The Influence Download: November Edition

Alternative Anti-Selfie Platforms

Alternative’ social media platforms like Poparazzi, Made With Friends, Gas and Yubo are targeting the younger crowd – primarily high schoolers – by challenging the notion that big tech is no longer the best place to connect with your real-life friends. Social livestreaming app Yubo, for example, is being coined the next big thing since raising £57M in venture capital to date.

Unlike every other social app on the market, these apps are not for performative social media since you cannot post anything about yourself.

Source: Tech Crunch, Business Insider

These platforms are different in the sense that the purpose is not to centre content around yourself and instead aims to put more attention on the people you’re physically with, and the people that are in your life.

Poparazzi allows users to create social profiles for photo-sharing purposes, but only your friends are allowed to post photos to them; essentially like Instagram but it doesn’t let people post photos of themselves. Most of its users are U.S. based with 75% of its users between the ages of 14 and 18 and 95% of users are between 14 and 21.

Made With Friends, made by the brains of Poparazzi, expands on the Poporazzi concept by sending users prompts to post to friends’ profiles. This new platform provides opportunities to post content different to the norm, including text-based content like answers to questions or prompts, as well as photos and videos.

Yubo might be then next big thing since raising £57M – this social livestreaming app is helping Gen Z find new friends through live streaming and authentic interactions based on their own interests. The difference with this social app is you can’t follow other users and you can’t like content. With the number of hours spent in live rooms increasing 400% YOY, it is no surprise that Yubo has seen an increase in users from 25 million in December 2021 to now over 40 million today.

It's All About Music

TikTok StemDrop is enabling people to use stems from artists’ tracks to create their own unique tracks and kickstart their careers

TikTok Photo Mode is a new a carousel-style format in a single post with added features like music to enhance its engagement

Pinterest makes Idea Pins more engaging through new partnerships with major labels and expansion of its royalty free music library

Source: Social Media Today, TechCrunch, TikTok

Just a few weeks ago TikTok released a new campaign and method for users to showcase their talent to the world and to collaborate with some of the world’s best songwriters.

As part of the campaign, they’ve released a brand-new song by 5x Grammy winner, Max Martin. With this new software, TikTokers can use the stems – which are basically elements of a song (drum, vocals etc.) – as a starting point to create their own unique tracks and kickstart their careers.

TikTok have started to invest in the music space with the introduction of the carousel-style photo mode, which is set to music and act as slideshows, slightly mimicking the iPhone memories. They’ve gone as far as activating this feature for brands who would like to feature multiple products, eventually taking them to the landing page.

Pinterest have also adopted a new music option for ‘Idea Pins’, which now include tracks from popular artists – partnering with labels such as Warner Music Group, Warner Chappell Music, BMG and Merlin, the global rights agency for the independent label sector.

This trend towards music seems to only be getting more and more popular with there being a clear central point for the use of music across social media.

Virgin Atlantic x Michelle Visage

Virgin Atlantic tapped Drag Race star Michelle Visage to announce the brand’s updated gender identity policy.

The campaign has been trending on TikTok in the UK and the USA for the past several weeks since launch, racking up tens of millions of views and plenty of support in the comments.

Source: Attitude, TikTok

Virgin Atlantic’s campaign with Drag Race Star Michelle Visage has been trending on TikTok over the past few weeks, racking up many millions of views and positive sentiment on the platform. The brand tapped Michelle to help announce their changes to their Gender & Identity policy, allowing staffers to wear whichever style of the Vivienne Westwood designed uniform they prefer, regardless of their gender, gender identity, or gender expression. And staff will be able to wear the newly introduced optional pronoun badges.

Their internal research showed that allowing staff to embrace their individuality at work increases mental wellbeing by 49%, feelings of happiness by 65%, and creates a better experience for staff and customers by 24%.

This campaign consists of punchy, dance-filled choreography videos which fits well with the brand’s glamorous reputation and target consumer. Sentiment in comments shows positive reception and shows an understanding of who and what performs well on the platform.

The Metaverse in Action

Annual metaverse events are continuing to grow in popularity; 23% of young people have participated in a virtual brand event, and 46% are interested in doing so.  

Gen Z virtual world gamers say their life in the virtual world has influenced the brands they like in real life even though they may not be purchasing from them yet. Creating a relationship with these young consumers in this way is promising to lead them to purchase in the future. 

Source: DesignRush, Canvas8

Sephora has been hosting an in-person extravaganza for years but last year pivoted their strategy to hosting this in the virtual realm. This year had even more games than before, per player demand, which is obviously important given 25% of virtual world gamers have participated in a game a brand sponsored, and 43% more are interested in doing so.

Young consumers are interested in brand loyalty programs that offer them special deals and free items, which they can now earn with their video game rewards. The event itself gave those that participated the chance to win NFTs and earn tokens that can then be exchanged for real world Beauty Insider points.

Another brand taking to the metaverse is Invisalign who created an interactive hub in Roblox’s roleplaying world Livetopia where they had a virtual dentist office that featured an exam room and two mini games, Movie Night and The Big Game. The purpose is to help Invisalign build brand awareness among a younger demographic, the same demo that spends a lot of its time playing games.

“Movie Night” and “The Big Game” were designed to instill confidence and help adults and children alike overcome fear and anxiety, inspiring them to take a more proactive role in maintaining their dental health. Invisalign says the games encourage players to flex “Invasalign confidence,” the kind that comes with straight teeth, and without traditional braces.

The Demise of Chronically Online Communication

Twitter’s “Garden Coffee Lady” draws attention to a very online phenomenon: users feel the need to pre-emptively defend everything they say so it is known they bare no malice

Many chronically online people tend to over-explain themselves and preface any statement that could be negatively construed with an apology before they’ve even offended anyone.

Source: Centennial Beauty, Buzzfeed

A recent viral moment on Twitter caught our attention and created a really interesting opportunity for us to read and consider more deeply about the demise in online communication that has long been brewing, particularly amongst the “chronically online.”

To set the scene, recently a woman named Daisy tweeted a seemingly innocent, happy tweet about how she and her husband wake up every morning and bring their coffee to their garden and chat for hours. She mentions how it never gets old, and they never run out of things to talk to and how much she loves him. The tweet prompted a deluge of responses with a huge number of strangers piling on to her for not recognising her privilege in having a garden, making assumptions that she must be rich due to being able to spend hours in a garden, trauma dumping their individual woes and chastising her for not taking the sorrows of the masses into account before tweeting.

People even went as far as to say that “a lot of people didn’t wake up this morning at all”, so she should be more mindful of what she posts. The replies to Daisey’s tweet descended into labeling her as “tone deaf,” “toxic” and “ableist” for neglecting to acknowledge the privilege of her morning coffee routine with her husband.

This viral moment garnered nearly 4000 replies, 336K likes, 34K retweets and is an ideal example of a phenomenon in online spaces where people who spend a lot of time online feel the need to over-explain themselves, and to preface their statements with disclaimers to ensure their meaning can’t be misconstrued, often apologizing BEFORE they’ve even offended anyone. It’s created this fascinating way of communicating that we all have now, where we’re having to constantly defend ourselves while we’re speaking in case someone chooses to take it in bad faith.”

Have you noticed yourself pre-apologizing in online communication spaces as to not be misconstrued?

Investment Endorsement Backlash

Kim Kardashian has been fined $1.2M by a US financial regulator for failing to disclose that she was paid ($250,000) for promoting a crypto project on her Instagram and not communicating the potential risks of crypto investment to her audience.

Celebrities or influencers when endorsed to promote investment opportunities, should be careful not to encourage young investors to put money into high-risk crypto as these investment products aren’t necessarily right for everyone.

Source: Yahoo! News, Rolling Stone Magazine

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission brought a case against Kim Kardashian after she promoted cryptocurrency, EthereumMax. She was sued in January, alongside Floyd Mayweather Jr, and charged with a fine last month.

Kim did add the FTC-required #ad, but because the promotion dealt with crypto currency, this was not a sufficient enough disclosure. Not only should she have disclosed HOW she was being compensated, she would also have to have followed strict SEC guidelines about risk awareness about investments, which she did not. This is why her promotion came under fire and something that brands need to be aware of as we move more and more into this space.