‘I’m not selling a product – I’m selling my personality’

Influencer marketing works. That’s why brands spend billions on it annually. But content creators must post relentlessly about their carefully curated lives or risk being passed over by the algorithms.

On 3 May a gleaming Tecnomar for Lamborghini sports yacht – with an official capacity of 16 passengers – sank near Miami Beach. On board at the time were 32 influencers enjoying the Florida sunshine. As the boat went down, the revellers in swimsuits and neon lifejackets kept filming themselves on their phones, grins fixed till the end. Their afternoon may have been ruined, but the footage was soon doing the rounds on social media. It’s a fitting metaphor for the setbacks that have affected the world of jet-set influencers in recent years.

One major cause is an oversaturated market. When reality TV shows exploded, advertisers became spoilt for choice if they want to promote bikinis or tanning products on Instagram. ‘I used to do three sponsored posts a day. Now I’m lucky to get one every other day,’ said Julia Paredes in a YouTube interview. Paredes, a former contestant on several reality shows runs an Instagram account with 1.1 million followers, where she shares her life as a single mother in Dubai.

In among the photos of her children and luxury nights out, she inserts sponsored content for a wide range of brands – makeup, local restaurants, baby products, play mats, protein powders. ‘Some months I used to make €35-40,000. Now it can be more like €5,000,’ she said. It’s a sign of the times that many Dubai-based influencers have recently moved to Bali, where the cost of living is lower. Others have returned to doing paid nightclub appearances, as they did early in their careers, and some have resorted to selling erotic images on platforms such as MYM and OnlyFans.

Yet out of the spotlight on the biggest names, the influencer marketing industry continues to thrive. In France alone, it was worth nearly €6.5bn in 2024, according to a study by Coherent Market Insights. Brands, especially in the fashion, cosmetics and sport sectors, are spending more than ever promoting their products online.

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Benoît Bréville

Benoît Bréville is president and editorial director of Le Monde diplomatique.

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