Bloggers and brands 2.

[Merriboo]

continuing the discussion from the previous thread about transparency and disclosure (or lack of) by bloggers

There'll be some poor PR person behind that under pressure to get influencers invite loved on zero budget so they're using anyone.

Couples with an "influencer" who gives not a shit about the product but just wants paid.

I am tempted ithasbeen, if you are willing to pay me! Although, I won't be held responsible for the horror that occurs when I wear any sort of athletic wear.

This is such an interesting debate, in terms of the original question. I'm 42. The more I'm "influenced", the less inclined I am to buy. And I would have thought I am their (the mummy fashionista's) target market. I love clothes. I love exploring fashion, and discovering new brands. But this wholesale market of my interest is degrading. I

The Irish bloggers are very fond of the legalese botemp providing its working in their interests, not against them. There’s a popular Irish forum called boards when the bloggers were being discussed, initially within the Beauty area then it got shifted to Social Medua but because too many bloggers complained about the posts they got sanitised. The posters moved it to reddit in protest within a private subreddit, and supposedly the Irish bloggers have been trawling for invites so they can spy
Many of the Irish bloggers see themselves as zoellas in training so have launched white label makeup products particularly make up brushes, which shows the difference between the Irish and UK blogging scene. The ASAI hasn’t bothered to take much action on the #ad #spon front until recently, and they’re yet to tackle a ‘high (Irish) profile’ scalp. They prefer the ‘educate’ possession. I’d be interested to see either the U.K. or Irish authorities actually dish out some fines as until their purses hurt, they’re going to keep playing with their followers.

I wish I knew how some of these influencers are chosen by brands as some of them are just so far off course

I don't think the process of choosing is that scientific. a) Do they have a large number of followers? b) Do they post about fashion? c) Did they reply to the PR's email?

There are some pretty unlikely collaborations at the moment. People who don't ever exercise are suddenly promoting 'ath-leisure' (that phrase makes me laugh every time I see it, it's very Alan Partridge). A few of them are so into labels I find it very hard to believe they would choose Tesco or HOF ath-leisure wear though tbh.

....... and that is what is good about these threads. When I saw my usual blogger in her athleisure on a beach walk, it was screamingly obvious that she was flogging clothes, not sharing her fashion favourites! I don't begrudge her/them earning their money - I am just glad that I more fully understand that they are salespeople, and I am a customer. I have started looking at Instagram on the back of these threads and it is fascinating. One week it's this and the next it's something else - wow, it really is a marketing frenzy. Please someone - explain Trinny to me. I am old enough to remember her the first time round and now here she is - the Insta Queen. But, but, but ......... is she doing it differently? If I understand it, she doesn't do promotion, partnerships etc..... so is she the real deal?

We should start a new thread...."This week on Instagram we're mostly seeing.......".

It's athleisure wear and Tempurpedic mattresses this week.

They're a business like any other NotTheQueen, so not surprising at all really. They all demonstrate they're perfectly able to come together when being told to be more transparent 'attacked', yet little incentive otherwise.

I do have to say that I am really thankful that MNHQ has never (as far as I can tell anyhow) bowed down to pressure, which I'm sure there has been, to silence the conversation on this. If I have to hazard a guess moving an open discussion into a private subreddit probably draws out the more unsavoury side of the discussion.

Yes, I thought it was interesting wrt to the Chinese tat being marketed at inflated prices. So they're less working with co-labs but sort of creating their own to look like they're growing brands. Most peculiar, although merchandise in various forms is big with younger influencers is quite the norm. How big is the influence of the Irish scene on the Irish market do you think? Asking mostly as to why brands aren't as ubiquitous if they're creating their own instead.

Ireland is a small country filed with women who buy a LOT of make up (myself included) so there is a commercial market here. And people like Pippa O'Connor and Suzanne Jackson may not be known outside of it but they have diversified into retail products and are doing very nicely indeed. I literally cannot walk into a pharmacy without seeing those blasted contour palettes Suzanne Jackson makes.

It certainly pays enough for vast amounts of plastic surgery.

Actually I think in terms of IG, Ireland is much more similar to the US than the UK. It is just SO glam and theres so much selling of tea that makes you shit, oh my god.

so much selling of tea that makes you shit 😂

I’m a bit obsessed with Trinny’s IG now. This thread has pointed me in so many new directions, love it. I find it quite refreshing that she’s just sharing the sheer joy of styling up clothes and there is apparently no ulterior motive. If she said she only featured clothes she loves I would actually believe it as well! Really like the fact she says no product placement in her bio, in such a matter of fact way. If anyone should know the ASA rules, it would be someone who is going out with Charles Saatchi 😂

Yep, I am a follower of hers, while I just look at the others. Refreshing that she is all about the clothes and not trying to flog something that she is clearly uncomfortable in! I am sure she is monetizing her thread somehow but at least it has integrity.

Well she has her make up line now and promotes that.

problembottom. Like a fool I spent £££ on those wedges last summer after at least two fashion bloggers went on about how comfortable they were. I wore them once and they barely stayed on my feet. Never worn again. I'm so gullible but an (expensive) lesson learnt. Think this was before all the disclosure so I thought the love was genuine!

Yep, its not quite true that there is no product placement at all, because she is promoting her own make up line quite heavily, but there doesn't appear to be any other product placement/gifting going on. She actually says 'no PR product placement' so I guess that means she only promotes her own stuff rather than other brands.

mrsdoubleskulls I went through the same thought process and spent New Year’s Day having a right old purge on all forms of social media - I deleted everyone whose style I don’t like/wouldn’t suit me / is generally annoying (many of them have been mentioned in these conversations 😉)

It felt good and I’m looking at social media far less now which can’t be a bad thing!

MrsDoubleSkulls so 48 hours after the instastories fest of bloggers HOF athleisure trip to chewtonglen, the formerly exercise averse, DmBL40 posted how much she loved the gifted clothes that we should expect to see on repeat.......
Today’s story is all about the perfect (gifted) gibson girl clothing #imagibsongirl 🤔🧐🤥.....

I literally cannot cope with her, all the weird noises, and trying to be Trinny. Cringeworthy.

Also, why must they story EVERYTHING? I’m having toast, I’m drinking a brew, I’m eating crisps. Who gives a fuck? I’m not naming any names. But one of them does about 40 DAILY. WHY?

Also, why must they story EVERYTHING

Because anyone can be the star of their own reality show with Instagram stories.

Meeriboo, I spotted that too.

Laughable how DMBL40 was at a PR event for HOF promoting their arhleisure clothing a few days ago, and now today is raving about athleisure from another brand today. A case of she’ll help flog anything she’s given, total lack of integrity. But fair dues to her she’s now clearlt listing what is gifted.

Cholelovestoshop in another blogger who is not being transparent about gifting at all. She’s not a very ‘professional’ blogger but definitely is gifted a lot of clothes that she doesn’t specify.

Fran from the Fashionlift is one of my favourite bloggers but again doesn’t really specify if something is gifted or not most of the time.

Agree about Chloe and Fran.
CLTS is a walking advert for Miranda Dunn London fur coats (literally! She has around 7-8) but it certainly isn’t made clear whether any/all were gifted.

Trinny seems to have developed quite an over the top persona. I’m weirdly fascinated by her face and lips due the the amount of fillers

I quite like fashionlift but her lack of disclosure annoys me a little. Her latest enthusiasm for athleisurewear (🙊 gets me every time) makes a welcome change from victoriana blouses, though I have to say even she looked embarrassed in the F&F athleisurewear hoodie the other day. She even popped up on my twitter feed yesterday in an ad with Davina McCall. I can’t get away from bloody Athleisurewear! Chewton Glen seems to be featuring quite a lot on my IG at the moment. One of the interiors bloggers I follow did a blog post saying she was working with some ‘exciting’brands including Chewton Glen in January. Looks like she had a freebie cookery lesson but she went down the “Thank you for having me” route of disclosure and tagged it #daywithhubby as he had obviously tagged along for the day 😂

its, I wonder whether we are following the same interiors blogger, as the one I love was at Chewton as well, and has spoken of exciting opportunities this year (all to be revealed, of course).

I really like her, and enjoy her posts, but confess that when she recently Storied about a fab book she was reading (something like “Brand Brilliance: How to Grow Your Brand”, or the like) my heart sank. Not another IG account I enjoy being commercialised.

mrsdoubleskulls maybe it’s the same one. Has a beautifully extended home and a holiday home in Cornwall? She posted about some cox and cox stuff before Christmas which I just assumed she liked but then saw on her blog she said 2017 was a fabulous year as she had had exciting collaborations with brands including Cox and cox...

I do think DMBL is doing a good job of being more transparent now though. No more silly (g) or credits in the comments and it doesn’t detract at all from what she posts about.

I (mostly) love the interiors grammers, but even they start to look 'samey' after a while. Same colour (navy blue) on the walls, same prints on the gallery walls (that friggin' Kate Moss print and the Andy Warhol quote), fur rugs all over the sofa, roll top baths, subway tiles and morroccan style tiles on the floor...