Did Covid kill the influencer star?

Since the global realisation about how serious the Covid-19 pandemic is, there has been somewhat of an assumption that careers in the digital space have gone relatively undisturbed. 

There is a further assumption that careers in this space even thrived due to everyone’s involuntary confinement and increased reliance on computer-mediated communication. 

However, this has not been the case for influencers who primarily rely on things like local and international travel, the unabated sale of alcohol and the perpetual existence of events for both a steady stream of content and income. 

Additionally, the drop in cash spent on advertising, which has caused many a publication to close down or cut costs in recent months, has left many wondering what this means for influencers. 

Given the current size of the influencer industry and its year on year growth, MD and founder of influencer agency Baby Mogul Binwe Adebayo doesn’t see the industry taking too much of a knock, not even in South Africa. 

“No doubt the evolution of the industry will be slow, clunky and riddled with errors but considering we’re talking about an influencer industry worth billions of dollars (and rising each year) it’d be a big mistake to dismiss it.”

This is contrary to the findings of a 2020 study on the South African Social Media Landscape published by Ornico which states that there was an overall trend signifying a tightening of budgets in social media ad spend as the proportion of brands spending less than R10,000 a month on social media increased sharply from 55% to 65% between 2019 and 2020. 

Additionally, Ornico’s study found that 18% of the companies they surveyed were not allocating budget to social media as compared to only 1% last year.

However, given the lockdown and the increased digital traffic, this may have changed significantly. 

“There is no doubt that global changes are affecting the role and place of the influencer. That said, the migration from ‘real life’ to a more digitally connected world, means that (with the right kind of approach and creativity) that influencers can really shine,” added Adebayo. 

Despite this digital migration, she is of the belief that we (as a collective) may have “overshot the mark by trying to do way too many Instagram Lives, virtual concerts and this obsession with trying to digitise everything – that kind of model will not work”.

What Adebayo recommends is a step back by influencers and creators, adding that they should step back into their creativity and their innovation and think about the meaningful, genuinely influential contributions to their audience; as opposed to just trying to stay hypervisible. 

“I think exploring new spaces like TikTok and Twitch are also good ways to break away from the Instagram-Twitter mould that most of our influencers seem to get stuck in.”

She concludes by advising influencers to really think about how they can leverage the roles played by in-store ads, window displays and other forms of advertising that may now be obsolete due to stay-at-home orders and calls for social distancing. 

Influencer Tshepi Vundla has had to consider this exact thing. 

With over 105,000 followers on Twitter and over 230,000 followers on Instagram, Vundla admits that things did seem a little shaky on the campaign front at the beginning of lockdown. 

“I know a few brands had cancelled campaigns at the start of lockdown for some odd reason. But, I have been lucky enough to score campaigns to create content in and around lockdown; like ways to entertain Siba whilst he isn’t at school,” explained Vundla in reference to her almost-three-year-old son who forms part of some of the content she creates. 

In recent years, Vundla has had to pivot from a party-girl image to that of a young, cool mom trying to figure out what it takes to raise her first child. 

While she has had to pivot everything that encompasses the Tshepi Vundla brand, she did not completely let go of who she was when her followers first got to know her – instead, she grew and organically added on to what defines her as a brand and personality. 

With that said, a lack of all her favourite things due to lockdown has proven tricky for Vundla. 

“I miss events to be able to network and build relationships with brands and people I meet at events. I also miss making money from attending events,” explains Vundla, who often derived a small portion of her income from making an appearance at events and posting about it on her social media platforms.  

“Times are very tricky due to the pandemic, everyone is ‘stuck’ at home, everyone has to be creative with the space they are in,” she notes, before adding that this turn of events may put pressure on some people because of aesthetics. 

“Pretty spaces make and sometimes can complete an image or lifestyle one is selling. Influencers have had to think outside of the box to work with what’s been given to us,” she adds. 

So, while the impending economic downturn and new way of life may prove worrisome for a certain section of the population – for the influencers that play their cards right, it could just be an avenue for brand growth and ultimately, more money.  

Kaunda Selisho.

Kaunda is analogue girl navigating a digital world using the perspective provided by news. She has always had a desire to amass a wealth of knowledge on a range of varied topics and this is reflected in the content she produces. As a digitally adept social media user, you can always trust Kaunda to bring you up to speed on what’s going on in the world at any given moment.

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