a following of 8.9 million on YouTube alone, working with companies such as Lancôme and L’Oréal. She launched her own cosmetics line in 2013.
“It’s an industry that has exploded within the past decade,” explains Sara.
“Big companies have struggled to imitate the success of influencers on social media because they haven’t been able to experiment as quickly, so instead many choose to partner with the influencers themselves.”
So much so that at the end of 2016, 84% of marketers planned to use an influencer to help advertise at least one product or initiative.*
In January this year, Dolce & Gabbana sent 49 influencers – including Cameron Dallas, who now has his own Netflix show, and Brit vlogger Jim Chapman – down the runway of their A/W catwalk, rather than use regular models.
Each snapped pictures backstage, with the hashtag #DGMillennials. Since then, it has been used more than 12,000 times – not bad when some of these pictures get over 50,000 likes each.
And the pay packets some influencers can command are jaw-dropping. Take Canadian comedian and vlogger Lilly Singh (known online as IISuperwomanII). Her following of nearly 36 million across YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook earned her a cool £5.8million last year.
Here in the UK, Zoella (combined following over 35 million), has been reported to earn £50,000 a month from brand partnerships and sponsorship deals.
“Even on the smaller end of the scale, some influencers might well be pulling in the big bucks,” explains Sara.
“I know of one mummy blogger who was paid £5,000 for a single Instagram post by a drinks brand at Christmas.”
Thirty-three-year-old influencer and brand consultant Katherine Ormerod has previously worked with Gap, Warehouse and Karen Millen, who pay her to create content – generally Instagram posts – featuring their fashion.
“It’s a seven-day-a-week job,” she explains.
“Arranging a partnership with a brand takes a lot of meetings and around 100 emails where every detail is discussed, from when, where and how often they want me to post to how they’d like me to communicate their message.”
For that – alongside work as a freelance journalist and social media consultant for brands such as By Terry – Katherine now earns roughly three times the £34,000 she got as a magazine editor, a job she did for 10 years before quitting to focus on her branding and influencing business.
“Even though I consult for various brands, I’ll get the same for a two-hour shoot as an influencer as I would in a week as a consultant.”
And until this summer, it seemed there was no stopping the heady rise of the influencer movement – but then Fyre happened.
Even though I consult for various brands, I’ll get the same for a two-hour shoot as an influencer as I would in a week as a consultant.
Katherine Ormerod
Billed as a super-luxe music festival put together by rapper Ja Rule and promoted by Kendall Jenner, Emily Ratajkowski and Bella Hadid, it was set to take place on the remote island of Grand Exuma in the Bahamas in April. Ticket packages cost up to £9,200 and guests were promised a five-star experience, staying in luxury cabanas and eating “gourmet cuisine”.
What they found – when they eventually arrived following hours of travel delays – were basic rations of brown bread and processed cheese slices and disaster relief tents for accommodation.
The festival was then cancelled on the first day, after a water shortage and a breakdown of sewage facilities broke. Within hours of the chaos, festival-goers took to Twitter and Instagram to vent their fury, not just at the organisers but at the influencers they’d trusted.
One tweeted they felt they had been lured to their doom by “modern-day sirens”, while another joked that the hottest new festival included “tent fires and stolen passports.”
Some felt so misled they filed multiple lawsuits. One targeted Kendall and the other influencers.
They declared that their posts were in direct violation of Federal Trade Commission guidelines because they had made no attempt to disclose to consumers that they were being financially compensated for promoting the festival. Organiser Billy McFarland has since been arrested for “wire fraud” and the FBI is investigating.
Roxie Nafousi is quick to jump to the defence of the Fyre influencers.
“Everyone makes mistakes,” she argues.
“Anyone might back the wrong brand if they’re given bad advice, but when you’re doing that in such a public way people are quick to jump on you.”
Talking of her own experiences, she explains: “I’m very honest with my followers. I’ve suffered from bouts of anxiety and depression and last summer it got so bad I could barely get out of bed.
I can only imagine that with the big celebrity influencers like Kendall or Bella, it’s probably a million times harder to be real and open.
Roxie Nafousi
“I decided to write a post explaining what I’d been going through, but as soon as I published it I went into a huge panic, wondering what people would say. Thankfully, it got a really positive response, but I can only imagine that with the big celebrity influencers like Kendall or Bella, it’s probably a million times harder to be real and open.”
Even before Fyre, there were grumblings influencers were on their way out. In September last year, editors at Vogue.com waged war on bloggers and influencers at Milan Fashion Week.
“[It’s] pathetic for these girls, when you watch how many times… [they] troll up and down outside shows, in traffic, risking accidents even, in hopes of being snapped,” declared chief critic Sarah Mower.
While in April, cool fashion blogger and author Leandra Medine, AKA Man Repeller (who could be referred to as an influencer herself) wrote a post on her website entitled Why Does The Term “Influencer” Feel So Gross, saying: “Almost every person I know who is considered an influencer cringes when they are called one,” adding: “Perhaps this means we want to prove ourselves before being relegated to 2017’s equivalent of a reality star.”
Even so, Katherine Ormerod is proudly sticking with her “influencer” tag.
“It’s a title that does what it says on the tin,” she says.
“As an editor I was doing the same on a different platform, but now I have to be even more consistent, posting every day. Anyone can do it, but not everyone wants to.”
However, 28-year-old blogger and podcast producer Emma Gannon isn’t so keen on the label.
“I’ve heard other people and brands call me an influencer, but I would never call myself one. To me the term sounds like corporate marketing jargon – which is the opposite of what I’m doing. If my work influences someone, that’s great, but I’d never introduce myself as an influencer.”
Emma founded her blog in 2010, writing about everything from books and travel to fashion and feminism. She also produces weekly podcast
Ctrl, Alt, Delete and interviews guests like Lena Dunham and Sophie Kinsella.
To me the term sounds like corporate marketing jargon – which is the opposite of what I’m doing. If my work influences someone, that’s great, but I’d never introduce myself as an influencer.
Emma Gannon
“I think podcasts and blogs are much more credible than they were five years ago,” she explains.
“My podcast has sponsors like Natwest and Hello Fresh because people respect how much time creating content takes.”
According to Rory McClenaghan, brands have begun to actively turn away from the influencers who simply snap pictures of products they’ve been paid to post, preferring to partner up with the new industry buzzword: “creators”, which includes people like Emma.
“Similar to influencers they have a social following, but creators develop their audience by doing something really interesting – not just by posting a super-stylised photo,” he explains.
“People are savvy about influencing and marketing nowadays. Straightforward product endorsement and placement makes us switch off because it feels inauthentic. These days brands are asking us, as an agency, to recommend influencers who can create their own content such as a podcast or video, not just plug a product, as that feels more honest.”
In hindsight, perhaps authenticity should have been more of a priority for Kendall and the Fyre crew. Especially considering the dream they promised turned into such a nightmare…