Influencers As Ads

In 2003 PSFK spent a lot of time talking to luxury brand owners like Gucci and Richemont about how to take advantage of the trickle down effect created by targeting ‘Influencers’ and ‘Trend Makers’. The theory is pretty simple: get people who are admired to write about, talk, wear, eat your products and – if an authentic brand experience resonates with the target (amongst other things) – soon trend followers could be encouraged to buy your products (certain accessible ones anyway).

It’s a little like the Buzz Agents we noted in the NY Times, but it’s a little more complex than that.

So, it was not a great surprise when we noticed an article in the New York Post article about ‘Mainlining’: to take a brand out of the industry and put it on people on the street, so that it’s seen.

NY Post describes ‘Mainlining’ as:

"A new kind of advertising phenomenon – one that goes beyond more established methods like street-teaming (campaigns orchestrated to look as though they’re "up from the street," through graffiti or sidewalk chalk scrawls, for example) or stealth marketing (in which corporations hire young, attractive, charismatic people to go into bars and clubs and be "overheard" raving about a brand of alcohol or cigarettes)."

One particular mainlining tastemaker is Tommy Saleh who in addition to working as the creative director for the Soho and Tribeca Grand hotels ‘advertises’ for Prada, Chanel, APC, Paul Smith and Jeremy Scott – secretly. "Chanel did a pair of gold sneakers for me, and a skull-and-bones brooch," he told the NY Post. "APC gives me so much stuff – like small-collar white shirts. A small-collar white shirt means a lot to me."

Saleh also owns over 100 pair of shoes worth about $500 each, and a rack of suits by Prada and Paul Smith – a wardrobe worth well over $100,000, all given to him for free.

(PSFK: 100 shoes and a rack of suits in a New York apartment?? Are you sure? He’s probably gone and eBayed the older stuff, no?)

‘Mainlining’ is not the most original concept. Handing out products to influencers is de riguer these days: This year, Motorola are giving limited edition black phones to Oscar attendees. The interesting thing abotu Mainlining is the use of non-celebrity and non-traditional influencers.

"If the right person is wearing the right thing, people want it," says Kelly Cutrone, founder of the fashion branding firm People’s Revolution. Cutrone gives thousands of dollars worth of free clothes to Saleh and other New Yorkers who aren’t rich or famous, but who run in desirable circles and wield a lot of social influence.

As the NY Post puts it:

"It’s secret advertising, in which your best friend, or their super-cool acquaintance – or your waiter – may be selling you something without you ever suspecting."

And where does this all lead? There’s a fine line between folk recommending what they actually read, wear & listen to and what they want you to think they read, wear & listen to. If we witness much of the latter or it gets too hard to draw that line, surely it won’t be long until we all become cynical and suspicious of each other.

New York Post Article