Brands are increasingly turning to smaller creators – like microinfluencers, or even nanoinfluencers – with more modest followings. — Photo by Mediamodifier on Unsplash
The Hollywood Reporter announced its list of the “top 50 most influential influencers” to relatively little fanfare earlier this week. The list included names such as Alix Earle, Kai Cenat and Nara Smith, as well as YouTube stalwarts like Rhett and Link and the TikTok darling Charlie D’Amelio.
Collectively, the people selected for the list have hundreds of millions of fans and command billions of views. (For scale, D’Amelio, who at one point ran the top account on TikTok, has 155.8 million followers.) Chances are good, if you consider yourself to be a person of the online persuasion, that you’ve seen a video from or at least have heard of one or two people on this list. Maybe quite a few of them.
On the social platform X, however, things took a turn on Thursday when the same magazine posted a photo of 22 influencers in formal attire with a provocative intro of “Hollywood, meet your new A-List” and a link to the main story on influential influencers. Notably missing from the photo, and an accompanying story on influencers local to Los Angeles, were many of the larger list’s most famous faces.
The reaction to the post, which has been viewed more than 35 million times, was a resounding chorus of “who?”
“I literally have 14 hours of screentime a day who are these people,” read one reply. “Can I be edited into this photo?” actor Rob Delaney wrote. “I am going through a rough patch personally & professionally & it would really help.”
The responses, which seemed unaware of the photo being of a select group of influencers from one city that was intended to run with a different story, served as a window into the still widespread belief among some that true fame can come only from stars who are native to music, movies and TV shows.
In 2024, however, internet celebrities are no longer relegated purely to digital spaces. The line between internet culture and culture is virtually nonexistent.
A look at the magazine’s larger list of 50 influential influencers makes that point clearly.
D’Amelio, 20, won a season of “Dancing With the Stars” in 2022 and will soon join the cast of the Broadway show “& Juliet.” Another name on the list, Benito Skinner, 30, known online as Benny Drama, just finished filming an A24 show, “Overcompensating,” for Prime Video.
Then there’s the YouTuber turned former late night host Lilly Singh; Keith Lee, a food reviewer whose videos have such power they can help save struggling businesses; and Cenat, a streamer with such a vast following that he was charged with inciting a riot after thousands of his fans descended upon Manhattan last year. (He was not prosecuted.)
It’s not just about follower count, however. Brands are increasingly turning to smaller creators – like microinfluencers, or even nanoinfluencers – with more modest followings. For years, the beauty brand Tarte has spent its marketing budget bringing influencers on elaborate vacations. The subsequent posts from those lavish trips – which reach millions of viewers around the world – are worth more to the company than a traditional ad buy, according to Maureen Kelly, the brand’s founder and CEO.
The creator economy is projected to be valued around US$480bil (RM2 trillion) by 2027, according to Goldman Sachs Research. According to one study, 1 out of 4 members of Generation Z want to be a professional influencer.
So whether or not users on X recognise the 50 people on the list of influential influencers – or, more specifically, the 22 pictured in the photo from Los Angeles – they are getting plenty of attention, from Hollywood and beyond. — ©2024 The New York Times Company
