10 May How much influence do social media stars really have?
(standfirst) This is an investigation into the influence that social media stars, such as “vloggers” have over the public. It contains four interviews, two whom are digital influencers themselves and two professional opinions. The investigation also explores the possibility that digital influencers are taking over traditional TV broadcasting.
In the ever growing world of technology, more and more people are choosing to spend their time watching videos on the web than actual live TV. Vloggers (video bloggers) have taken over worldwide and are becoming a massive influence to people of all ages. Advertisers are keeping an eye on them too. From Lenor to L’Oréal, from Babybell to BOSE, why are these major brands so interested in these ordinary people? And are they taking over traditional TV viewing?
The public are often unknowingly affected by influencers as, to them, they’re simply watching an entertaining video. In terms of YouTube stars, you’ve got the big dogs, who have well over 10 million people subscribed to their channel. Such as gamer PewDiePie, the most subscribed channel on YouTube, boasting over 54 million subscribers. Then you have the smaller lesser known channels who, even though they have less views, still have a massive influence. 31-year-old Emma Hardy, who goes by “emyroseee” on Instagram, has over 10k followers on the app and a blog under the same name. She is a brand ambassador for online shop coconut-lane.com as well as confectionary company Candy Kittens. This means that the brands will send her free products, if she promotes them to her following. She said of promoting products and doing ads, “I’m quite lucky most brands who do approach me do their research into my style of Instagramming/blogging first. The only campaigns I tend to refuse are companies pushing supplements and brands I feel reach to a richer demographic.” So, how does she use her following to create a positive influence? “I actually run another page on Facebook and once every two years I run a huge fundraiser up at the woods to raise money for dogs in rescue!” However, not all bloggers can be as nice as they seem behind a screen, “I’ve been to events where some big-name bloggers are quite nasty people” Maybe they don’t have the right management. Stuart Jones is Director at Upload Agency, they look after YouTube giants The Sidemen. “It is vital that companies like Upload Agency exist, to help manage brand relationships. YouTuber’s and social influencers are almost always ‘accidentally famous’ and have not had the relevant business training or media skills, so companies like Upload Agency help them with these relationships.”
How exactly do YouTuber’s make money from ads? Well, the social media giants are making cash from the whole “business”. One of the most popular ways is through Google AdSense. YouTube users must first link Google AdSense to their channel. This will then cause an Ad to pop up at the start of their videos, it could be anything and they are normally 30 seconds +. If a viewer watches more than 30 seconds of the ad then YouTube will charge the advertiser around 14p for that view. According to AdSense, it is estimated that only around 15% of viewers watch 30 seconds or more as many skip the ad. The YouTuber themselves will make 68% of the overall ad revenue. For example, if a YouTuber has 1000 views on a video and 15% watch the ad, that would be 150 paid views. At 14p a view, that would equal to £21 charged to the advertiser, the YouTuber then gets 68% of this so that would average at around £14 per 1000 views. Using this calculation, let’s see how much money “Zoella”, who as 11.7 million subs, made on her latest video: “Questions I’ve never answered Pt. 2”. On the ad from this video alone, the 27-year old made £23,000.
Another popular way that YouTubers and Bloggers can make money is through affiliate links. When a YouTuber mentions a product in a video they link it in their description box. Some of these links are affiliate. When you click on the link you are led to a third-party website which then redirects you to the site you can purchase the product on. When viewers buy products through these links, the YouTuber/blogger makes a small commission. There are many huge companies who have affiliate programs, all offering different levels of commission. Amazon, Cultbeauty.com and Prettylittlething.com all seem to offer the highest commission of 10% per sale.
Digital influencers are known to use their social media empires to promote their other businesses. One Instagram star who is doing just that is Annette Labedzki, an artist from Canada. She’s managed to rack up an impressive 500k followers on Instagram by posting paint mixing videos. “The popularity of my videos has helped to bring traffic to my Ebay store for more sales of my paintings.” Even though she doesn’t get paid for her posts on Instagram, she has still collaborated with brands, “The brands that approached me are very large well-known companies, so I had no problem saying yes.” She didn’t elaborate. Being an artist is Annette’s full time job and now her Instagram is a part of that to advertise her brand. “It keeps me very busy all day long, but I love it!!”.
Within traditional media, there is a clear separation between content and advertising. However, influencers are endorsed by products so the separation is less apparent. In a recent survey, 10 people of different genders and ages were asked how inclined they felt to purchase a beauty product from Primark, 3/10 said they would. They were then showed a video of YouTuber “Roxxsaurus”, who has 1.8 million subscribers, testing Primark make up. This video wasn’t an ad but after being showed the video, the 3/10 doubled to 6/10 that would purchase a Primark beauty product, just because of how this 21-year-old girl rated the products.
7/10 would now
buy Lenor after the video
6/10 said the video
didn’t feel like an ad
4/10 felt Louise was lying
about how good Lenor is
2/10 said they’d click
off the video as it was an ad
The second video showed was “Little ways to bring in nature” by Louise Pentland who has 2.5 million subscribers, which was a paid for advertorial for Lenor. In the video, she talks about how nice the new Lenor fabric conditioner range is. It is the first product/point she mentions in the video however she then goes onto the mention other products which were not a paid for advertisement. After the 10-people watched the video they were asked a few questions about how they felt. 7/10 people said they would now go out and purchase the Lenor product because of the way Louise* described it. 6/10 people said they didn’t feel like they were watching an ad because it was incorporated into a video. 2/10 people said they would click off the video because they knew it was an ad. 4/10 people felt she was lying about how good the product was because she was getting paid to talk about it.
Young people are a lot more persuaded by vloggers, even when they don’t realize, as this where their watching habits lye. Digital viewing is slowly taking over traditional viewing amongst the young. David Baine is a Senior Digital Marketer who works for various digital garage including Google. He said on whether being an influencer is a stable career or not, “I view it as a marketing funnel towards a set of products and services. If you just rely on 3rd party advertising for revenue, that isn’t that stable.” He went on to say, “Big brands understand that people are much more likely to trust recommendations over adverts.” The survey showed that we feel more connected to YouTubers because even though they’re trying to sell something, it is like they’re selling it to us and only us. David said, “I think that on-demand and digital downloads are taking over. This could still be using a television set or a smartphone.” It was reported last year that a third of 16-24 year olds watch on demand instead of traditional TV. As well as this, viewing on paid sites such as Netflix tripled between 2014-2016 and 16-24 year olds started spending 20% of their time watching Netflix and 14% watching videos on YouTube. Stuart Jones, Director at Upload Agency, said of traditional broadcasting: “Within the next generation, I would expect all normal televisions to become ‘smart TV’s’ and as the years roll on less and less ‘live to air’ shows will be on our televisions and more and more channels will switch to the BBC 3 model of online and on-demand TV.” He continued to say, “Brands are moving away from paid television advertising as it is much less targeted and a standard VT advert is much less engaging than having an influencer promote your product on their channel. The younger generation now don’t tend to watch TV – so it’s only natural that the brands will have to go to where they are.” How does that make them powerful? “Many of our influencers have a much larger following than even some of the biggest celebrities and can put a message out to millions overnight.” On May 21st Upload is hosting a charity football match with just their digital influencers. No mainstream celebrities are involved. “We sold out 27,000 tickets within a couple of days of going on sale, and millions will watch the game from all over the world live. That gives you an idea of the power of social influencer.”
A third of 16-24 year olds watch on-demand instead of TV. 
Digital influencers have had a bigger impact on the world that most of us realize. They’ve changed the way we consume media and the amount we watch TV. They’ve changed our spending habits and improved our skills. They’ve created a new job market. 10 years ago, a digital talent manager didn’t exist, now they’re on demand. So, watch out world, these influencers are getting stronger every day.
