The curious case of grandfluencers.
Close your eyes and think of an influencer. What do you see? Do you see someone young, beautiful, wealthy and fashionable? Us too.
But, why? Since the dawn of social media, we have glorified and rewarded the same kinds of profiles. In this global high school, the cool kids built platforms to lecture us on how to dress, diet, work and live our lives. Those who followed copied, and those who didn't, stood voiceless.
But virtue marketing is reaching saturation point. The landscape is shifting. Users today are after intimacy. They want to see the day-to-day. Peek behind the scenes. The demand for genuine moments is swapping out filters, masks, and glossy covers.
A new wave of influencers
This translates to the search for profiles people identify with. A great example of this is the curious case of grandfluencers. The term grandfluencer refers to older people with large social media followings. A rising tide of grandfluencers is building 100K+ audiences on TikTok and Instagram.
Grandfluencers conquer younger audiences with a fierce ability to adapt to emerging technologies, trends and obsessions. Their bravery, and the joy that they get from breaking stereotypes, makes grandfluencers irresistible to a wide audience.
The attention economy is more democratic than ever before.
Our grandMuses:
1. At 92 years old, @baddiewinkle has 3.2M followers and makes around £7000 per sponsored post. She is an avid enthusiast in breaking style stereotypes and brands love her for it.
2. @bonpon511 is a Japanese couple at nuclear levels of adorable. Bon and Pon have 838K followers, all enchanted with their lasting love and matching fits. They make around £2500 per post and have their own clothing line on ROOM.
3. @greceghanem is a Canadian 57-year young Insta model. She's popped off on insta for her cotoure taste and her passion for microbiology. She’s done collabs with Mango, LUISAVIAROMA and Skims.
So if you're about to embark on a personal or corporate brand journey. Remember. The attention economy is more democratic than ever before. You don't need to be a Kardashian clone or a B-grade celebrity. You don't need to be Balenciaga or Gucci.
Your best bet is to be yourself, whoever that is.
