How Influencers Turned Word-of-Mouth Marketing into a $1 Billion Digital Goldmine.

Remember when Louis Vuitton enlisted Jennifer Lopez to help sell its leather goods in 2003? Or before that, when Calvin Klein’s underwear ads featured Mark Wahlberg in the 1990’s? Celebrity endorsements have long been an advertising staple in the fashion industry, and while that has not changed, what qualifies as a "celebrity" and the way in which marketers are utilizing their selling power has progressed quite meaningfully.   

Both traditional celebrities – such as singers, actors, and television stars –  and Instagram and other social media stars are being paid by brands to market their products and services. The latter group of individuals have found favor amongst brands for their ability to create a more “peer-to-peer experience” in the eyes of consumers, per Katharina Pesch, chief operating officer of digital market research firm Econsultancy.

They have also proven particularly powerful due to their capability to not only sway – but in some cases, essentially create new demand for – what millennials (those born between the early 1980s and 2000) and Gen Z-ers (those born sometime between 1990 and 2001) want to buy.

By TFL.

Full story at The Fashion Law.