Pamela Reif is a fitness influencer. She released her first book a while ago.IMAGO / Eventpress
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Anyone who spoke of influencers as an adult a few years ago either did it ironically or worked in marketing themselves. Many saw influencers as human advertising space that generated reach by displaying their lives and silvering these private insights with brand collaborations.
Fabian J. Fischer, CEO of Etribes, says: Influencers can pose a threat to established companies.
This image belongs in the past. Because influencers today are mostly entrepreneurs and as such they no longer just sell their postings as advertising space, but also products that they have developed around themselves as a brand. With personally branded baking accessories, protein bars or clothing, they compete with established companies. And: So far, they have only rarely seen this looming threat – there is a danger that the creator economy will overwhelm them.
From postings to books: the evolution of the creator economy
To understand the creator economy, we need to look at its roots. The first phase begins with the triumphant advance of Instagram, Youtube and Co .. Influencers were active as intermediaries on the way to the consumer, they were seen as an opportunity to land with products in social media feeds without being perceived as classic advertising become. The image of human advertising space described at the beginning, which is no longer consistent with most influencers, also comes from these days.
The second phase began when the first influencers became increasingly aware of their own role and awareness. They no longer used their reach passively for others, but for themselves. In short, they became a brand themselves. For example, by publishing books about themselves, their thoughts and topics. They extracted the essence of their internet personality into a haptic, analog product – something like “#Familygoals“By Sarah and Dominic Harrison or the autobiographies of MontanaBlack.
Books are still a key tool that influencers use to create a brand around themselves. This is how they gain credibility and acceptance in the broader media landscape and in society.
How influencers can make money with reach
In the meantime, however, we are experiencing a third phase in which influencers have also become entrepreneurs: Saliha Özcan, better known as Sally, no longer only bakes on hers Youtube-Kanal and passes on her recipes in book form. She also sells “Sally’s release agent spray” or “Sally’s cake ring”, and hers even has “Sally’s vanilla extract” Online Shop. So Sally has gone from being a content creator with cakes and recipes to an entrepreneur. She opens up a new world of products for her followers around her brand and her topics.
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This is the principle of the creator economy: influencers monetize their reach independently. They use access to their followers and transform it into customer access, for example with an online shop as in the case of Sally or Pamela Reif; Direct contact with people on social media can also be monetized with subscription models for newsletters or video content.
The fact that this is possible is due to the easy access to digital tools: Today nobody needs to be able to program to start a website or an online shop, construction kit tools such as Jimdo or Shopify enable these low-code or even a no Code approach. The same applies to subscription tools like Steadythat are used by journalists and podcasters to finance their work.
Sally, Pamela Reif and Co. will not be the last to enter into a business relationship with their followers. A look at the USA shows that. A Youtuber there now has his own burger kette founded in life. It is not just consumer goods such as cosmetic products, baking accessories or groceries with which creators compete with established companies. It is now about the complete range of goods.
Companies have to react to the influencers
Established companies do not have to be at the mercy of this trend. Above all, they have to learn to adapt to the zeitgeist and generate new approaches to their customers. The hype that Ritter Sport launched five years ago Unicorn chocolate is a good example of perfect timing: a feeling, a topic, a fascination to pick up on, to go out with it – that made the hype. And that is what is needed from existing companies today more than ever.
To do this, however, they need to have a (digital) feeling for the customers and know their needs and interests. A Digital Unit can be helpful in the first step, but in the long term an understanding must grow everywhere in the company that the greatest competition in case of doubt is not the product next door on the supermarket shelf, but the wide-reaching influencer who addresses and sells customers directly without intermediaries. Because the creator economy is here to stay – and the influencers are just really warming up.
Fabian J. Fischer is a Hamburg entrepreneur, digital thought leader and investor. As CEO of etribus he is responsible for the strategic development of the company, which advises medium-sized companies and DAX companies on the challenges of digitization. Fischer is also a co-founder of Picea Capital, an evergreen venture capital fund with a focus on early-stage technology companies.
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