rheingoldShare® Study: Influencers: Demigods of our time?
Influencers are considered to be particularly close to their followers, equipping them with a high level of credibility, also when it comes to product recommendations. A rheingold study shows that the worship of influencers has pseudo-religious traits.
Alongside the "smaller" influencers, who usually communicate at eye level and provide their followers with orientation and everyday guidance through tutorials, influencers who are worshipped like demigods are spreading. Sometimes worshipped as saviors, they fuel their community's desires for greatness, power and recognition.
Often, followers are deeply convinced that the influencer could only become great by their followers’ grace and encouragement.Followers see themselves as part of a movement that accompanies the influencer in real time and decides on their success or failure by liking or commenting on a post. Followers spend hours onlineto make sure they don't miss a single post or expression of their idol's life. In this process, the boundaries between their own lives and the lives of others often become blurred. This creates a kind of secondary cannibalism. Everything from the idol's life is consumed: the food they eat, they clothes they wear, and the cosmetics they order.
Brands can gain meaning and added value by being embedded in the influencer-follower relationship. The influencer movesthe brand more into the everyday context. It does not stand on a pedestal as in traditional advertising, but supports the life of the influencer. This gives it practical relevance and a tested everyday quality. Ideally, influencer marketing clarifies how the brand can fit into one's own life. Accordingly, it assumesa direct meaning in life. However, that requires that the influencer's core beliefs and messages also match the brand. Without a functioning match-making between influencer and brand, credibility and followership suffer on both sides.
