The New Influence

Where digital meets travel + lifestyle … A collection of can’t-miss news from this week. Sign up to get the TURNER Weekly Download in your inbox every Friday.

Instapartment

Dedicated Instagrammers may have started feeling a weird sense of déjà vu when scrolling through their feeds. Don’t worry, you’re not losing your mind. You might just be seeing influencers posting pics from the exact same NYC penthouse. The Independent has the details: “When Village Marketing, an all-female creative agency, realized that its clients — influencers — were struggling to take picture-perfect photos due to lack of appealing backdrop, the brand came up with an idea. Rather than risk a dimly-lit photo, Village Marketing rented and decorated an apartment solely for influencers to pose and show off products in.” It’s catching on. The #VillageStudio has been booked through the month.

The Same Shot

Speaking of strangely familiar sights on Instagram … have you noticed that many travel influencers are using strikingly similar images? Hyperallergic suggests that you check out Insta Repeat. It's “an Instagram account ... [that] aggregates images from various unrelated travel accounts into collages of nearly indistinguishable photos.” The trend is making it harder than ever for influencers to stand out. Originality will become more and more important. So let's mix up those images, people!

The New Influence

Clearly, social media is all about standing out from the crowd. And  some brands are looking to mix up their influencer marketing programs. Real influence is not about Kardashian-sized follower counts now – it’s about authenticity, relatability and trust, reports AdAge – especially when dealing with younger consumers. “If we looked at a metric, it was whether teens found them compelling when they talk about [the community good] they do,” says Simon Geraghty of J&J. “The point where we knew we were doing the right thing was when we were putting paid media in the marketplace, interrupting someone's feed with a paid post. That's normally where you see a lot of comments, usually ‘I want to stop seeing this ad.’ But this time most of our responses were 'Who is this person? How do I learn more about them?’”

The Saturation Rate

Whether you’re a micro-influencer or a major Insta star, things might be changing soon. Say hello to the “ The Saturation Rate” – the percentage of each influencer's content that is sponsored vs/ organic. “Today, the ratio of sponsored content isn't on the influencer marketing radar,” writes Forbes’ Jim Tobin. “But it will be soon as brands start to look through influencer feeds for their posts and realize that, in some cases, they've been put into the modern version of what is essentially a magazine filled entirely with ads.” In other words, in order to influence, influencers need to concentrate first and foremost on powerful, non-sponsored content.

Weekly Moment of Zen

Petcon in NYC: Two full days of pet celebrities, pet panels, and more cuteness than you can handle.