Marketing In An Age When Anyone Can Be A Celebrity

April 5th, 2016 | Jonathan Davids, Founder and CEO, Influicity

Jonathan Davids
Jonathan Davids

A YouTube user you’ve never heard of may be the perfect pitch person for your brand. Just ask Jonathan Davids, founder of Influicity, a platform that advertisers can use to source, collaborate and run campaigns with social influencers. Just what is an influencer, you ask? They run the gamut from a 20-something who makes DIY-themed videos and has 3 million YouTube followers to a comedian with a large following on Vine right up to an A-list Hollywood celebrity. The key is their followings look to them, rather than brands, to help inform their purchasing decisions. Davids presented an introduction to this relatively new area of influencer marketing at a recent ACA Webinar on March 9, 2016. One area he touched on was the business of celebrity and how it’s changing. His article on the topic, which takes a deeper look at this phenomenon, has been re-printed below with his permission

The video recording and slides from the ACA webinar, “How Social Influencers Are Transforming Media As We Know It” are available to ACA Members (login required) at ACAweb.ca.

The Flattening Of Celebrity

It’s amazing to watch a century old industry transform so rapidly, and yield so much of opportunity. The industry I’m referring to is the business of celebrity. And the transformation goes far beyond proliferation of cable channels or the changing nature of box office economics. The entire world of celebrity is flattening and there’s a universe of opportunity to be captured.

Examples of the “flattening of celebrity” are all around us and I’ll provide some specifics in a moment. But I want to start with a definition. When I say the “flattening of celebrity,” I’m referring to the ability of anyone, anywhere, in any industry, and on any subject matter, to become a cultural celebrity. And the currency this affords can be translated to hard dollars.

What is Celebrity?

Celebrity used to be a very simple business: release an album, make a hit movie, star in a primetime sitcom — you know, the easy stuff. Now there are YouTube stars appearing on The Tonight Show and Viners capturing million dollar endorsement deals.

Let’s dig a little deeper… What about that makeup artist, who shares her daily Snapchat Stories with 10’s of thousands of followers, effectively creating a reality show out of her job? Is that person a makeup artist or a celebrity? What if a makeup company is sponsoring her on Snapchat to use only their products?

Take a comedian who was famous in the ’90s and now has millions of followers on Twitter. Is that person a celebrity? One could argue their earning power as a comedian is far greater now than at any other time in the past — if monetized right.

Celebrity in Politics

Have you been following the U.S. presidential race? Donald Trump would not be where he is now, if this were 2012. (For proof, look no further than his multiple attempts to run for president in the past.)

But Trump isn’t winning today because of glowing media reviews or a big ad budget. He’s winning, in a big way, because of his celebrity status on social media. It’s not his reality show celebrity status or his best-selling books, although those things have helped build his social audience. But there are people more successful than him in both those arenas. What has changed so dramatically in the last few years?

The ability for Trump, and many others, to circumvent the media and become bona fide celebrities AND distribution channels, has changed the celebrity dynamic. (Time Magazine wrote a great cover story on this specific case.)

What does this mean for Business?

For every business owner in the world, this presents a big opportunity. Are you an accountant? Why not build an audience of viewers on Snapchat, doling out a daily #snapchatsecret on the topic of accounting? Are you a lawyer building a new practice? Why aren’t you a celebrity attorney yet?!

And what does this mean for actual celebrities — or at least people who earn a living selling their appearance in some way?

Influicity recently partnered with a world-renowned modelling agency, representing thousands of fashion models. This agency recognizes that in addition to photo shoots and runway shows, their models have valuable Instagram channels. These models are now celebrities and their social channels must be monetized. So this agency is using our platform to make that happen.

I speak with sports agencies, talent agencies, literary agencies, and others, strategizing how all of their “talent” can transform into mainstream celebrities. (I write “talent” in parentheses because this term overlooks the fact that they are also distribution outlets.)

And of course, the marketers who use Influicity’s platform daily, recognize that the flattening of celebrity unlocks new avenues for them to reach customers. How long before the flattening of celebrity completely squashes the media as we know it?

Jonathan Davids is the Founder & CEO of Influicity, a platform used by advertisers to source, collaborate, and run campaigns with social influencers, ranging from YouTube stars, to Hollywood celebrities, and everything in between. Follow him on Instagram @jon_davids and Twitter @jonathandavids.