Bloggers and brands

[homebythesea]

I love blogs, YouTube, Instagram etc but sometimes do wonder what's in it for the brands especially regarding blogger events.

Straight up reviews of things they get sent I totally get- they try things on/ use a face cream, wax lyrical about how great the thing is, people click through and buy said item. Straightforward advertising. No problem with that at all.

But when a blogger is invited to a dinner, or night away at a hotel, or a movie premiere by a brand I just don't get what is worth the expense? From the blogger perspective they get a night out and a goodie bag and maybe even paid to attend. But what does the brand get in return? A brief tag on an Instagram pic, some photos of beautiful place settings at dinner......but not necessarily sales?? These events must cost thousands to put on.

Hopefully someone with some knowledge about these things will enlighten us!

Excellent post from her. I’m surprised though that Mutha.hood has responded saying she doesn’t see why bloggers should reference gifts.

Erica is a professional in the industry, she has the foresight to look ahead and see the way the path is going for influencers from a regulatory point of view.

Kat Farmer on the other hand is totally unprofessional, you just need to look how she posted during the week and allowed those awful messages to remain on her posts.

Omg hilarious, the Brand Ambassadors Agency going "great post, transparency is good".

O RLY?

I can't keep up - were BAA the ones who called us 'twats?' Or was it 'dumplings'?

I really hope the abusive messages stay up. They say far more about them than they do about us.

I know it's not my thread but I do think it's better to avoid personal comments about individual bloggers. We don't know what they're like as people and I don't think it's relevant.

Just my opinion. And someone else had mentioned it previously and I was in agreement

It was me that said it earlier in the thread and I was giving my opinion on something she had written in her own blog.

I think the personality thing is a simple case of follow/unfollow. The issue raised here is wider than that.

Dilly, I was surprised by that too. I wonder if she's read this thread? I think it would be hard to make an argument that would stand up to the points made here about why transparency matters.

I agree. Just left bad taste in my mouth along with various other things she does and her reactions to things. Horses for courses but in my opinion she has passed her sell by date

I doubt kat farmer has bothered to look on here since Sunday and therefore would be unawares of what people think of her leaving the comments there. Or maybe she just doesn’t care?

WIT indeed what is Icons all about. And they desperately need a proofreader!!

I only started following MOD through the other thread on here. I’m guessing the Gucci bag was a one off. She’s not generally a designer bag person. She’s been taking a bit about kids clothes recently and the cynic in me is now wondering if that to get some freebies!

In fairness, the "aspie" nickname is long long long gone. I think that was taken note of last year and it stopped. Haven't seen it in ages and ages.

Just one of the many reasons I choose not to follow her..... along more recently with what is being discussed. Just my opinion

WIT/wardrobe icons is clearly living on another planet (which is so far away from normal folk)
I so desperately want to like wardrobe icons, but suspected it was going to be a vanity project and it is.

They have a skirt for £500 in the magazine. Realistically, there aren’t many people who can afford that, so I do wonder who they are trying to attract.

I know we're just exchanging opinions. Mine is that this thread was originally about transparency, non disclosure and secretive PR. If it's morphing into something else then fair enough but I'm not interested in individual bloggers or their lives or their writing styles. I'm not even interested in their clothes any more. What I am interested in are the ways in which marketing is insinuating itself into our lives - and our kids' lives.

I'm with Flo on this. If we continue to go over the minutiae we lose sight of the bigger picture. Bloggers are merely the first line of defense in this system, they may be our primary point of contact and therefore the initial stop for ire but there's a whole industry of PRs, talent agents, and brands that all profit from this lack of transparency.

On that note, can anyone who can access the BAA client list post it on here, I'm still unable to access their website.

thebrandambassadors.london/brands/

only mentions 3 brands - there must be more?
Mos Mosh
WoDen
Orwell + Austen

FLO in answer to your question, the brand ambassador agency was the one who called us twats

Thank you Paint - I think it's always useful to know what people really think of you before you decide whether to hand over your money.

Agreed flo

BAA represents Mos Mosh, Rue de Femme, Orwell & Austen, Air & Grace, Woden, MKT Studio and gifts to all the usual bloggers - DMBL40, CLTS, Wearsmymoney, Fashion Lift etc as away of building the profile of the brands so small boutiques will then want to stock them.

On a completely different note, I think there's an issue some of the bloggers haven't considered about how they use images of their children and share information about them. They're creating their children's digital footprint and digital history and that needs to be done responsibly, particularly if you're sharing information about health conditions and neuro-diverse conditions.

Erica Davies's post today was great, it's so refreshing to see someone engaging in these issues in an honest, open, thoughtful and considered way and inviting debate.

Domestic, I agree about the children. It amazes me how many bloggers post pictures of their children on an almost daily basis and it does worry me. I am definitely on the private side when it comes to social media, a lot more than a lot of people so I know not everyone will agree with me but I can’t help thinking it’s wrong to put pics of children without any meaningful consent from them and I wonder how they may feel about that in the future when they are adults

And yay for for Erica Davies, she had said she’s welcomed the debate and I love that!

A couple of them are circumspect about the kids. I notice mamas scrapbook (who I have just discovered and really like, as she's a psychologist and talks a lot about mindfulness) doesn't show her children's faces. She shows them from the back.

And mother pukka has spoken about probably stopping showing them once they go to school.

And we all know there are ones that show the kids, but incredibly curated perfect images of them like they're in a Boden catalogue, which may give a deeply unrealistic picture but at least the kids aren't necessarily going to be embarrassed later on.

Personally I only show my kids from the back also. And never any video. So basically they are completely anonymous. Not that my 60 followers care, lol, it more that my future tweens may care very much.

I thought mother pukka was homeschooling?