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Trendsettter Spotlight
Influencers are influencing
About a year ago when I was hungover in Miami I went to seek reprieve at a CVS in the form of a sugar-free Red Bull and ended up buying a healthily-marketed apple-flavored energy drink called Celsius. The label was cuter and I figured the flavor wouldnât trigger me of the Red Bull/vodka combo that had gotten me into this state in the first place.Â
I was mistaken. The drink was gross and ended up in a sidewalk trash can (itâs hard to find recycling bins in Florida) â and Iâd not purchased another one since.Â
Until last week, that is, when I ordered a 24-can variety pack of the things on purpose. Delivered overnight, mind you.
What happened?Â
Well, a few things. One: I moved from New York to a place with a negative walk score that required daily exercise instead of #hotgirlwalks. And, two: the one time someone telling me to exercise ~actually~ worked was when a girl on TikTok yelled at me to do so â and just *happened* to mention Celsius as a pre-workout solution to her otherwise ârotting in bed.â
What really sealed the deal, though, was when I finally dragged myself to SoulCycle and found myself in the middle of a UCSD sorority fundraiser class sponsored byâŠyou guessed it, Celsius.
TL;DR:
A geographical change triggered the necessity for me to make a difficult lifestyle change.
I saw someone on TikTok making that lifestyle change with the help of a specific product.
I saw the product being used at a place of potential lifestyle change, further validating its effect.
I purchased the product (en masse) and was able to make the difficult lifestyle change.
Holy marketing, I had been influenced. And I didnât even realize it until I found myself reading an Atlantic article that described TikTok as an ecosystem that
âthrives on calculated messinessâproducing the feeling, if not the fact, of seeing people how they really are.â
Hereâs the video that started it all:
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If we look back to point 2 â TikTok girl hadnât looked at the camera, smiling and holding up a can of Celsius. In fact, the product didnât even APPEAR at any point. If anything, it seemed like an afterthought.Â
Which is exactly why it worked.
The Atlantic article was discussing the effect this curated chaos form of âfeigned authenticityâ has had on the music industry, saying that:
âaudiencesâor at least the industry that markets to themâwant stars to be smaller, more normal.â
For a while, it seemed like the labels had caught on. But after stars like Charlie Puth and Halsey increasingly appeared begrudgingly making âauthenticâ TikTok videos a la âthe label made me do itâ before dropping absolute bangers â fans caught on too, and started to question whether any of it was genuine to begin with.Â
âThe allure of authenticity invites fascination and then, inevitably, skepticism. All along, truth and trust arenât celebrated; theyâre destabilized.â
Thatâs just about when I remembered that Celsius video and couldnât shake the feeling of being bamboozled. Not only had I started drinking it regularly, I was also constantly texting people about how awesome it was.
I thought â there is no f**king way this happened organically. So I went digging.Â
And, sure enough, a couple of weeks back AdAge had published an article about how successful Celsiusâ marketing has been â largely due to its influencer ambassador program.
Hereâs a few stats about the brand:
Grew dollar sales by 188% in a year
783,000 followers on TikTok
#2 selling energy drink on Amazon
Distributed at 150,000+ retailers
(If youâre wondering how they did it, scroll back up to the beginning of this newsletter that you skimmed through.) The article quotes:Â
âWhere Red Bull went out with extreme athletes and building their own event marketing stuff, Celsius has come on the heels of this influencer, creative-led social dynamic and truly used micro to larger influencers to help spread the brand.â
At the end of the day, clearly, this influencer stuff is working. And in a way, itâs a win-win-win. I win because Iâm exercising more (kinda). TikTok wins because its platform helps creators successfully monetize their influence. Celsius wins because duh.
Do I still feel bamboozled? Absolutely. Will that make me stop buying Celsius in bulk?
Absolutely not.