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Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

theatlantic.com

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Re: Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

#71

Post by MattConfluence »

sorokod wrote: post #52

In "the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy" there is a story about a society that shipped out all its useless members (hairdressers and telephone sanitizers) off planet. If Douglas Adams was writing the book now he may have replaced sanitizers with influencers.

> The story was that they would build three Ark ships. Into the A ship would go all the leaders, scientists and other high achievers. The C ship would contain all the people who made things and did things, and the B ark would hold everyone else, such as hairdressers and telephone sanitisers. They sent the B ship off first, but of course the other two-thirds of the population stayed on the planet and lived full, rich and happy lives until they were all wiped out by a virulent disease contracted from a dirty telephone.

Re: Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

#72

Post by drb91 »

United857 wrote: post #67

Every reputable travel publication/blog I know of have strict editorial policies against accepting freebies/discounts/gifts in exchange for reviews/coverage. Those so-called "influencers" aren't really about serving their audience -- they strike me as just a scammy way to travel "for free".

Influencers don’t serve reviews, they serve ads. There’s no editorial conflict here at all: of course they’re biased.

Re: Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

#73

Post by fredley »

21 wrote: post #34

I've seen something which I think is even more interesting. Second tier influencers (100k followers) paying expensive hotels and private plane trips of first tier influences (1 mil followers), so that they can appear on their feeds, and gain new followers.

This is straight up Black Mirror (season 3, episode 1: Nosedive) Obviously the whole point of that episode was to imagine Instagram in its darkest future, but it's scary how much of it is becoming real, and separately with the roll-out of social credit scores in China. Scary stuff.

---

Hansen: So in terms of quality, you could use a punch up right there. Ideally, that's up votes from quality people.

Lacie: Quality people?

Hansen: High fours. Impress those up-scale folks, you'll gain velocity on your arc and there's your boost.

Re: Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

#74

Post by Animats »

sorokod wrote: post #52

In "the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy" there is a story about a society that shipped out all its useless members (hairdressers and telephone sanitizers) off planet. If Douglas Adams was writing the book now he may have replaced sanitizers with influencers.

In "the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy" there is a story about a society that shipped out all its useless members (hairdressers and telephone sanitizers) off planet.

Stanford is doing that with their new Redwood City "campus", an office park five miles from the main campus. No professors. No students. No researchers. No labs. All administrators. "Stanford units that will have at least some employees at Stanford Redwood City include Business Affairs; Land, Buildings and Real Estate; School of Medicine administration; Office of Development; University Human Resources; University Libraries; Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning; and Residential & Dining Enterprises."

"The first phase of construction at Stanford Redwood City will include four office buildings, indoor and outdoor dining areas and plazas, a child care center, a glass-atrium fitness center, a parking garage, a landscaped greenway, a 2.4-acre park and a sustainable central energy facility."

It's Stanford's version of a luxury center for influencers.

(As a Stanford alum, I consider this embarrassing.)

[1] https://redwoodcity.stanford.edu/

Re: Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

#75

Post by notimetorelax »

xapata wrote: post #39
Rjevski wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My thoughts exactly. It seems to me that the target market of these “influencers” is teens with little to no money that spend hours looking at these “influencers” exactly because these pictures are as close as they’re gonna get to that luxury lifestyle. People who can actually afford this will just go on holidays by themselves with no thoughts about the “influencers” whatsoever, also because by the time you can affor…

Apparently the advertisers buying space in FT's "How to spend it" issues think at least someone cares.

I think of this publication as a guide to expensive presents for your wife or a girlfriend.

Re: Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

#76

Post by jrnichols »

United857 wrote: post #67

Every reputable travel publication/blog I know of have strict editorial policies against accepting freebies/discounts/gifts in exchange for reviews/coverage. Those so-called "influencers" aren't really about serving their audience -- they strike me as just a scammy way to travel "for free".

The "influencers" reek of "I'm young, female, and attractive, and therefore i am worthy of attention and lavish gifts."

Thing is, it works.

Re: Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

#78

Post by themodelplumber »

forapurpose wrote: post #70
United857 wrote: post #67

Every reputable travel publication/blog I know of have strict editorial policies against accepting freebies/discounts/gifts in exchange for reviews/coverage. Those so-called "influencers" aren't really about serving their audience -- they strike me as just a scammy way to travel "for free".

From another angle, I wonder why their readers trust the influencers when they are well-known to be bought and paid for.

Some influencers take this issue head-on because they know their followers will actually be buying and evaluating the stuff they are reviewing. So they want to build trust because they know it'll be obvious if they are shilling. Newspaper columnists faced this question long before the internet, and some did handle it really well.

Re: Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

#79

Post by cityhomesteader »

United857 wrote: post #67

Every reputable travel publication/blog I know of have strict editorial policies against accepting freebies/discounts/gifts in exchange for reviews/coverage. Those so-called "influencers" aren't really about serving their audience -- they strike me as just a scammy way to travel "for free".

> Every reputable travel publication/blog I know of have strict editorial policies against accepting freebies/discounts/gifts in exchange for reviews/coverage.

Sure, for the writers in order to maintain an illusion of objectivity. But none of them have policies on the publication/company taking ad money in exchange for positive reviews.

> Those so-called "influencers" aren't really about serving their audience -- they strike me as just a scammy way to travel "for free".

Nobody "serves" the audience. You develop an audience so that the audience can serve you. Also, it isn't "scammy". It's business and it's been going on long before social media.

Do you think tv execs put Bud Light commercials during football games because they love horribly watered down beer? Do you think X athlete chooses Nike over Adidas or vice versa because one treats their chinese slave laborers better? Do you really think matthew mcconaughey thinks lincolns are the best cars? Do you think steven spielberg or other directors use product placement in their films because they believe in all those products? Do you think newspapers run rolex ads in their papers because they really believe it's worthless to spend money on rolex?

No. The answer is the all these influencers push products that pay them the most. You and I would do the same if we had a following.

Re: Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

#80

Post by matwood »

futurix wrote: post #17

I just want to know who the heck takes recommendations of 'influencers' seriously? Gullible teens with no money?

It's probably not that direct. Having an 'influencer' post about your product is simply another possible ad view. I don't know what a targeted ad cost on IG, but giving someone a free night in a hotel room to have them post about it to their followers may be more effective and cost less.
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