Business owners have long been giving away free product or swag for exposure. When I managed a restaurant, we catered both non-profit charity events and cutting edge parties for free. Why? Free marketing.
Kinda.
It wasn’t free per se, given the cost of food and labor my company “ate” in exchange for networking. But this strategy was much, much cheaper than buying advertising space in the newspaper.
And yes, this was before social media.
Now, influencers have popped up all over, especially on Instagram, looking to promote products and services. The catch? You know it: in exchange for their promotions, they want free products or services – or cash! Larger influencers with millions of followers can make a lot of money for exposure posts. For example, Kendall Jenner raked in $250,000 for one post promoting the disastrous Fyre Festival.
But are influencers losing their charm? Joe Nicchi, an LA ice cream truck owner, recently took a public stand against them.
He’s constantly being hit up by influencers wanting his delicious soft serve in exchange for a post on their Instagram stories. And when they offer him exposure for his food…
That’s right. Influencers pay double! His cones run about $4 each, so if an influencer asks for a free cone, they pay $8. So what ticked him off? According to VICE:
“Last Thursday, I got an event request to do a party on a weekend for 300 people in exchange for the word they love to use, which is ‘exposure.’ I can’t do that; I can’t work for free.”
300 people!? Unreal. This begs the question: Are influencers taking this “marketing strategy” too far?
Nicci started his company back in 2014 as a way to make side income while working as an actor. You’ll find him on the streets of LA in a 1960s Mister Softee truck offering a simplistic menu ― chocolate, vanilla, or a twist cone. With the constant influx of influencers asking for free food, he had to put a stop to it all. He’s a small business owner and can’t afford to give away his “bread and butter.”
“The first 30 seconds of talking, they say ‘Hey, I don’t know if you follow me or not,’ so they tell me their screen name and say ‘If you want to hook me up with a cone, I’ll post it to my story. I’m like are you out of your mind? This is a $4 ice cream.”
What these Instagrammers seem not to understand (or care about) is the cost involved with swapping exposure for a product. They are asking Nicci, who is looking to sell to costumers, to “pay” for exposure (to who? He doesn’t know…) by giving out free ice cream. There’s just NO guarantee he’ll see any benefit.
So what if someone has 20K followers – are any of them in LA? What are the chances that they will buy his ice cream and how would he know?
“We work a lot of these [food truck] events on the weekends, and I’m not going to sound like a douchebag, but we have really long lines. It’s evident that we’re a popular business, but I’ve had many young Millennials who say things like ‘I’m surprised that you only have 5,000 followers.’ What does it matter? I have a line down the street. If Instagram went away tomorrow, I would still exist.”
Not all influencers take advantage, and the influencer bubble will burst soon, I’m sure.
But in the meantime, Nicci can get back to what he been trying to do all along: Sell ice cream.
