I agree to an extent. I’m jealous but that’s also their job and I couldn’t personally put myself out there like that. I work in marketing and I do a lot of social for numerous of our clients so I understand the time and efforts going into it. We quote a photographer to shoot just 10 photos for a client brand campaign and they’re charging over a grand for just that. It’s the time, editing, equipment.
I do understand the work they’re putting into it. Think about some of them already having a full/part-time job and then trying to care and ride their 1, 2 or numerous horses while also sharing their journey vlogging/instagramming. It is absolutely hard work. Continuously online. And to make it worth it they have to be earning something out of it. Of course there’s work on a complimentary, gifted, non-media fee basis but you think of Megan Elphick, of course she would have to make money out of it to go full-time with the amount of work she also has to put into her ponies which she probably wouldn’t get a chance to have as much as if she had an office full time job. This is so convenient for her and kudos to her for building her audience so loyal. But that’s what they chose and if you look at it from a brand perspective you’ve got to think about how valuable influencers are. We work with influencers in work but we’ve an entirely different strategy. There’s a line drawn between being excessively oversaturated which is what Y Food are doing which in turn makes followers/audiences turn sour towards the brand and not wanting to engage or buy from them and there’s matching an influencer to the real audience they’re trying to target and they subtly support them with products for perhaps gifted product launches, paid campaigns, competition support and sponsorship etc. Excessive payment for excessive push on social is ridiculous and Y Food are doing it all wrong. Good for awareness as you’re all talking about it. But yeah, I’m turned off even clicking into their profile. They’ve got to look at their ROI. I wonder is it worth it for them.
So you’d have to look at all the influencers you follow and think actually yeah, they’re full time, 2 horses to care for, vlogs add on extra time to film while competing/fun rides etc and then they’ve to go home, edit for a few hours and hope it uploads. It takes a lot for them to be organised and to be fair, VE squad and any other vloggers on YT are grafters. That’s how you make it in the influencer world and deserve the money being paid. Then there’s Olivia towers who cries and takes a break cos she doesn’t know what she’s doing with her life but she’s just lazy. She’s not a grafter. You see Verena then who is genuinely interesting to follow as she seems like she loves just sharing but isn’t crying for brand deals, it’s just pure love of the community. You can look at each influencer SO different and once you actually think about the work and time a lot of them do on top of their full-time jobs, you’ll reevaluate that they are deserved of these paid partnerships. Open to opinions on this because it’s a good debate IMO