THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CELEBRITIES AND INFLUENCERS

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CELEBRITIES AND INFLUENCERS

According to the Oxford, languages dictionary, there are two definitions for the word “influencer (noun) 1. a person or thing that influences another. 2. a person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media.” (Oxford, n.d) Surely this recognition must mean that our society is moving toward accepting this as a stable career path. Due to the fact that this is a recent addition to the dictionary, we can assume that attitudes may not be completely won over yet. This is interesting when we consider the fact that celebrity culture has been around for centuries. Especially when we consider the number of celebrities that have adopted a social media influencer role or presence as a part of their career. TV personalities, Singers, Actors and other celebrity professionals usually come with some level of paid promotion, through brand deals, sponsorships or paid advertisements. For example, Beyonce’s $ 50 million deal with Pepsi.

Fig 1. (Pepsi, 2012) As shown in figure 1, the limited editions Pepsi cans emblazoned with her face is a promotional technique achieved by Pepsi to trigger a reaction from Beyonce’s fan base, to buy into the company, expanding their own consumer base. This technique is known as an influencer collaboration as Beyonce has sold her face and likeness to Pepsi for the purpose of this campaign, thus influencing her fans to buy into the Pepsi brand. This cross-over can again be seen more clearly in Figure 2. Often celebrities look to social media in order to connect with their fanbase and utilise different social media platforms as a tool for the promotion of their own brands and business ventures. This is more common in celebrities who have Gen Z and Millennial followings as it is these generations that are more present on social media.

Fig 2. (Jenner, 2022) This is an example of how TV personality, Kylie Jenner, not only uses her social media platform to influence her audience of 357 million followers; she also uses it to promote the launch of new collaborations and products from her cosmetics company. This is a great example of how an influencer can use their own platform to promote themselves, this makes sense as a business owner and as an influencer as there is no cost incurred either way. For example, the brand deal with Beyonce discussed in figure 1 cost Pepsi $ 50 million, whereas Kylie’s promotion of her own cosmetics line earned and cost her nothing. This is an approach that business owners or celebrities may take when they have a clearly established consumer base and large following as it is essentially free ad space. It is clear to see by comparing these two images, just how much advertisement has evolved over the past ten years. The promotional content on Jenner’s social media was the only

method of advertisement used for the launch of this particular collaboration, whereas the Pepsi campaign was featured on billboards, TV adverts and in a far more analogue setting compared to the digitalization of Jenner’s campaign. We can see that today’s consumer is heavily influenced by social media, especially in the fashion and beauty industries. Social Media has replaced the more analogue methods of brand communication it seems.

Even in terms of semiotics, we can see the difference between the campaigns. Jenner pushes a more sexualised beauty standard with a colour palette that is clearly targeted toward a younger consumer, whereas the Pepsi campaign is more classic, featuring Beyonce’s face very much ingrained with their brand colours and identity. This showcases the change in what is acceptable in society. It is also important to note the engagement factor of Jenner’s Instagram advert. In the comments section, like and share options showcase the performance of the post and indicate how well it has been received. This type of analytic insight can be useful to a brand as it can act as an explanation between a sales forecast and an actual sales sheet.

Whereas Pepsi relies solely on the hope that their campaign will be well received and have fewer data to back up why targets and forecasts were or weren’t met. This can make it harder for a brand or company to plan for future campaigns. In a questionnaire, 3/3 people answered “yes” to the question ‘Would you class influencers as celebrities? And what is the difference between the two?’ one answer went on to suggest that “influencers are often more relatable than celebrities… and are only known by the people who choose to follow their journey and once they get to the point where people who don’t choose to follow them no them, they’d be classed as a celebrity. While I appreciate this answer, I would also like to point out that not every traditional celebrity is a household name and surely, we all only know the celebrities that we are interested in or the people around us show interest in. some influencers have millions of followers and such loyal fanbases that one could argue they have more of a right to the title of a celebrity than a traditional celebrity such as a singer or an actor/actress with less of a following.