Influencers’ personal brands outweigh the corporate brands they sell

Evidence

For Influencers, advertised products are malleable and packaged to personify their internet celebrity persona. An Influencer who promotes Product X in one instance may subsequently promote competitor Product Y a few months later, as long as they are able to keep their brand narrative coherent. In other words, the personal brand of the Influencer takes precedence over the corporate brands of the products and services they sell, and this is crucial. Unlike traditional celebrities with their occasional million-dollar endorsements, Influencers depend on a constant stream of smaller sponsored posts, appearances, and endorsements for income. And unlike traditional celebrities who have the capital to commit to just one brand in their lifetime, Influencers must be savvy and malleable enough to take on several brands consecutively, after they have waited out their “embargo” time periods; following a sponsored advertorial, most brands will contractually not allow Influencers to advertise for competitors for a 6- to 12-month window. As a result, Influencers are shifting from the traditional but transient attention economy to the contemporary but more longstanding affection economy. — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity, 276

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Sarah Thornton’s subcultural capital and to academic debates distinguishing celebrity from person-branding labor. — connects to: Influencer as vocation differs from influencer as marketing mediator — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame…, 216; The influencer’s identity itself is the commodity presented for consumption; Social media reframed self-identity as a personal brand selling attention — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1031
• SEED: The 6-to-12-month embargo window is a concrete, researchable detail for an article on the influencer endorsement economy.

Broader Connections

• The influencer’s identity itself is the commodity presented for consumption #expands (0.85)
• Social media reframed self-identity as a personal brand selling attention #corroborates (0.80) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1031