Who do consumers listen to?
Over the years, celebrities have become increasingly prominent as spokespeople for a variety of brands. They embody the brand and act as the trusting face of the company. Every celebrity worth their salt (even those who aren’t) are being paid large sums to star in ad campaigns or to simply use or be seen with a company’s products – Kim Kardashian has reportedly been pocketing $10,000 per twitter post about a brand or product and has her name (and face) on everything from diet drinks to the fast-food chain Carls Jr.
However, with trust in advertising paling in comparison to peer reviews and advice from friends – according to Box Hill Tafe 78% of consumers trust peer recommendation, and only 14% trust advertising (Lead Creation, July 3 2011) - are companies wasting their money on celebrity spokespeople?
There is a saturation in the eMarketing world of fashion bloggers and fashion commentators, however my recent experiences from Rosemount Australian Fashion Week illustrated that in the fashion world of 2011, fashion bloggers are the new magazine editors. Tommy Tom, from fashion blog Jak and Jil, as well as other blog royalty, sat front row, next to the editors of fashion bibles such as Grazia and Vogue Australia. The place for guests to be was not sitting front row at the show, but rather arriving to the before-party or leaving after the show, as more photographers were outside the venue than facing the runway. These photographers were not interested in what the designers had created, but what the attendees were wearing as it was this clothing that the market wanted; accessible, real-life fashion, not high-fashion editorials which if copied would have you looking more call-girl that “it girl” or more chicken-like than chic. And fashion industry members are happy to oblige to have their photo taken as it may lead to the prestige of being publicly credited for their look on a fashion blog or in a street-style magazine spread.
Stemming from the success of fashion blogs, such as The Satorialist, which focus on Street Style and the fashion sense of people attending fashion shows rather than the shows themselves, advertisers are using “normal people” to sell their clothes. Last year, some friends of mine (who while being slim and attractive, were by no means models) were hired by Melbourne Central to model some of the centre’s stores clothing to be featured in the quarterly Melbourne Central magazine. However, instead of being used in a traditional modeling shoot, they were dressed in street wear and photographed in locations all over Melbourne CBD and the images were featured in the Melbourne Central magazine in a “Street Style” section which provided prices and brand names of the clothing worn and describing the models by first name, age and profession. While this form of advertising was by no means deceitful, as most consumers could put two and two together and realise that the advertisement was clearly orchestrated by Melbourne Central and featured Melbourne Central store products, it could be seen as misleading to consumers as it implied that the models were-self styled or had purchased the products. Either way, the spread was seen as successful as the advertisement’s message of “what to where, where to get it and how to wear it” appeared to be from consumer to consumer rather that the brand to consumer, which is often perceived untrustworthy.
A few years ago (around 2007), a new advertising medium was created by teenage girls in the US - these girls had no idea how commercially effective and financially prosperous their creation would become. The concept is called “Haul Videos” and involves a video recording, posted to the Internet, usually on YouTube, which displays items recently purchased, including product details and even the price. They mostly feature young girls discussing clothing, accessories or cosmetics and the majority are unsponsored, however most video bloggers regularly post haul videos to obtain the respect and prestige of being an “expert”. As it is unlikely that someone will feel dislike towards a purchase they themselves have made, they are usually very positive in nature – and hence a marketers dream! Over 250,000 haul videos have been shared online – the most famous haul video bloggers being sisters Elle and Blair Fowler. The sisters started their video blogging on YouTube Channels Juicystar07 and AllThatGlitters21 and now have their own sponsored website – elleandblair.com. Collectively the two girls videos have had over 300 million views and they have made hundreds of thousands of dollars through sponsorship deals (possibly even more); not bad for two girls aged 23 and 18! A successful Australian adaptation of Haul blogging has been the site Melelle.com. The site is run by two women in their early twenties who regularly post photographs (usually taken on a camera phone, often of their own reflection in a mirror) and describe where they bought their outfit from and why they have styled it as they did or the occasion it was for. While they have not gained mass-following or large sponsorship deals as of yet, their simple yet effective method has already obtained the attention of a number of marketers and Australian based labels.
It is important to note that while it is legal for bloggers to accept free merchandise or payments in return for advertising a brand or product, they must fully and clearly disclose that they were paid by a sponsor – nevertheless, in this recently emerging and rapidly changing area of eMarketing, it is difficult to monitor undisclosed sponsors.
It appears that marketers have managed to infiltrate even our most trusted online sources. When we read blogs, online posts and Yahoo answers we should we be wary that we may be reading a post from a clever marketer? Or have marketers finally realized how consumers want to receive information and this new frontier of peer advertising is what we have always wanted?
And with these new developments, are models and celebrities losing their ability to sell products? Or are $10,000 tweets only the beginning?
Check out:
Famous Haul Video Bloggers Elle and Blair’s sites (personally they give me a head ache but the teen masses seem to love them!)
Blogs referred to:
Articles used:
Villiger, M. (2011, June). Shoot Me: The post-satorialist world, Russh Magazine, 130-133.
Calladine, D. (2010, December). 11 media trends for 2011. WARC.
