The Death Of Influencer Brands

a muffin. Norwegian distance swimmer Henry Christensen has made headlines around the globe after going viral on TikTok for his love of the ultra chocolate muffins served up at the Olympic village. I was kind of shocked though, to see that the Olympians were fueling their body with these types of desserts. I thought that they would have had to

stick to a very strict nutritious diet plan. In the Leader, we clearly haven't seen any of Michael Phelps what he eats in a day diaries, because I think especially if you're a swimmer, you have to consume so many calories in order to have the energy to actually compete. But I'd be thinking like pastas or grain or I wouldn't

assume a large chocolate muffin. Well, everyone needs a treat, and these chocolate muffins are hot property at the Olympic village right now, especially after Henrik's videos have gone viral. They have clocked up millions and millions of views and he has been dubbed the muffin Man. I really hope that the French catering company who has provided these muffins is locking him in for some sort of sponsorship opportunity.

I know he has genuinely come out and said how much he loves them, but it'd be a really cute collaboration.

He hasn't got gold, he hasn't got seal, we hasn't even got bronze. But this guy, everyone is going to want to do some kind of collaboration with him because he is now the authority on what is hot and what is not in the food world. Yeah, it's so fascinating when you think about it, because it was only really the Olympians who won gold who would go home with brand deals back in the day, or they be

put on a serial box. But now athletes have the opportunity, with the use of TikTok and other social media platforms, to make their mark on the advertising world. Welcome to Kick Concierge. How may I help you? Last week, there was a massive response to our segment on Kick's contentious marketing campaign and just to quickly refresh your memories, Kick CEOs Steph gless Smith and Laura Henshaw spent days dropping

Easter eggs to build anticipation for a big announcement. However, many followers were left confused and underwhelmed when they revealed they were offering a Kick Concierge service. Why did I just get in my head at Concierge know how they were saying in the commercial. Now, what that involved was a gimmicky hotline where customers could speak directly to Steph and Laura over the phone about selecting the right polaratees

program for them. And I do want to point out the Polarates is already a feature offered on the app, It's not a new offering now as part of the Concierge service for those who didn't want to talk on the phone, because let's be real, millennials and gen Zettors will literally do anything to avoid speaking on the phone. Surely, though, if it's to Laura Henshaw and Steph Claire Smith, people are going to want to that. Well, I would feel

awkward anyway. Well, they offered an online quiz for those who didn't feel comfortable making the phone call to discover which Polarates program worked best for them, and many followers said they felt let down as they were anticipating a bigger announcement due to the hype surrounding this campaign. I saw Amber from Influencer up Dates talking about this on her Live on Friday, and she said she actually tried

to call the number, but it was engaged. So while a lot of people were disappointed by it, obviously, a lot of people also called the line to try and get to talk to Stephan Laura. Yeah, there were also a lot of followers convinced that this announcement was going to have something to do with periods because throughout the campaign there was a lot of Moron branding and also the word flow was used a lot. And I remember saying Amy that we felt like we'd almost seen this

ad before. Yeah, I thought it was a Libra ad, but someone actually pointed out to us on TikTok it was the Bond's Bloody Comfy Hotel ad that it resembled. And as soon as I looked it up and saw this ad on YouTube, I was like, wow, this is so similar. Well, it followed a very similar format where a female concierge welcomed viewers to the Bond's Comfy Hotel and she was dressed in a dark pink suit and she very similar to Laura and Steph. She had a

gold badge on. There was an old school telephone that was being used. Let's throw to the clip Welcome to the Bonds, Bloody comfy hotel where everyone's free to period however they want.

It made me wonder whether Kick internally came up with the concept or whether they were pitched the concept by a large marketing company, because doctor, I'd be annoyed if I paid a lot of money for a creative concept to discover the Bonds ran a very similar ad last year, particularly when both girls do work with period undie brands,

which are in complete competition with Bonds. Now. This led me to do a bit of digging, and what's quite interesting is that Laura Henshaw's husband Dalton, runs a marketing company called Bullfrog, and having a look at the company's Instagram, you can see that they have worked on a number of Kicks recent marketing campaigns. So it leads me to believe that maybe they were responsible for this recent campaign

as well. Well. It might explain why Laura Henshaw was quite sensitive about the commentary because we uploaded a short segment on our TikTok account and it attracted over ninety two thousand views and eighty three comments. So some people said that they were underwhelmed by the campaign and they didn't understand the concept, while others said the campaign achieved what it set out to do, which was to get people talking about it. One user wrote under our video,

they make women in business look so dark? Or are they personal trainers? What expertise do they have? So Laura Henshaw saw this comment and she ended up turning this comment into a TikTok response video which she also shared on her Instagram, and she made it a very gender based issue and she asked the woman if she would

judge and ask a male CEO for their qualifications. And what's particularly interesting is that her husband Dalton wrote in the comments section, small minds discuss other people and gossip, good minds discuss events, great minds discuss ideas. We all get to choose what we discuss and whilst this could be a message supporting his wife. I also saw it as him being somewhat defensive over his team being responsible

potentially for this campaign. I was really frustrated to see this commentary online because it suddenly became this gendered issue when it really wasn't supposed to be, and it upset me because we have always been really supportive of KICK.

I think that Laura and Steph are amazing business women, but this is their campaign that has been talked about widely online, and I don't think as female podcasters that we should have to pretend and say that it hit all of these different marks when we thought it was a letdown. I also think it would have been very patronizing and non genuine if we just hyped up this campaign purely because it's run by two women. I have to also point out that this is a multimillion dollar

business that is not just run by Stefan Laura. There's a huge marketing team behind it. Well, they would have paid probably like fifty thousand dollars or so for a campaign like that, probably more. It's going to be disappointing when people aren't wowed by it, but it gives them the opportunity to go away and next time, I'm sure they're going to come out with an amazing campaign wedding

menu tasting. Just three months out from their much anticipated wedding, Tammy Hembro and her fiance Matt Sakowski have given followers an insight into what will be on the menu. The announcement of their caterer has many to question if this

portion of the wedding is being sponsored. Yeah now. Tammy made the announcement on her TikTok last week, sharing a video of the wedding tasting process, and in the caption she announced that her wedding is being catered by Little Truffle and Ridgeway Catering, which is a business located at Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast Now. The wedding tasting was held at the company's fine dining restaurant, which appeared to have been open privately just for them, and Tammy

looked beautiful. She was wearing a white Natalie Rolt dress, whilst Matt wore black trousers and a white shirt, and the restaurant was empty apart from a fourteen seat table that had been set up for the couple's family. I love it because normally when you do a wedding tasting, you're only allowed to bring two or four people. Yeah, it's very contentious. You have to be very selective. You generally have to invite your parents. But it was nice to see that Tammy had her sisters Amy and Emily

joining them. Also think it's funny because most of the time you have to sit with a bunch of other brides grooms who are having their wedding around the same time as you. This looked very luxurious to have the whole restaurant to yourself. Well, when I saw this video, I thought, surely this must be some kind of sponsorship arrangement, because not only did she share this TikTok, but her fiance Matt, also shared a ton of Instagram stories and

he tagged the caterer. Yeah. My guess is that they've set up a contra deal where they're exchanging the food and wine for exposure. Either that or maybe the caterer is providing a large discount in return for exposure as well. It's a tough one because when you're a bride, I think it's nice to tag small businesses that you work

with and give them a little shout out along the way. However, in this case, when you're Tammy Hembro and you have seventeen point four million followers on Instagram, you're probably not just giving them a shout out to be nice. This probably is a contra deal. Yeah, well, it's always going to be a bit sas, isn't it, because you can share about an experience without actually tagging the business. Also,

she as you said, she named the caterer. She also included plenty of shots of the signage, vision of her speaking one on one with the head chef, as well as a lot of shots of the food. Well, I'm assuming there was no hashtag sponsored or gifted or no, there wasn't. I have to say though a side note, this food looked incredible. They did have the usual things for counterpis like oysters and aaronchini balls, but they just

looked so fancy. They also had delicious looking past amy, which I was like, you would love that you had pastor at your wedding. And it's no surprise because the chef in question has worked at a Michelin Star restaurant. Of course, I mean, food's so important at a wedding. It's also very expensive, so imagine getting it gifted. I always find wedding tastings funny because it's really the only chance you actually get to try the food. Because I don't know about you, Amy, did you even eat any

of your dinner at your wedding? I ate a little bit, but as soon as I got back after the wedding, I was starving because you just you leave so much of it on your plate and it gets whisked away pretty quickly. The shit thing about having your wedding near a winery is generally there's not a McDonald's that you can stop off for takeaway, Like, there's just nothing around there. No, that's why you have to stock up and have stuff back at your accommodation. I remember we were smashing some

cheeseboards after both of ours. That was the best part. I just can't believe, though, that this wedding is only three months away. Now. It's even more wild when you consider that we only found out about Tammy and Matt as a couple in September last year, so things have moved super quickly. Well, Tammy's followers are getting excited. One commented this is my royal wedding, to which Tammy did a crying face back, whilst others took it as an

opportunity to take a dig. One commenter said it's like your twentieth wedding, and Tammy hit back, writing never been married. Actually I love that she takes a swipe in the comment section. Now it be pissed off. Yeah, you like, I haven't even got this far before further she's got now. A day after Tammy posted about the tasting, she shared that she was in hospital for a plant surgery and a lot of her followers so she shared a photo

of her hospital bracelet and wrote, just had surgery. We'll be posting a YouTube video about it when I'm a bit more recovered now. Matt, being the doting fiance, came to pick her up from the hospital and he marked the occasion with a hospital selfie in the lift, and this led to more intrigue and interest about what Tammy had had done. Influences love taking photos at hospitals, Oh, because it must just pick their engagement up so much. It's kind of like those Facebook friends that will just

check in at the hospital. Yeah, they won't actually say why they're there, and everyone be like, oh, Hannah, you're a Rita. You're all right, I'm the DM you. Well, it was a bit weird because instead of going home, they spent the night at a hotel and matt had left a couple of surprises to cheer Tammy up, so on her bedside table he left a bouquet of roses and some lollies and oreos and a handwritten note that

said I love you always and forever, Matthew. It just cracked me up because the note was so sweet, but it looked like it had been done in pencil, and it was very childlike the writing. I think it's pretty cute that he did that. I know everyone's been talking about how Tammy Hembro is worth millions and millions of dollars, but if you look at it, he's got her some chocolates,

He's got her some lollies. He's he's picking up the supermarket flowers like I've seen those flowers so like it's not like a bouquet from a flora, which is quite relatable. I read some article recently and it was talking about how Travis Kelsey had bought Taylor Swift. I think it was fifty eight thousand dollars worth of clothes after he left the eras tour. Yeah, he'd picked out all these options and it just sounded very unrelatable. But I would

hate a man picking out my clothes for me. I know he's a bit of a fashionist, but that's I'd rather just here, here's a fifty eight thousand dollars gift out for clothes. Yeah, if you're dropping fifty eight thousand, you hope that you would actually like the clothes. Yeah. Well. On Saturday, Tammy finally revealed the reason for the surgery, and she explained on her tiktop that she had her

breast implants removed and had new implants put in. So she said that her implants were now eight years o and she'd become quite unhappy with the way they looked. It's quite funny how she described it, because she said they looked more like cousins than twins because due to training her chest a lot, they started to move further and further apart, and her plastic surgeon advised her that she either needed a breast lift, but if she wanted to avoid that, she could just get bigger breast in plants.

So she opted for the bigger breast in plants. You need to get them replaced every ten years, isn't it. So it's probably the smarter solution. Yeah. Well, she ended up showing what they looked like in a sports bra, and they do look considerably bigger than the previous implants. That being said, we saw them a few days after surgery when she was very swollen, so it's not really indicative of what they're going to look like long term. It's a big thing to get that kind of surgery

three months out from your wedding. It right when Chris Jenna, just when I got a facelift before was it Kim's wedding. She decided she wanted to look her best. I can see why she's chosen to get them done before her wedding, because everyone pumps up wedding for the photos that you'll always remember, you'll always look back on. You want to look your best. You going to look the best you've ever looked, isn't that right? Yeah? Cazus who up there, guys, And I'm going to show you the kitchen. I'm so

obsessed with him. Bali based influencer Talia Scanes has announced she's shutting down her fashion line Scans the label after just three years in business. Her decision comes off the back of four other ossie influencers pulling the pin on their self led brands, leading us to question if influencer brands are out of vogue. So I would you buy

from an influencer brand? Look, it would really depend on who the influencer is and what the product is, because in the past I have been guilty of purchasing from influencer led brands, but nowadays I'd be somewhat embarrassed to be seen, particularly in an influencer brand's clothes, like to have a big ZEP across my back or so, I think, especially if the influencer brand has the influencers name it it, people are less likely to want to look like a

fangirl or rep that brand. You don't really want to be a walking billboard for an influencer. I think you can also really tell the difference between influencers who are just flogging off drop shipped items or they've just slapped their name on a tracksuit, to those who have legitimately invested time and money into building a business and surrounding

themselves with industry experts. And when it comes to the smaller scale influencers, it's often a one person show, and I think the quality of the product can be really average and you're just paying for someone's name to be attached to it. Well, there's so many brands that have popped out recently that are just hoodies or trackies and yeah, and people are over it. They don't want to buy that.

You'd rather buy a good quality item that you actually know is being produced in perhaps an ethical factory, or it's good quality items, it's not just some ship piece of shit. Yeah, you want to actually know that you're investing in an item that has been designed properly, that

it's in an ethical factory. Well. Yeah, And you've only got to look at the success of influencers like Sammy Robinson, Georgie Stevenson and Britney Saunders to see how influencers should set up a business because they have worked so much on the branding. These are hugely successful standalone business And the thing is they are really unicorns in this space. They are the top percenters who have been super successful with their brands. I mean, you look at Britney Saunders,

whose store Fate is opening at sixth Store. There's Sammy Robinson, She's got one Mile, who's about to open its first store. Then we've got Georgie Stevenson, who has grown her supplements brand Naked Harvest into a twenty million dollar empire. However, in Australia, these influencers are anomalies. The tide really seems to be turning on influencer brands because this year we've seen Abby Chatfield, m Davies as She Binds, and Sophie Keasha all shut down their brands, and then this week

we've seen Tarlia Skeines. I was surprised that it took this long for her to shut the brand down though, because yeah, I know that she had third Fix with her ex boyfriend Mitch, and you could tell that he was really the one that was passionate about it and that maybe Talia had just launched this business as a

sort of I don't know, it was more of Mitch's idea. Yeah. Well, I watched the full seven minute video where she explained the reason for the closure and it was a real struggle to get through because it took her three minutes to reveal what the announcement actually was about. But breaking it down, the reason Talia has decided to shut down the label is because she says she has too much on her plate. Here's what she said, at this stage of my life, I want to be more said old.

I want to be more relaxed and calm, and not yet but in a few years time and Jack and I will hopefully be welcoming some little babies into the world, and I don't want to feel like that when I had babies. Now. She's currently living in Bali with her boyfriend Jake Sijano, who's a big property developer over there, and they are building the biggest fuck off feller called Casasu and she's also planning on returning to Australia soon to start renovation a house that they've bought in Queensland.

And she said that there's a bunch of other projects that she wants to work on that she's more passionate about, and they're involving interior design. So I predict that she would rather spend her time creating maybe YouTube content about the renovation, because there's so many successful renovation vlogs and YouTube series and I think that there's a real niche market for that. She would be fantastic because she actually has the budget to produce one of those. Wow homes.

They just need to get a good videographer to film it, I think. But I think the reality more so is is anyone actually buying from Skins the label. I haven't seen any push on social media. I don't even really know what they sell is at bathes, they sell a bunch of bathers, tracksuits, skirts for around the pool. They're shutting it down because they probably have no money coming in. Maybe they have like one sale every six months and then they're like, oh fuck, we've got to go and

post this out. Well, she actually has a team back in Australia who handles all of that, and she touched on the fact that she hasn't done many drops this year and she just doesn't have the desire to put her time into it, and Amy I do agree. I ultimately think it came down to a lack of demand because even though she didn't touch on the financial side of things, it would be so hard for her clothing

brand to be seen and desired in this overly saturated market. Already, reading between the lines, she's also making enough money through the influence of work that she's doing that she doesn't even need to continue doing this label. I also think she's getting ready to start moving into the next stage of her life. She discussed how she wants to start thinking about having a family and she's trying to be

realistic about what she invests her time in. It was interesting to read the comments section of the post where Talia announced the closure because ash Bines wrote, just did the same thing. More. People need to honor where they are right now, regardless of where they were six months ago. M Davies, who also closed down her line, wrote, good on you for putting yourself first, Darling. It's a tough decision.

And Leilah Graham, who was a model in influencer and swimwear designer, wrote can relate to this so much, something that also isn't spoken enough about in biz. Proud of you. These comments are making me think even more so that we are seeing this downturn in influencer led brands and there is a lack of desire and want from the

general public to support these brands and to wear these brands. Yeah, what I think it is is that most influencers, if they have a hugely engaged following, they could bring out a hoodie and maybe the first drop would sell out. But unless they actually put in the effort to grow the brand, it's not going to have any longevity. So wait, now, who is your celebrity crush? That's what I'm trying to think.

There was mine? Oh Chris Emsworth? Come on now, I think, but my boyfriend kind of looks like Chris Elmsway to hear me, now, Sophie. In our subscriber episode on Friday, we took a look back at our twenty twenty four influencer predictions which we made at the start of the year, and so far we've done pretty well. Yeah. I was so surprised with how many predictions we got right and how many were also on the right track with because we've still got a couple of months yeah to tick

them off. Yeah, we do. And one that we're still waiting on to come true is Jet Kenny proposing to Lily Brown. So you can imagine my surprise this morning when I saw a Daily Male headline which read wild reason Jet called off proposal to Lily. I haven't clicked on an article so quickly, so ball, they've done their job. Yeah. Firstly, when I saw the headline, I thought, Jet, please don't stuff up our predictions, like just get your shit together,

just propose. But when I read a bit further, I realized the article wasn't all it appeared to be a way. So Lily and Jet are currently holidaying in Hawaii and they attempted to walk up the Stairway to Heaven, which is a popular trek which leads hikers up to the best view on the island. So Lily had had a pretty big night beforehand drinking, but she's still attempted to

climb the stairs with Jet. It wasn't really a great idea, considering there are three thousand, nine hundred and twenty two steps to climb, so she took to her Instagram stories to tell her followers things hadn't gone quite to plan. So Lily revealed that she was so hungover that she began dry reaching and they had to call it quits halfway up, and by the time she got to the bottom, she spewed in her mouth and started crying out of frustration for quitting. So Lily wrote on her Instagram story.

Just to make things worse, Jet decided to throw in what if I was going to propose at the top, and this comment was meant to lighten the mood. Lily continued, writing that she cried like an actual baby all the way back to the car, as she was a hungover loser who had given up and still was ringless. Do you think it was a dick move of him to make that joke. I think it's clear that weddings and proposals are definitely on the agenda for them, and that

must be something that they're speaking about a lot. I think it was a lighthearted joke, and I mean, I personally wouldn't want to be proposed to after a long trek, No, I just you usually want to be looking your best. You don't want to be a sweaty mess. It's very reminiscent of when Kurt was going to propose to Sarah's day up on a mountain in Hawaii.

It's around the two year anniversary. I think that the ring is currently being made as we speak. Yeah, if you want to listen to our full episode on all of our Influencer twenty twenty four predictions, make sure you're an Outspoken Plus member. It costs US four ninety nine a month and you're able to go back and listen to all of our past episodes. There's about a year

and a half's worth of content on there. I also have to share because I put up a question box asking people to send in their influence predictions for the end of the year, and there are some hilarious ones. I just didn't get to it over the weekend, but I will share those so you can go to our Instagram and check them out.

in June last year. So the couple have their own reality show called Olivia Meets Her Match, and Brad was the most highly requested guest on Olivia's new podcast, and this interview did not disappoint. So first off, Olivia and Brad discussed how they'd met out at a nightclub and she was so open and on her She was like, I didn't really rate you, like I didn't like what

you were wearing. However, she went through a bit of a dry patch and she was showing photos to her mum of guys who had shown interest in her, and her mom was like, I'll give him a chance, like he's cute. So she gave him a chance and they began dating for a few months. But this is when alarm bell started ringing for Olivia because she received a few phone calls from his soccer player teammates. So Olivia said that the men had really stuck their necks on

the line. As she since discovered, there is a religious liked pack that all soccer players have when it comes to keeping secrets for their teammates. So she said, the unspoken code in football is you deny until you die. This must have been pretty bad, though, this cheating, if they had to actually read their teammates' girlfriend. What did she say had happened? Well, the teammates rung up and

said are you dating Brad? Because there had been no photos posted on either of their Instagram accounts, And she said, well, yeah, I and they said, well, from what we've heard, he's still dating his ex girlfriend. And she went to Brad and said, well, what's going on? And he just denied it. He denied and I denied. Now things escalated when Olivia received a phone call from a private number. Let's have a listen to what she said.

but she had turned down the opportunity. However, when she found out Brad was cheating on her, the first thing she did was ring back a producer and said, look, I would do anything to be on this later series of Love Island. And they were like, well, you've kind of messed us around. We don't know you bit of a loose cannon. They said, if you can fly out in ten days, we'll have you on the show. So Olivia told Brad never to speak to her again, and she kept it quiet that she was going to appear

on Love Island until the day before she departed. So as soon as Brad found out, he was devastated and he came to a house to beg her not to go. Let's have a listen to what they said. You didn't want to go either.

This is so awkward. But Olivia has said she really wants him to see the series because she still thinks it was one of the best Love Islands, which I have to agree, and she said Honestly, if you can get past seeing me on camera kissing other guys, I really think that you should commit the time and watch it. Well, how long was it until they got together after the show? Well, she ended up leaving the show with Chris Hughes and they came second, and then they had that follow up

reality TV show. So that's the thing. I was thinking that she was with the one of the guys for a long time after No, they well, they had a reality show and it only lasted three episodes. I was meant to run for like eight episodes, and so she got back with Brad not that long after. Interesting. So this is the moral of the story. If someone cheats on you, go on a reality tea to piss them off and then you might have your happy ending after it. Well, that is all we have time for today. Thank you

so much for listening to another episode of Outspoken. Make sure you go and follow us on TikTok and on Instagram at our Outspoken Underscore the Underscore podcast. We will be making those chocolate muffins this week. Oh I can't wait. I'm already hanging out for them. This episode was recorded on the traditional land of the Ghana people of the Adelaide Planes. We pay respect to elders past and present.

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